contents


ASIAN HERITAGE AND THE FUTURE OF

CHRISTIANITY

Joseph I. Fernando

Assumption University of Thailand

Abstract

This paper explores the significance and profundity of the

Asian heritage and how Christianity finds itself in Asia amidst ancient

civilizations. Some important questions like the following need to be

answered: What kind of future will Christianity have in Asia? How

can Asia benefit from the Christian presence? What would be the

distinct contribution of Christianity, if any, to Asia?

Asian Heritage

It is an interesting fact that all the major religions of the world

originated in Asia – Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism in India, Confucianism

and Taoism in China, Zoroastrianism in Persia, Judaism, Christianity and

Islam in West Asia and Shintoism in Japan. One may ask, “Why did the

world religions originate in Asia and not in Europe or Africa or elsewhere?

This is a topic for research. Down through the centuries Asia has been

profoundly religious. The essentially religious heritage of Asia manifests

itself in the Asian way of life. The religions of Asia have inspired Asian

philosophy, literature, architecture, sculpture, music, dance, painting, socio-

political institutions and so on.

Asia is the largest continent with a number of regions, each having

its own distinct culture inspired largely by the religion of the region. West

Asia is predominantly Islamic, Central Asia Islamic and Buddhist, South

Asia predominantly Hindu and Islamic, Southeast Asia largely Buddhist,

Islamic and to some extent Christian, East Asia Buddhist, Confucian, Taoist

and Shintoist. Asia is not like the Christendom of the Europe of the bygone

days, unified by a single religion. It is a continent of diverse religions and

cultures, each unique in its own way.

Prajñâ Vihâra, Volume 6,Number 2, July-Decmber 2005, 90-100 90
© 2000 by Assumption University Press



The Indian Heritage

Let me just highlight the Indian heritage as space does not permit

a detailed look at the other cultural heritages of Asia such as Buddhist,

Confucian, Islamic and so on. India is not a nation; it is nations. It comprises

a multitude of regions, languages, cultures and religions. Hinduism too is

not a single religion; it is a cluster of religions. The name Hindu is derived

from the river Sindhu and ‘the Persians, who found difficulty in pronouncing

the initial S, called it Hindu… With the Muslim invasion the Persian name

returned in the form of Hindustan, and those of its inhabitants who followed

the old religions became known as Hindus’1

The origin of Hinduism in northern India dates back to Vedic period

(1500 B.C. – 900 B.C.) and in southern India the Tamils had their own

religion. Hinduism was finally shaped into a composite religion due to the

intermingling of the Aryan and Dravidian elements. Prior to the Aryan and

Dravidian civilizations, there existed the Indus Valley civilization dating

back to the beginning of the 2nd millennium B.C.

Hinduism’s contribution to Indian civilization is enormous. Some

writers call India ‘the wonder that was’ (before the Muslim invasion).

Indian civilization is the only living civilization from time immemorial. The

other ancient civilizations of Egypt, Sumeria, Greece, Rome and so on

have become museum pieces. India has made remarkable contribution to

philosophy, literature, architecture, sculpture, fine arts, mathematics,

astronomy and so on.

The Syrian astronomer-monk Severus Sebokht wrote in 662 A.D.

as follows: “I shall not now speak of the Hindus, … of their subtle

discoveries in the science of astronomy – discoveries even more ingenious

than those of the Greeks and Babylonians – of their rational system of

mathematics, or of their method of calculation which no words can praise

strongly enough – I mean the system of using nine symbols. If these things

were known by the people who think that they alone have mastered the

sciences because they speak Greek they would perhaps be convinced,

though a little late in the day, that other folk, not only Greeks, but men of

a different tongue, know something as well as they.”2

Joseph I. Fernando 91



India’s influence on Southeast and East Asia has great historical

and cultural significance. A.L. Basham acknowledges this as follows: “The

whole of South-East Asia received its culture from India. Early in the 5th

century B.C. colonists from Western India settled in Ceylon, which was

finally converted to Buddhism in the reign of Asoka. By this time a few

Indian merchants had probably found their way to Malaya, Sumatra, and

other parts of South-East Asia. Gradually they established permanent

settlements, often, no doubt, marrying native women. They were followed

by brahmans and Buddhist monks, and Indian influence gradually leavened

the indigenous culture, until, by the 4th century A.D., Sanskrit was the

official language of the region, and there arose great civilizations, capable

of organizing large maritime empires, and of building such wonderful stupa

of Borobodur in Java, or the Saivite temples of Angkor in Cambodia.

Other cultural influences, from China and the Islamic world, were felt in

South-East Asia, but the primary impetus to civilization came from India.

“Indian Historians, proud of their country’s past, often refer to

this region as “Greater India”, and speak of Indian “colonies”. In its usual

modern sense the term “colony” is hardly accurate, however. Vijaya, the

legendary Aryan conqueror of Ceylon, is said to have gained the island by

the sword, but beyond this we have no real evidence of any permanent

Indian conquest outside the bounds of India. The Indian “colonies” were

peaceful ones, and the Indianized kings of the region were indigenous

chieftains who had learnt what India had to teach them.

