{
  "bookName": "History of Christianity in India: Source Materials",
  "authorName": "M. K. Kuriakose",
  "publisherName": "Indian Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge",
  "publicationYear": 2011,
  "chapterNumber": 173,
  "chapterName": "1933. S. Radhakrishnan on Christianity",
  "pageFrom": 357,
  "pageTo": 360,
  "pages": [
    {
      "pageNumber": 357,
      "ocrText": "SOURCE MATERIALS\n357\n173. S. RADHAKRISHNAN ON CHRISTIANITY (1933 A.D.)\nIn lectures given at the Mary Ward Settlement, London, on 18th\nMarch 1930, which were published in 1933, S. Radhakrishnan criti-\ncally examines what he believes to have been the degradation of primi-\ntive Christianity under subsequent European influence. These lectures\nwere incorporated in sections VI, VII and VIII of S. Radhakrishnan,\nEast and West in Religion, pp. 57-65.\nVI. The Religion of Jesus and Western Christianity\nThe difference between the Eastern and the Western approaches\nand attitudes to religion becomes evident when we compare the life\nof Jesus, and His teaching as recorded in the Gospels, with the\nNicene Creed. It is the difference between a type of personality\nand a set of dogmas, between a way of life and a scheme of meta-\nphysics. The characteristics of intuitive realization, non-dogmatic\ntoleration, as well as insistence on the non-agressive virtues and\nuniversalist ethics, mark Jesus out as a typical Eastern seer. On\nthe other hand, the emphasis on definite creeds and absolute dog-\nmatism, with its consequences of intolerance, exclusiveness and\nconfusion of piety with patriotism, are the striking features of\nWestern Christianity.\nJesus' religion was one of love and sympathy, tolerance and\ninwardness. He founded no organization but enjoined only private\nprayer. He was utterly indifferent to labels and creeds. He made\nno distinction between Jew and Gentile, Roman and Greek. He\ndid not profess to teach a new religion but only deepened spiritual\nlife. He formulated no doctrine and did not sacrifice thinking to\nbelieving. He learned and taught in the synagogues of the Jews.\nHe observed their ritual so long as it did not blind men to the inner\nlight. He attached no importance to professions of allegiance.\nThere is nothing in common between the simple truths taught by\nJesus and the Church militant with its hierarchic constitution and\nexternal tests of membership, but the change was inevitable when\nChristianity went to Rome and took over the traditions of Caesar.\nWhen the Greek dialecticians and Roman lawyers succeeded to the\nJewish divines and the prophets, Christian theology became logical\nin form and based on law. The The spirit was the Jew's but the letter\nor the dogma was the Greek's, and the policy and the organization\nwere the Roman's. Jesus reveals through His life and commands\nthrough His teaching the possibility of a life of a higher quality\nthan that which is normal to man. He does not discuss intricacies\nof Theology and ritual, but proclaims love of God or insight into\nthe nature of reality, and love of man or oneness with the purpose\nof the universe, as the central truths of religion. Transplanted into",
      "status": "completed"
    },
    {
      "pageNumber": 358,
      "ocrText": "358\nHISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA\nthe West, creeds and dogmas took the place of vision and prophecy,\nand intricate subtleties of scholasticism displaced the simple love\nof God. The question for the Church is not whether the ideas\nit represents are spiritually worthy, but what are the ways and\nmeans by which the society can be held together. Roman ideas\nand institutions influenced the ecclesiastical organization.\nVII. The Incarnation and the Trinity\nFor Jesus piety is not a matter of knowledge, nor is ignorance\nthe cause of impiety. His simple faith appealed to the uncultured\npeasants. Celsus sarcastically declared that the law of admission\nto the Christian community was: 'Let no educated man enter,\nno wise man, no prudent man, for such things we deem evil; but\nwhoever is ignorant, whoever is unintelligent, whoever is uneducated,\nwhoever is simple, let him come and be welcome.' Tertullian asked,\n* What resemblance is there between a philosopher and a Christian,\nbetween a disciple of Greece and a disciple of heaven?' And yet\nthis simple faith, which seems to be so radically opposed to the\nGreek temperament, when taken over by the Greeks is transformed\ninto a theological scheme.\nThe Greeks and Romans were interested in God as a theoretical\nexplanation of the universe. The relation of the infinite to the\nfinite was the outstanding problem of Greek philosophy, and the\nsolutions offered by Plato and Aristotle were ambiguous and un-\nsatisfactory. The incarnation theory offered a way out. God is\nno longer separated by a meaningless distance from the human\nworld, but has actually entered into humanity, thus making possible\nthe ultimate unity of the human race with God. In Jesus we have\nthe union of the divine and the human. The spaceless spirit has\npenetrated the world of sense, The Nicene Creed is an answer to\na problem of Greek metaphysics and not of Jewish religion. Since\nits formulation there have been many doctrinal controversies.\nWe notice also the gradual transformation of a rigid mono-\ntheism into a trinitarian Godhead. The Greeks worshipped not\nmerely Father Zeus but a whole society of gods and goddesses.\nIn Greco-Latin paganism Zeus was conceived as Jupiter and as the\nhead of all the gods and goddesses who shared his divinity. When\npagan polytheism and Jewish monotheism became fused together,\nthe Catholic God, a God who is a society, arose. The Roman\nemperors, keen on dissolving the distinction between the citizen-\nship of the State and membership of the Church, took up the local\ndeities and converted them into Christian saints.\nThe Roman Empire failed to destroy Christianity by persecution,\nbut the hour of her victory over Rome signalized the defeat of the",
