{ "book_metadata": { "book_name": "History of Christianity in India: Source Materials", "book_author": "M. K. Kuriakose", "publisher": "Indian Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge", "published_on": "2011" }, "chunks": [ { "chunk_index": 1, "chapter_name": "134. 1893-1894. Swami Vivekananda on Christianity", "page_numbers": [ 260 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00284-9e61ff4779f76d7d6955.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Vivekananda’s Criticism of Christianity", "chunk_data": "134. SWAMI VIVEKANANDA ON CHRISTIANITY\n(1893-1894 A.D.)\nSwami Vivekananda's severe criticism of Christianity in general and on Christian missions in India in particular had extensive influence in both the West and India. He internationalized the Hindu criticism of missionary activity, and received a more serious hearing than had any other Indian. The first extract is from his address before the Parliament of Religions that was held in Chicago in 1893. It was first published in The Chicago Tribune and reproduced in the Indian newspaper, The Indian Mirror, of 8th December 1893. It is cited in Sankari Prasad Basu and Sunil Bihari Ghosh, eds., Vivekananda in Indian Newspapers, p. 7. The second extract is from a talk given by Vivekananda in Detroit on 11th March 1894, as reported in the Detroit Free Press. Cited in The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda (1971 edition), vol. VIII, pp. 214-219. The third extract is from Vivekananda's book The East and the West (6th Edition, 1963), pp. 92-93.", "time": { "start_year": 1893, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1894, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1893-1894" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Swami Vivekananda", "Sankari Prasad Basu", "Sunil Bihari Ghosh" ], "places": [ "India", "West", "Chicago", "Detroit" ], "event": "Swami Vivekananda's criticism of Christianity and Christian missions gains influence in India and the West.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Christianity", "India" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 2, "chapter_name": "134. 1893-1894. Swami Vivekananda on Christianity", "page_numbers": [ 261 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00285-4d3daf350b4c9b643d18.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Criticism at the Parliament", "chunk_data": "1. Address to the Parliament of Religions\nChristians must always be ready for good criticism, and I hardly think that you will care if I make a little criticism. You, Christians, who are so fond of sending out Missionaries to save the souls of the heathen, why do you not try to save their bodies from starvation? In India during the terrible famines thousands died from hunger, yet you, Christians, did nothing.", "time": { "start_year": 1893, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1893, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1893" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Swami Vivekananda", "Christian missionaries" ], "places": [ "India", "Chicago" ], "event": "Swami Vivekananda criticizes Christians for failing to relieve famine and starvation in India.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Famine", "Christianity" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 3, "chapter_name": "134. 1893-1894. Swami Vivekananda on Christianity", "page_numbers": [ 261 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00285-4d3daf350b4c9b643d18.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Bread Before Religion", "chunk_data": "You erect churches all through India, but the crying evil in the East is not religion—they have religion enough—but it is bread that these suffering millions of burning India cry out for with parched throats. They ask us for bread, but we give them stones. It is an insult to a starving people to offer them religion; it is an insult to a starving man to teach him metaphysics.", "time": { "start_year": 1893, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1893, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1893" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Swami Vivekananda" ], "places": [ "India", "East" ], "event": "Swami Vivekananda argues that starving Indians need bread rather than religious instruction.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Famine", "India" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 4, "chapter_name": "134. 1893-1894. Swami Vivekananda on Christianity", "page_numbers": [ 261 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00285-4d3daf350b4c9b643d18.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Aid for Impoverished India", "chunk_data": "In India a priest that preaches for money would lose caste, and be spat upon by the people. I came here to seek aid for my impoverished people, and I fully realized how difficult it was to get help for heathens from Christians in a Christian land...", "time": { "start_year": 1893, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1893, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1893" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Swami Vivekananda" ], "places": [ "India", "Chicago" ], "event": "Swami Vivekananda seeks aid for impoverished Indians and describes the difficulty of obtaining Christian assistance.", "tags": [ "Religion", "India", "Humanitarian Aid" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 5, "chapter_name": "134. 