christ of the indian road 1 - in conversation with gandhi

i have just finished reading the christ of the indian road by e.stanley jones. geoff and sherry maddocks have raved about his book to me for some time. i was so slow on the uptake that in their despair they posted me a beautiful copy published in about 1925 (thank you - it's a wonderful gift). when someone goes to that length you simply have to read the book! so i have been reading it this week and it is amazing. it's up there with vincent donavon's christianity rediscovered already for me but not many people i have asked have come across it so far...

i will blog about it several times probably and if you are a cym student on the module i teach after christmas i will be making you read it and talk about it i am sure - be warned.

well today i was doing a training session for cme (continuing ministerial education) in rochester and canterbury dioceses - this is people who have been ordained in the last three years. i really enjoyed the session - hopefully the enjoyment was mutual. i read a few quotes from the christ of the indian road. one of the pieces i read is a dialogue jones has with his friend gandhi about christianity. it speaks for itself and is as good advice for the emerging church (or any other church) as it was then in india. a couple of people were asking me for a copy of the piece so here it is...

"Mahatma Gandhi I am very anxious to see Christianity naturalized in India so that it shall no longer be a foreign thing identified with a foreign people and a foreign government, but a part of the national life of India and contributing its power to India's uplift and redemption. What would you suggest we do to make that possible?" He very gravely and thoughtfully replied:
"I would suggest first of all that all of you Christians, missionaries and all begin to live more like jesus Christ". He needn't have said any more - that was quite enough. I knew that looking through his eyes were the three hundred millions of India and speaking through his voice the millions of the East saying to me, a representative of the West itself "If you will come to us in the spirit of your master we will not be able to resist you". Never was there a greater challenge to the West than that, and never was it more sincerely given. "Second" he said "I would suggest that you must practice your religion without adulterating or toning it down". This is just as remarkable as the first. The greatest living non Christian asks us not to adulterate or or tone it down, not to meet them with an emasculated gospel but to take it in its rugged simplicity and high demand. But what are we doing? As someone has suggested we are innoculating the world with a mild form of Christianity, so that it is now practically immune to the real thing... "Third I would suggest that you must put your emphasis upon love, for love is the center and soul of Christianity". He did not mean love as a sentiment, but love as a working force, the one real power in a moral universe and he wanted it applied between individuals and groups, and races and nations, the one cement and salvation of the world.... "Fourth I would suggest that you study the non Christian religions and culture more sympathetically in order to find the good that is in them, so that you might have a more sympathetic approach to the people." Quite right.

Technorati Tags: india, mission

Comments

[Existential Punk]

Powerful suff! Thank you for posting this. Adele

[Kathryn]

Jonny...this is very exciting :-) A random assortmentof people have been quoting me bits of this, and suggesting I read it for an alarmingly long time,- but nobody ever seemed to know the author, and there was never quite enough impetus to make me seek it out. I think you've just done this...REALLY up there with Donovan?? That's got to be a find and half, then!

[geoff]

no worries, mate.
glad you enjoyed it.
E. Stanley Jones was a bit before his time and we keep finding him a rich source of radical missiology.
...and thanks for the link to the conference in melbourne.
peace.

[Al Snapp]

I've spent 12 years writing a book ,now trying to have published, about my life. I had 12 near deaths then died , when I came back' Id been taken over by the spirit of Cheif Joseph, sounded nuts at first, it wasen't. I saw that Christ was an Indian and lived in the u.s for years. I was given gifts, healing and seeing so much. He never died, he lived in India then came here.

[Eban Brown]

I first read “The Christ of the Indian Road” when I was 20 and it impacted me so powerfully, that it has molded my approach to life as a Christian ever since. Most powerful was this truth as found in the book; “It is not enough to be a Christian. We must be Christ-like.” There are fewer truer statements than this. I am 58 now - one wonders where the fruit of his writings can be found? In my own personal life, for sure, and in the quiet, personal lives of others learning to separate the Christian religion as it has evolved, especially in the American media, from the true and pure Christ.