      "status": "completed"
    },
    {
      "pageNumber": 359,
      "ocrText": "SOURCE MATERIALS\n359\nGospel of Jesus. Christianity became bound up with the civili-\nzation under which it grew. The Church became the depository\nof sacred wisdom, a sort of reservoir of theological secrets and not\na spring.\nChristianity is a syncretistic faith, a blend of various earlier\ncreeds. The Jew, the Greek and the Roman as well as the races\nof the Mediterranean basin have contributed to it, with the result\nthat, in spite of anxiety for system, this is lacking. Its ideas about\nGod, to take one example, vary between a loving father, a severe\njudge, a detective officer, a hard schoolmaster and the head of the\nclerical profession.\nVIII. Hospitality of Early Christianity and its Absence in later\nChristianity\nWhen once religious faith becomes confused with dogmatic\ncreeds, exclusiveness and intolerance become inevitable. Christia-\nnity in its early form was quite hospitable to Western thought and\nbeliefs with which it came into contact. The Fourth Gospel\nadopted the doctrine of the Logos and took up the position that\nthose who worshipped Christ were not setting up a new god.\nThe Fourth Evangelist was not troubled by the fact that the Logos\ndoctrine was Greek in origin and had heathen associations. No\ncanons of orthodoxy bound him to a narrow Jewish faith. Justin\nMartyr could say: \"The teachings of Plato are not alien to those\nof Christ, though not in all respects similar. For all the writers\nwere able to have a dim vision of realities by means of the indwelling\nseed of the implanted word.' And yet in the fourth century Chris-\ntianity developed an attitude of intolerance. The great library at\nAlexandria founded by the first Ptolemy in the third century B.C.\nand lavishly endowed by his successors was finally destroyed under\nthe orders of the Christian emperor Theodosius the Great in\nA.D. 289, because it was known to be a hotbed of paganism. A\nfew centuries later, when Christianity came into contact with Islam,\nit did not adopt the liberal attitude of the earlier stage and try to\nfind out the elements of truth in Islam, but fought it bitterly and\nbigotedly. Even if we admit that Islam is a militant organization,\na fighting brotherhood in which a rigorous discipline is imposed\non its followers by means of the scripture of the Quran an and the organs\nof interpretation, we cannot deny that the conception of brother-\nhood in Islam transcends all barriers of race and nationality, a\nfeature which does not characterize many other religions. To-day\nwhen Christianity is faced by the religion of India, it is adopting an\nattitude of unbending self-sufficiency. It has lost the features of\nteachability and tolerance which characterized it in its early days.",
      "status": "completed"
    },
    {
      "pageNumber": 360,
      "ocrText": "360\nHISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA\nThe\nIt has ceased to be a religion of growth and freedom and become:\none of regimentation. The Church is the bearer of the revelation\nand only the revelation, not the Church, is authoritative.\nprophetic element is authoritative and not its formulations. The\nChurch formulates dogma in terms of the current thought, but\nshe cannot claim absolute intellectual finality for any dogma or\nformula. The thinking of the past in no way renders unnecessary\nthe thinking of the present. The contrast between the free and\nsimple religion of Jesus, and the dogmatic system of the Church,\nis brought out in the Chapter on 'The Grand Inquisitor' in Dostoe-\nvsky's book The Brothers Karamzov. The Grand Inquisitor explains\nto Jesus that the Church has undone his work, corrected it and\nrefounded it on the basis of authority. The souls of men were\nindeed like sheep and could not endure the terrible gift of freedom\nwhich Jesus brought. The Church has been merciful in keeping man\nfrom knowledge and free inquiry. It has made mental slaves of\nits members. Belief is heaven and heresy hell. Consider the\nrepressive legislation of Theodosius, which by heavy penalties\nforbade the practice of any other religion than Christianity, the\nclosing of the schools of philosophy at Athens by Justinian, the\nAlbigensian Crusades, the Dominican Inquisitions, the Acts of\nSupremacy and Uniformity in Elizabethan England, the religious\nwars of the seventeenth century and the cruelties perpetrated upon\nthe anabaptists. Pius IX declared, Let us most firmly hold that\naccording to Catholic doctrine, there is one God, one faith, on\nbaptism, and to go further (in an enquiry as to the fate of souls)\nwere sin. Even those philosophers who profess to be devotees\nof truth are unable to shake themselves free from the absolutism\ncharacteristic of intellectual religions. While they admit that the\nChristian religion is not the only one, they believe that it is the\nabsolute expression of absolute truth. In it we have the thrusting\nof the eternal into the temporal. As Hegel says: ' It is the Christian\nreligion which is the perfect religion, the religion which represents\nthe Being of Spirit in a realized form or for itself, the religion in\nwhich religion has itself become objective in relation to itself.\"\nBut if we are true to the teaching of Jesus, we shall know that\nabsolute truth goes beyond all forms and creeds, all historic reve-\nlations and institutions.",
      "status": "completed"
    }
  ]
}