1893-1894. Swami Vivekananda on Christianity", "page_numbers": [ 261 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00285-4d3daf350b4c9b643d18.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Aryans and Christian Conquest", "chunk_data": "2. On Missionaries in India\n...The first invaders of India, the Aryans, did not try to exterminate the population of India as the Christians did when they went into a new land, but the endeavour was made to elevate persons of brutish habits.", "time": { "start_year": 1894, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1894, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1894" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Swami Vivekananda", "Aryans", "Christian missionaries" ], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "Swami Vivekananda contrasts Aryan invasion with Christian efforts in newly entered lands.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Colonialism", "India" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 6, "chapter_name": "134. 1893-1894. Swami Vivekananda on Christianity", "page_numbers": [ 261 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00285-4d3daf350b4c9b643d18.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Spanish Destruction of Temples", "chunk_data": "The Spaniards thought that their God commanded them to kill and murder and to tear down heathen temples. The Buddhists had a tooth a foot long, which belonged to their Prophet, and the Spaniards threw it into the sea, killed a few thousand persons, and converted a few scores.", "time": { "start_year": 1500, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1600, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "16th century" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Spanish conquistadors", "Buddhists" ], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "Swami Vivekananda recounts Spanish violence against Buddhists, temples, and local populations.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Violence", "Colonialism" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 7, "chapter_name": "134. 1893-1894. Swami Vivekananda on Christianity", "page_numbers": [ 261 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00285-4d3daf350b4c9b643d18.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Portuguese Religious Coercion", "chunk_data": "The Portuguese came to Western India. The Hindus have a belief in the Trinity and had a temple dedicated to their sacred belief. The invaders looked at the temple and said it was a creation of the devil; and so they brought their cannon to bear upon the wonderful structure and destroyed a portion of it. But the invaders were driven out of the country by the enraged population.", "time": { "start_year": 1500, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1600, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "16th century" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Portuguese invaders", "Hindus" ], "places": [ "Western India" ], "event": "Portuguese invaders attack a Hindu temple and are driven out by the enraged population.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Colonialism", "Conflict" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 8, "chapter_name": "134. 1893-1894. Swami Vivekananda on Christianity", "page_numbers": [ 261 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00285-4d3daf350b4c9b643d18.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Forced Portuguese Conversions", "chunk_data": "The early missionaries tried to get hold of the land, and in their effort to secure a foot-hold by force, they killed many people and converted a number. Some of them became Christians to save their lives. Ninety-nine per cent of the Christians converted by the Portuguese sword were compelled to be so, and they said, 'We do not believe in Christianity, but we are forced to call ourselves Christians.' But Catholic Christianity soon relapsed.", "time": { "start_year": 1500, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1700, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "16th-17th centuries" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Portuguese missionaries", "Indian converts" ], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "Swami Vivekananda describes Portuguese missionary violence and coerced conversions.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Conversion", "Colonialism" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 9, "chapter_name": "134. 1893-1894. Swami Vivekananda on Christianity", "page_numbers": [ 261, 262 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00285-4d3daf350b4c9b643d18.webp", "raw\\pages\\00286-7f633339c72f0f97a781.webp" ], "chunk_title": "The East India Company", "chunk_data": "The East India Company got possession of a part of India with the idea of making hay while the sun shone. They kept the missionaries away. The Hindus were the first to welcome the missionaries, not the Englishmen who were engaged in trade.", "time": { "start_year": 1600, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1800, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "17th-18th centuries" }, "meta": { "people": [ "East India Company", "Hindus", "Christian missionaries" ], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "The East India Company takes possession of part of India and restricts missionary activity, while Hindus welcome missionaries.", "tags": [ "Colonialism", "Religion", "India" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 10, "chapter_name": "134. 