{
  "bookName": "History of Christianity in India: Source Materials",
  "authorName": "M. K. Kuriakose",
  "publisherName": "Indian Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge",
  "publicationYear": 2011,
  "chapterNumber": 125,
  "chapterName": "1879. Keshub Chunder Sen on Jesus Christ",
  "pageFrom": 231,
  "pageTo": 231,
  "pages": [
    {
      "pageNumber": 231,
      "ocrText": "SOURCE MATERIALS\n231\n125. KESHUB CHUNDER SEN ON JESUS CHRIST\n(1879 A.D.)\nIn the ten years since delivering his lecture on' The Indian National\nChurch' (cited above) the Brahmo Samaj leader, Keshub Chunder\nSen had come under increasing Christian infleunce. Yet the emphasis\non Indianness remains. This is a brief passage from his lecture,\n'India Asks: Who is Christ? The full text is found in Keshub\nChunder Sen's Lectures in India, Vol. I pp. 359-393.\nI desire to speak of Christ... Most eagerly and most earnestly\nshe (India) asks-Who is Christ ?\nLook at the flood of Christian literature that has swept\nover the length and breadth of the country. There are heaps of\nbooks and numberless preachers and teachers around you, all\nready to give, in his own way, a complete answer to the question\nbefore us. Doubtless from these sources India has gathered some\nknowledge of Christ of Nazareth. But such knowledge has not\ngiven her complete satisfaction. It is true the people of India have\nbeen satisfied in some measure with what they have heard and read\nof Jesus, but they have been disappointed in a much greater\nmeasure. For England has sent unto us, after all, a Western Christ.\nThis is indeed to be regretted. Our countrymen find that in this\nChrist, sent by England, there is something that is not quite congenial\nto the native mind, not quite acceptable to the genius of the nation.\nIt seems that the Christ that has come to us is an English man,\nwith English manners and customs about him, and with the temper\nand spirit of an English man in him When they feel that Christ\nmeans nothing but the worst form of denationalization, the whole\nnation must certainly as one man stand up to repudiate and and banish\nthis acknowledged evil. But why should you Hindus go to England\nto learn Jesus Christ? Is not his native land nearer to India than\nEngland?... Gentlemen, go to the rising sun in the East, not to the\nsetting sun in the West, if you wish to see Christ in plentitude of his\nglory and in the fulness and freshness of his divine life... Recall\nto your minds, gentlemen, the true Asiatic Christ, divested of all\nWestern appendages, carrying on the work of redemption among\nhis own people. Behold, he cometh to us in his loose flowing\ngarment, his dress and features altogether oriental, a perfect Asiatic\nin everything... Indeed, while reading the Gospel, we cannot but\nfeel that we are quite at home when we are with Jesus, and that he\nis altogether one of us. Surely Jesus is our Jesus...\nBut can we say the same thing of the invisible Christ: the soul\nof Christ? Is that oriental? Can you as Asiatic appreciate and\naccept the spirit of Christ as that of a fellow Asiatic?... Though",
      "status": "completed"
    }
  ]
}