{
  "bookName": "History of Christianity in India: Source Materials",
  "authorName": "M. K. Kuriakose",
  "publisherName": "Indian Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge",
  "publicationYear": 2011,
  "chapterNumber": 98,
  "chapterName": "1851. The Leipzig Missionary Society on Caste",
  "pageFrom": 149,
  "pageTo": 150,
  "pages": [
    {
      "pageNumber": 149,
      "ocrText": "SOURCE MATERIALS\n149\n98. THE LEIPZIG MISSIONARY SOCIETY ON CASTE\n(1851 A.D.)\nDuring the early nineteenth century the question of the attitude\nmissionaries should take towards caste was much debated. The state-\nment given here was made by K. Graul in a pamphlet entitled Expla-\nnation concerning the Principles of the Leipzig Missionary Society,\nwith regard to the Caste Question, in the context of a disagreement\nwith missionaries of the S.P.G. The portion quoted here is from\npp. 1-4.\nThe Leipzig Society fully acknowledges that Caste (although\non its outset apparently a rather natural distinction of race and\noccupation) is, as it now exists among the heathen, not a merely civil\nbut also religious institution, inasmuch, as in its course of deve-\nlopment, in order to stamp it with a higher authority, it has been\nbased on a religious ground. She acknowledges moreover, that\nCaste, in the sense of the Hindu Shastras, is totally opposed to the\nword and spirit of the Gospel, -asserting however, that the holding\nof Caste in the Native Churches is essentially different from the\nholding of Caste among the heathen: (1) because the indiscrimi-\nnate partaking of the same cup at the Lord's table necessarily\ninvolves the breaking of Caste in the full sense of the Shastras; and\n(2) because, by introducing the holy Scripture, which expressly\ndeclares the common origin of the whole human race, instead of the\nShastras, the heathenish superstitious basis is withdrawn and Caste\nso ceases to be a religious us institution with the Native Christians.\nBut although our Society views Caste among the Native Chris-\ntians in the light of a national institution, devoid of its. superadded\nheathenish basis, she is fully aware that even so it is not the best one\nnow, and hopes indeed that in the course of time its rigour will be\nsubdued and the social chasm between the different Castes be filled\nup,-believing at the same time, that a thoroughly satisfactory\nchange of that deepest rooted national institution cannot be brought\nabout, before the Native congregations attain to the full growth\nof a national Church. The best means, to help on that natural\ncourse of development, the Leipzig Society sees in a sound Christian\neducation for the lower classes, in the effort of raising them to\nrespectability by means of their acquirements and in a gradual\ndiscountenancing of religious Caste distinctions in the Church.\nThis last point was expressly stipulated and agreed to by the Seceders\nat Vepery, when they petitioned for readmission into the Lutheran\nChurch.\nThe principal difference between our society and those, who\ndiffer from them, seems to me to consist in the method adopted for\nthe removal of the Caste evils. According to Romans XIV. 17. the\nLeipzig Society does not hold herself entitled to cut off any one\nfrom the body of Christ on account of Caste, if it be not made a",
      "status": "completed"
    },
    {
      "pageNumber": 150,
      "ocrText": "150\nHISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA\npretext for notoriously immoral behaviour. Instruction, exhortion\nand example that Society acknowledges to be the most efficient\nmeans and in that point she knows herself to be in full harmony\nwith the Word and Spirit of the Gospel as well as with the practice\nof the Apostles, who did not interfere with national institutions in\nany way, except by preaching the truth, by exhorting the weak,\nand by setting a good example, -as for instance in the case of\nslavery, although the Greek word for slave (being a neuter) as well\nas the general usage did not only obscure the common origin of\nslave and of the master, but placed the slave without the sphere of\nrational beings altogether, and compared him not only to a 'horse\nor ox' but even to an inanimate 'tool' in the hand of the 'artisan'.\n(Aristotle: 'the slave is an animate tool and the tool an inanimate\nslave.') Moreover the Leipzig Society knows herself to side with\nthe great majority of Christian Missionaries from the very beginning\nof the Christian Church up to the present time. In one word, the\nattacks of our Society are not so much aimed at the Caste Institu-\ntion, as at the trusts that as soon as the Caste Spirit is expelled by\nthe Spirit and in the way of the Spirit, all that is wrong in Caste,\nwill fall down as a ' caput mortuum'. Now, as the Word of God\nis Spirit that Society thinks it to be her duty to handle it in its full\nextent by preaching, teaching and exhorting, and then patiently to\nwait for the final result, of which there can be no doubt, since the\nword of God is quick and sharper than any two edged sword and\npierces even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and the joints\nand marrow.' Whatever may be effected by merely outward\nmeasures, our Society sees in the light of St. Mark ii, 21.22. and\nalthough it may be admired by many it cannot excite her admiration,\nbecause she knows, that man looketh on the outward appearance,\nbut the Lord looketh on the heart.'\nIn order to illustrate the principles of the Lutheran Church on\nsimilar points, I beg leave to quote here some words, spoken by\nLuther on occasion of Carlstadt's hasty and forcible measures\nagainst Popish abuses. 'One ought to catch first man's heart,\nwhich is effected by handling the word of God, by preaching the\nGospel and by detecting the errors of the people. If you would\nproceed in that manner, then the word, you preach, would fall\nto-day into this man's heart and to-morrow into that man's heart.\nSo the abuse itself would at last crumble and vanish. Charity\nrequires, that thou shouldst have patience with the weak, until\nthey become strong in faith like thyself. Thus all the apostles\nhave acted. Summa summarum, I will preach it, I will teach it,\nI will write it, but I will not use any forcible means. I have all the\ntime only handled, preached, and written the word of God, and while\nI have been sleeping, that very word has wrought so much, that by\nits power Popery has been weakened more than by any monarch\nor emperor.\"..",
      "status": "completed"
    }
  ]
}