1893-1894. Swami Vivekananda on Christianity", "page_numbers": [ 262 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00286-7f633339c72f0f97a781.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Admiration for Early Missionaries", "chunk_data": "I have great admiration for some of the first missionaries of the later period, who were true servants of Jesus and did not vilify the people or spread vile falsehoods about them. They were gentle, kindly men.", "time": { "start_year": 1800, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1894, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "19th century" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Swami Vivekananda", "Christian missionaries" ], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "Swami Vivekananda praises early missionaries who treated Indian people with gentleness and respect.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Missionaries", "India" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 11, "chapter_name": "134. 1893-1894. Swami Vivekananda on Christianity", "page_numbers": [ 262 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00286-7f633339c72f0f97a781.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Dr. Long and Indigo Planters", "chunk_data": "When Englishmen became masters of India, the missionary enterprise began to become stagnant, a condition which characterises the missionary efforts in India today. Dr. Long, an early missionary, stood by the people. He translated a Hindu drama describing the evils perpetrated in India by indigo-planters, and what was the result? He was placed in jail by the English. Such missionaries were of benefit to the country, but they have passed away. The Suez Canal opened up a number of evils.", "time": { "start_year": 1861, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1861, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1861" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Dr. James Long", "English indigo planters" ], "places": [ "India", "Suez Canal" ], "event": "Dr. James Long supports Indians by translating a drama criticizing indigo planters and is imprisoned by the English.", "tags": [ "Missionaries", "Colonialism", "India" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 12, "chapter_name": "134. 1893-1894. Swami Vivekananda on Christianity", "page_numbers": [ 262 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00286-7f633339c72f0f97a781.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Missionaries in Colonial Society", "chunk_data": "Now goes the missionary, a married man, who is hampered because he is married. The missionary knows nothing about the people, he cannot speak the language, so he invariably settles in the little white colony. He is forced to do this because he is married. Were he not married, he could go among the people and sleep on the ground if necessary. So he goes to India to seek company for his wife and children. He stays among the English-speaking people.", "time": { "start_year": 1869, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1894, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "Late 19th century" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Christian missionaries" ], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "Swami Vivekananda criticizes married missionaries for remaining within English-speaking colonial society.", "tags": [ "Missionaries", "Colonialism", "India" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 13, "chapter_name": "134. 1893-1894. Swami Vivekananda on Christianity", "page_numbers": [ 262 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00286-7f633339c72f0f97a781.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Missionary Effort in India", "chunk_data": "The great heart of India is today absolutely untouched by missionary effort. Most of the missionaries are incompetent. I have not met a single missionary who understands Sanskrit. How can a man absolutely ignorant of the people and their traditions, get into sympathy with them? I do not mean any offence, but Christians send men as missionaries, who are not persons of ability. It is sad to see money spent to make converts when no real results of a satisfactory nature are reached.", "time": { "start_year": 1894, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1894, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1894" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Swami Vivekananda", "Christian missionaries" ], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "Swami Vivekananda argues that missionaries lack the linguistic and cultural knowledge needed to reach India.", "tags": [ "Missionaries", "Religion", "India" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 14, "chapter_name": "134. 1893-1894. Swami Vivekananda on Christianity", "page_numbers": [ 262 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00286-7f633339c72f0f97a781.webp" ], "chunk_title": "The Nature of Conversions", "chunk_data": "Those who are converted, are the few who make a sort of living by hanging round the missionaries. The converts who are not kept in service in India, cease to be converts. That is about the entire matter in a nutshell. As to the way of converting, it is absolutely absurd. The money the missionaries bring is accepted. The colleges founded by the missionaries are all right, so far as the education is concerned. But with religion it is different. The Hindu is acute; he takes the bait but avoids the hook! It is wonderful how tolerant the people are. A missionary once said, That is the worst of the whole business. People who are self-complacent can never be converted.", "time": { "start_year": 1894, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1894, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1894" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Swami Vivekananda", "Christian missionaries", "Indian converts" ], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "Swami Vivekananda claims that missionary conversions are often sustained by money and employment rather than religious conviction.", "tags": [ "Conversion", "Missionaries", "Religion" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 15, "chapter_name": "134. 