Christianity for Hindus

Christianity is the world’s largest religion today: about 33.6 per cent of the world’s population has Christianity as their religion. It is also a religion that struck roots early in India- as early as middle of the first century CE. The book is an account on Christianity that blends aspects of Christian belief and worship with matter like its signigicance and the pluralistic societies of today. It is meant for non-Christians, particularly Hindus, who are keen to understand the essential aspects of the religion.

In simple language, the work reveals the essence of the Christian beliefs, its spread over history and its prevalence now, its importance as a world religion. It examines doctrines of the Church, Signigicance of Jesus Christ and historical forms of Christianity like Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy and Protestantim. It examines the history of Christianity in India. The interesting work refers to a number of religious works on Christianity and writings of men who commented on Christianity and personified its value like love, compassion and sacrifice. It also deals with some controversial features of the religion like its need to proselytize.

Arvind Sharma, formerly of the I.A.S., is the Birks Professor of Comparative Religion in the faculty of Religious Studies at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. He has published extensively in the fields of Indology and Comparative Religion, and is currently engaged in Promoting the adoption of Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the world’s Religions. He was the co-convenor of the congress on world’s Religions After Septemper 11: An Asian Perspective, which met in Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi in January 2009.

INDIA is a religiously plural country. Religious plurality is a good thing, especially if accompanied by religious tolerance. Religious tolerance is also a good thing but at times it can degenerate into religious complacency, or worse, indifference, and finally into ignorance, as we lose all interest in knowing about the faith of our neighbour, which may be a matter of life and death for him or her. Or even more important than that.

Such ignorance is not bliss, although those who favour a throughly secular dispensation may be inclined to think so. On the contrary, an acquaintance with the fundamentals of world’s religions is highly desirable, and may even be necessary in the modem world. More problems are caused by not knowing about other religions than by knowing about them, warts and all. For instance, those who tend to view Christianity as a predatory religion, bent on preying on the flock of other religions, may be pleasantly surprised to learn, upon reading the last chapter, that not all Christians think that way.

Would the Mutineers, upon taking Delhi in 1857, have killed every Christian there — European and Indian — if they knew not what they but what Christianity stood for?