1893-1894. Swami Vivekananda on Christianity", "page_numbers": [ 262, 263 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00286-7f633339c72f0f97a781.webp", "raw\\pages\\00287-9d964a0429f68acd8572.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Women Missionaries and Conversion", "chunk_data": "As regards the lady missionaries, they go into certain houses, get four shillings a month, teach them something of the Bible, and show them how to knit. The girls of India will never be converted. Atheism and scepticism at home is what is pushing the missionary into other lands. When I came into this country I was surprised to meet so many liberal men and women. But after the Parliament of Religions a great Presbyterian paper came out and gave me the benefit of a seething article. This the editor called enthusiasm.", "time": { "start_year": 1894, "start_month": 3, "start_date": 11, "end_year": 1894, "end_month": 3, "end_date": 11, "time_display": "11 March 1894" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Swami Vivekananda", "Women missionaries" ], "places": [ "India", "Detroit" ], "event": "Swami Vivekananda criticizes women missionaries and describes the hostile reaction to his religious criticism.", "tags": [ "Missionaries", "Women", "Religion" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 16, "chapter_name": "134. 1893-1894. Swami Vivekananda on Christianity", "page_numbers": [ 263 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00287-9d964a0429f68acd8572.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Missionaries and Nationality", "chunk_data": "The missionaries do not and cannot throw off nationality—they are not broad enough—and so they accomplish nothing in the way of converting, although they may have a nice sociable time among themselves. India requires help from Christ, but not from the anti-Christ; these men are not Christ-like. They do not act like Christ; they are married and come over and settle down comfortably and make a fair livelihood. Christ and his disciples would accomplish much good in India, just as many of the Hindu saints do; but these men are not of that sacred character.", "time": { "start_year": 1894, "start_month": 3, "start_date": 11, "end_year": 1894, "end_month": 3, "end_date": 11, "time_display": "11 March 1894" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Swami Vivekananda", "Christian missionaries", "Jesus Christ", "Hindu saints" ], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "Swami Vivekananda contrasts the conduct of missionaries with the example of Jesus, his disciples, and Hindu saints.", "tags": [ "Missionaries", "Christianity", "India" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 17, "chapter_name": "134. 1893-1894. Swami Vivekananda on Christianity", "page_numbers": [ 263 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00287-9d964a0429f68acd8572.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Hindu Reverence for Jesus", "chunk_data": "The Hindus would welcome the Christ of the Christian gladly, because his life was holy and beautiful; but they cannot and will not receive the narrow utterances of the ignorant, hypocritical, or self-deceiving men.", "time": { "start_year": 1894, "start_month": 3, "start_date": 11, "end_year": 1894, "end_month": 3, "end_date": 11, "time_display": "11 March 1894" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Hindus", "Jesus Christ", "Christian missionaries" ], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "Swami Vivekananda says Hindus admire Jesus but reject the narrow teachings of hypocritical missionaries.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Christianity", "India" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 18, "chapter_name": "134. 1893-1894. Swami Vivekananda on Christianity", "page_numbers": [ 263 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00287-9d964a0429f68acd8572.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Religious Diversity", "chunk_data": "Men are different. If they were not, the mentality of the world would be degraded. If there were not different religions, no religion would survive. The Christian requires his religion; the Hindu needs his own creed.", "time": { "start_year": 1894, "start_month": 3, "start_date": 11, "end_year": 1894, "end_month": 3, "end_date": 11, "time_display": "11 March 1894" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Swami Vivekananda", "Christians", "Hindus" ], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "Swami Vivekananda defends religious diversity as necessary for the survival of religions.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Pluralism", "Christianity" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 19, "chapter_name": "134. 1893-1894. Swami Vivekananda on Christianity", "page_numbers": [ 263 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00287-9d964a0429f68acd8572.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Religious Conflict and Conquest", "chunk_data": "All religions have struggled against one another for years. Those which were founded on a book, still stand. Why could not the Christians convert the Jews? Why could they not make the Persians Christians? Why could they not convert Mohammedans? Why cannot any impression be made upon China and Japan? Buddhism, the first missionary religion, numbers double the number of converts of any other religion, and they did not use the sword. The Mohammedans used the greatest violence. They number the least of the three great missionary religions. The Mohammedans have had their day.", "time": { "start_year": 600, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1894, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "7th century-1894" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Christians", "Jews", "Persians", "Mohammedans" ], "places": [ "China", "Japan" ], "event": "Swami Vivekananda compares the historical expansion and missionary methods of Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Conversion", "History" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 20, "chapter_name": "134. 1893-1894. Swami Vivekananda on Christianity", "page_numbers": [ 263 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00287-9d964a0429f68acd8572.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Christian Nations and Bloodshed", "chunk_data": "Every day you read of Christian nations acquiring land by bloodshed. What missionaries preach against this? Why should the most blood-thirsty nations exalt an alleged religion which is not the religion of Christ? The Jews and the Arabs were the fathers of Christianity, and how they have been persecuted by the Christians! The Christians have been weighed in the balance in India and have been found wanting. I do not mean to be unkind, but I want to show the Christians how they look in others' eyes.", "time": { "start_year": 1894, "start_month": 3, "start_date": 11, "end_year": 1894, "end_month": 3, "end_date": 11, "time_display": "11 March 1894" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Swami Vivekananda", "Christians", "Jews", "Arabs" ], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "Swami Vivekananda condemns the violence and persecution associated with Christian nations and missions.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Violence", "Colonialism" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 21, "chapter_name": "134. 1893-1894. Swami Vivekananda on Christianity", "page_numbers": [ 263 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00287-9d964a0429f68acd8572.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Religious Truth and Forms", "chunk_data": "The missionaries who preach the burning pit are regarded with horror. The Mohammedans rolled wave after wave over India waving the sword, and today where are they?\n\nThe furthest that all religions can see is the existence of a spiritual entity. So no religion can teach beyond that point. In every religion there is the essential truth and non-essential casket in which this jewel lies. Believing in the Jewish book or in the Hindu book is non-essential. Circumstances change; the receptacle is different; but the central truth remains. The essentials being the same, the educated people of every community retain the essentials.", "time": { "start_year": 1894, "start_month": 3, "start_date": 11, "end_year": 1894, "end_month": 3, "end_date": 11, "time_display": "11 March 1894" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Swami Vivekananda", "Mohammedans" ], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "Swami Vivekananda argues that religions share an essential spiritual truth despite differing scriptures and forms.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Pluralism", "Philosophy" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 22, "chapter_name": "134. 1893-1894. Swami Vivekananda on Christianity", "page_numbers": [ 263, 264 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00287-9d964a0429f68acd8572.webp", "raw\\pages\\00288-f6fc1318a9af8afdba70.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Jesus and Religious Essentials", "chunk_data": "If you ask a Christian what his essentials are, he should reply, 'The teachings of Lord Jesus.' Much of the rest is nonsense. But the nonsensical part is right; it forms the receptacle. The shell of the oyster is not attractive, but the pearl is within it. The Hindu will never attack the life of Jesus; he reverences the Sermon on the Mount. But how many Christians know or have heard of the teachings of the Hindu holy men? They remain in a fool's paradise.", "time": { "start_year": 1894, "start_month": 3, "start_date": 11, "end_year": 1894, "end_month": 3, "end_date": 11, "time_display": "11 March 1894" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Swami Vivekananda", "Jesus Christ", "Hindu holy men" ], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "Swami Vivekananda identifies the teachings of Jesus as Christianity's essential truth and praises Hindu reverence for Jesus.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Christianity", "Pluralism" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 23, "chapter_name": "134. 1893-1894. Swami Vivekananda on Christianity", "page_numbers": [ 264 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00288-f6fc1318a9af8afdba70.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Christianity’s Many Creeds", "chunk_data": "Before a small fraction of the world was converted, Christianity has divided into many creeds. That is the law of nature. Why take a single instrument from the great religious orchestra of the earth? Let the grand symphony go on.", "time": { "start_year": 100, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1894, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1st century-1894" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Swami Vivekananda", "Christians" ], "places": [ "Earth" ], "event": "Swami Vivekananda observes that Christianity divided into many creeds and advocates religious harmony.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Christianity", "Pluralism" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 24, "chapter_name": "134. 1893-1894. Swami Vivekananda on Christianity", "page_numbers": [ 264 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00288-f6fc1318a9af8afdba70.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Harmony of Religions", "chunk_data": "Be pure. Give up superstition and see the wonderful harmony of nature. Superstition gets the better of religion. All the religions are good, since the essentials are the same. Each man should have the perfect exercise of his individuality, but these individualities form a perfect whole. This marvellous condition is already in existence. Each creed has something to add to the wonderful structure.", "time": { "start_year": 1894, "start_month": 3, "start_date": 11, "end_year": 1894, "end_month": 3, "end_date": 11, "time_display": "11 March 1894" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Swami Vivekananda" ], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "Swami Vivekananda calls for purity, freedom of individuality, and harmony among religions.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Pluralism", "Philosophy" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 25, "chapter_name": "134. 1893-1894. Swami Vivekananda on Christianity", "page_numbers": [ 264 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00288-f6fc1318a9af8afdba70.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Reverence for Jesus and Hindu Saints", "chunk_data": "I pity the Hindu who does not see the beauty in Jesus Christ's character. I pity the Christian who does not reverence the Hindu Christ. The more a man sees of himself, the less he sees of his neighbours. Those that go about converting, who are very busy saving the souls of others, in many instances forget their own souls.", "time": { "start_year": 1894, "start_month": 3, "start_date": 11, "end_year": 1894, "end_month": 3, "end_date": 11, "time_display": "11 March 1894" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Swami Vivekananda", "Jesus Christ", "Hindus", "Christians" ], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "Swami Vivekananda urges Hindus and Christians to recognize holiness in one another's religious traditions.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Christianity", "Pluralism" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 26, "chapter_name": "134. 1893-1894. Swami Vivekananda on Christianity", "page_numbers": [ 264 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00288-f6fc1318a9af8afdba70.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Women and Spirituality", "chunk_data": "I was asked by a lady why the women of India were not more elevated. It is in a great degree owing to the barbarous invaders through different ages; it is partly due to the people of India themselves. But our women are any day better than the ladies of this country who are devotees of novels and balls. Where is the spirituality one could expect in a country which is so boastful of its civilisation? I have not found it.", "time": { "start_year": 1894, "start_month": 3, "start_date": 11, "end_year": 1894, "end_month": 3, "end_date": 11, "time_display": "11 March 1894" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Swami Vivekananda", "Indian women" ], "places": [ "India", "United States" ], "event": "Swami Vivekananda attributes the condition of Indian women to invasions and Indian society while criticizing American social values.", "tags": [ "Women", "Religion", "Society" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 27, "chapter_name": "134. 1893-1894. Swami Vivekananda on Christianity", "page_numbers": [ 264 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00288-f6fc1318a9af8afdba70.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Spiritual Life in the Present", "chunk_data": "Here' and 'hereafter' are words to frighten children. It is all 'here'. To live and move in God—even here, even in this body! All self should go out; all superstition should be banished. Such men live in India. Where are such in this country? Your preachers speak against 'dreamers'. The people of this country would be better off if there were more 'dreamers'. If a man here followed literally the instruction of his Lord, he would be called a fanatic. There is a good deal of difference between dreaming and the brag of the nineteenth century. The bees look for the flowers. Open the lotus! The whole world is full of God and not sin.", "time": { "start_year": 1894, "start_month": 3, "start_date": 11, "end_year": 1894, "end_month": 3, "end_date": 11, "time_display": "11 March 1894" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Swami Vivekananda", "Christian preachers" ], "places": [ "India", "United States" ], "event": "Swami Vivekananda teaches that divine life is present in the world and criticizes conventional Christian spirituality.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Spirituality", "Philosophy" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 28, "chapter_name": "134. 1893-1894. Swami Vivekananda on Christianity", "page_numbers": [ 264 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00288-f6fc1318a9af8afdba70.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Prayer for Universal Holiness", "chunk_data": "Let us help each other. Let us love each other. A beautiful prayer of the Buddhist is: I bow down to all saints; I bow down to all the prophets; I bow down to all holy men and women all over the world!", "time": { "start_year": 1894, "start_month": 3, "start_date": 11, "end_year": 1894, "end_month": 3, "end_date": 11, "time_display": "11 March 1894" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Swami Vivekananda", "Buddhist saints", "Prophets" ], "places": [ "World" ], "event": "Swami Vivekananda concludes his appeal with a Buddhist prayer honoring holy people throughout the world.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Prayer", "Pluralism" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 29, "chapter_name": "134. 1893-1894. Swami Vivekananda on Christianity", "page_numbers": [ 264, 265 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00288-f6fc1318a9af8afdba70.webp", "raw\\pages\\00289-06a5735e0177e1c6c8f5.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Islam and the Spread of Civilization", "chunk_data": "3. On Christianity\nNow compare the first three centuries of the quick spread of the civilisation of Islam with the corresponding period of Christianity. Christianity, during the first three centuries, was not even successful in making itself known to the world; and since the day when the sword of Constantine made a place for it in his kingdom, what support has Christianity ever lent to the spread of civilisation, either spiritual or secular?", "time": { "start_year": 1899, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1899, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "c. 1899" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Swami Vivekananda", "Constantine the Great" ], "places": [ "Europe", "Islamic world" ], "event": "Swami Vivekananda compares the early spread of Islam with Christianity and questions Christianity's contribution to civilization.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Islam", "Christianity" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 30, "chapter_name": "134. 1893-1894. Swami Vivekananda on Christianity", "page_numbers": [ 265 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00289-06a5735e0177e1c6c8f5.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Christianity and Modern Science", "chunk_data": "What reward did the Christian religion offer to that European Pandit who sought to prove for the first time that the Earth is a revolving planet? What scientist has ever been hailed with approval and enthusiasm by the Christian Church? Can the literature of the Christian flock consistently meet the requirements of legal jurisprudence, civil or criminal, or of arts and trade policies? Even now the 'Church' does not sanction the diffusion of profane literature. Is it possible, still, for a man who has penetrated deep into modern learning and science to be an absolutely sincere Christian?", "time": { "start_year": 1899, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1899, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "c. 1899" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Swami Vivekananda", "European scientists" ], "places": [ "Europe" ], "event": "Swami Vivekananda questions the Christian Church's historical support for science, learning, law, and literature.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Science", "Christianity" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 31, "chapter_name": "134. 1893-1894. Swami Vivekananda on Christianity", "page_numbers": [ 265 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00289-06a5735e0177e1c6c8f5.webp" ], "chunk_title": "The New Testament and the Koran", "chunk_data": "In the New Testament there is no covert or overt praise of any arts and sciences. But there is scarcely any science or branch of art that is not sanctioned and held up for encouragement directly, in the Koran, or in the many passages of the Hadis, the traditional sayings of Mohammed.", "time": { "start_year": 1899, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1899, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "c. 1899" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Swami Vivekananda", "Mohammed" ], "places": [ "Europe", "Islamic world" ], "event": "Swami Vivekananda contrasts the New Testament's treatment of arts and sciences with that of the Koran and Hadis.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Islam", "Christianity" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 32, "chapter_name": "134. 1893-1894. Swami Vivekananda on Christianity", "page_numbers": [ 265 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00289-06a5735e0177e1c6c8f5.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Christianity and European Thinkers", "chunk_data": "The greatest thinkers of Europe—Voltaire, Darwin, Buchner, Flammarion, Victor Hugo, and a host of others like them—are in the present times denounced by Christianity and are victims of the vituperative tongues of its orthodox community. On the other hand, Islam regards such people to be believers in the existence of God, but only wanting in faith in the Prophet.", "time": { "start_year": 1899, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1899, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "c. 1899" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Voltaire", "Charles Darwin", "Buchner", "Camille Flammarion", "Victor Hugo", "Swami Vivekananda" ], "places": [ "Europe" ], "event": "Swami Vivekananda contrasts Christian denunciation of modern European thinkers with Islam's more tolerant assessment of them.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Science", "Islam" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 33, "chapter_name": "134. 1893-1894. Swami Vivekananda on Christianity", "page_numbers": [ 265 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00289-06a5735e0177e1c6c8f5.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Islam and Indigenous Peoples", "chunk_data": "Let there be a searching investigation into the respective merits of the two religions as regards their helpfulness, or the throwing of obstacles in the path of progress, and it will be seen that wherever Islam has gone, there it has preserved the aboriginal inhabitants—there those races still exist, their language and their nationality abide even to the present day.", "time": { "start_year": 1899, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1899, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "c. 1899" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Swami Vivekananda", "Indigenous peoples" ], "places": [ "Islamic world" ], "event": "Swami Vivekananda claims that Islam preserved indigenous peoples, languages, and national identities where it spread.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Islam", "Indigenous Peoples" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 34, "chapter_name": "134. 1893-1894. Swami Vivekananda on Christianity", "page_numbers": [ 265 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00289-06a5735e0177e1c6c8f5.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Christianity and Colonial Destruction", "chunk_data": "Where can Christianity show such an achievement? Where are, today, the Arabs of Spain, and the aboriginal races of America? What treatment are the Christians according to the European Jews? With the single exception of charitable organisations, no other line of work in Europe is in harmony with the teachings of the Gospel.", "time": { "start_year": 1899, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1899, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "c. 1899" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Swami Vivekananda", "European Jews", "Arabs of Spain", "Indigenous Americans" ], "places": [ "Spain", "America", "Europe" ], "event": "Swami Vivekananda questions Christianity's treatment of Arabs, indigenous Americans, and European Jews.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Colonialism", "Christianity" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 35, "chapter_name": "134. 1893-1894. Swami Vivekananda on Christianity", "page_numbers": [ 265 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00289-06a5735e0177e1c6c8f5.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Europe’s Revolt Against Christianity", "chunk_data": "Whatever heights of progress Europe has attained, every one of them has been gained by its revolt against Christianity, by its rising against the Gospel. If Christianity had its old paramount sway in Europe today, it would have lighted the fire of the Inquisition against such modern scientists as Pasteur and Koch, and burnt Darwin and others of his school at the stake.", "time": { "start_year": 1899, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1899, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "c. 1899" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Louis Pasteur", "Robert Koch", "Charles Darwin", "Swami Vivekananda" ], "places": [ "Europe" ], "event": "Swami Vivekananda argues that European progress arose through resistance to ecclesiastical authority.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Science", "Europe" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 36, "chapter_name": "134. 1893-1894. Swami Vivekananda on Christianity", "page_numbers": [ 265 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00289-06a5735e0177e1c6c8f5.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Civilization Versus Christianity", "chunk_data": "In modern Europe, Christianity and civilisation are two different things. Civilisation has now girded up her loins to destroy her old enemy, Christianity, to overthrow the clergy, and to wring educational and charitable institutions from their hands. But for the ignorance-ridden rustic masses, Christianity would never have been able for a moment to support its present despised existence, and would have been pulled out by its roots for the urban", "time": { "start_year": 1899, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1899, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "c. 1899" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Swami Vivekananda", "Christian clergy" ], "places": [ "Europe" ], "event": "Swami Vivekananda portrays modern European civilization as challenging Christianity and the power of the clergy.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Europe", "Christianity" ] } } ] }