“Northwards Indian cultural influences spread through Central Asia

to China. Faint and weak contact between China and India was probably

made in Mauryan times, if not before, but only when, some 2,000 years

ago, the Han Empire began to drive its frontiers towards the Caspian did

India and China really meet. Unlike South-East Asia, China did not

assimilate Indian ideas in every aspect of her culture, but the whole of the

Far East is in India’s debt for Buddhism, which helped to mould the

distinctive civilizations of China, Korea, Japan and Tibet.”3

It is said that Indian philosophy had its impact on Greek philosophy

as there was contact between Greece and India through brisk trade in the

pre-Christian era as supported by archaeological evidences. The influence

of Indian literature and philosophy is noticeable in European literature and

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philosophy too. “…Goethe and many other writers of the early 19th century

read all they could of ancient Indian literature. We know that Goethe

borrowed a device of Indian dramaturgy for the prologue to “Faust,” and

who can say that the triumphal final chorus of the second part of that work

was not in part inspired by the monism of Indian thought as he understood

it? From Goethe onwards most of the great German philosophers knew

something of Indian philosophy. Schopenhauer, whose influence on

literature and psychology has been so considerable, indeed openly admitted

his debt, and his outlook was virtually that of Buddhism. The monism of

Fichte and Hegel might never have taken the forms they did if it had not

been for Anquetil-Duperron’s translation of the Upanishads and the work

of other pioneer Indologists. In the English-speaking world the strongest

Indian influence was felt in America, where Emerson, Thoreau and other

New England writers avidly studied much Indian religious literature in

translation, and exerted immense influence on their contemporaries and

successors, notably Walt Whitman. Through Carlyle and others the German

philosophers in their turn made their mark on England, as did the Americans

through many late 19th-century writers such as Richard Jeffries and Edward

Carpenter… The sages who meditated in the jungles of the Ganges Valley

six hundred years or more before Christ are still forces in the world…

India’s contribution to the world’s cultural stock has already been very

large, and it will continue and grow as, in her new freedom, her prestige

and influence increases. For this reason if for no other we must take account

of her ancient heritage in its successes and its failures, for it is no longer the

heritage of India alone, but of all mankind.”4

Hinduism has been a way of life. The Hindus have been guided by

a number of shastras such as the Vedas, the Dharmashastras like the

great Epics Ramayana and Mahabharata, Natyashastra regarding dance

and music, Shilpashastra regarding architecture and sculpture,

Arthashastra concerning polity and so on. There has been a perpetual

yearning for moksha or liberation from the world to union with Brahman.

The Hindu way of life consisted of four stages: 1) Brahmacharya (of the

student), 2 Grahasta (of the householder), 3) Vanaprasta (of the hermit)

and 4) Sanyasa (of the homeless wanderer). The Ultimate goal of life is

union with Brahman. Profound religiosity marks the Hindu way of life. The

German Indologist Max Müller states: “If I were to ask myself from what

literature we here in Europe, we who have been nurtured almost exclusively

Joseph I. Fernando 93



on the thoughts of Greeks and Romans, and of one Semitic race, the

Jewish, may draw that corrective which is most wanted in order to make

our inner life more perfect, more comprehensive, more universal, in fact

more truly human, a life, not for this life only, but a transfigured and eternal

life – again I should point to India”5

Friedrich von Schlegel testifies similarly: “It cannot be denied that

the early Indians possessed a knowledge of the true God; all their writings

are replete with sentiments and expressions, noble and clear and severely

grand, as deeply conceived and reverently expressed as in any human

language in which men have spoken of their God… Among nations

possessing indigenous philosophy and metaphysics together with an innate

relish for these pursuits, such as at present characterizes Germany, and in

olden times was the proud distinction of Greece, Hindustan holds the first

rank in point of time.”6

The British knew they encountered a superior civilization in India

which had a humbling effect on them. J. Seymour Keay, M.P., Banker

and Agent in India, wrote in 1883: “It cannot be too well understood that

our position in India has never been in any degree that of civilians bringing

civilization to savage races. When we landed in India we found there a

hoary civilization, which, during the progress of thousands of years, had

fitted itself into the character and adjusted itself to the wants of highly

intellectual races. The civilization was not perfunctory, but universal and

all-pervading – furnishing the country not only with political systems, but

with social and domestic institutions of the most ramified description. The

beneficent nature of these institutions as a whole may be judged from their

effects on the character of the Hindu race. Perhaps there are no other

people in the world who show so much in their characters the advantageous

effect of their own civilization. They are shrewd in business, acute in

reasoning, thrifty, religious, sober, charitable, obedient to parents, reverential

to old age, amiable, law-abiding, compassionate towards the helpless and

patient under suffering.”7

Hinduism as an ancient religion has been the bedrock of Indian

civilization for centuries. What is there in Christianity which is not there in

Hinduism?8 Does Christianity have anything unique to give to the people

of India who, according to the European historian A.L. Basham “reached

a higher level of kindliness and gentleness in their mutual relationships than

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any other nation of antiquity?”9 The Catholic Church officially acknowledges

the following about Hinduism, “Thus, in Hinduism men explore the divine

mystery and express it both in the limitless riches of myth and the accurately

defined insights of philosophy. They seek release from the trials of the

present life by ascetical practices, profound meditation and recourse to

God in confidence and love.”10

“Eastern” Christianity in the West

Many Hindus look upon Christianity as a Western religion

introduced in India by the Western colonial powers. They are hardly aware

of the Eastern origin of Christianity. In the Old Testament of the Bible we

see God singling out Abraham, an Asian to become the father of a great

nation. The Christians believe that in Jesus Christ, an Asian Jew God

became man. We may say God became an Asian. Mary, the mother of

Jesus was a simple Asian woman regarding whom the Catholic Church

promulgated the dogmas of Immaculate Conception and Assumption based

on the tradition of belief and experience of the early Christian community.

The same Mary is also honoured as the Queen of Heaven. No woman

has ever been so lavishly honoured as Mary. Peter, the first Pope and Paul

the apostle were Asians as well. When I say God became an Asian in

Jesus, I do not advocate any nationalism or continentalism. Towards the

end of their lives the apostles Peter and Paul were in Rome and died

there. So historically Rome developed as the seat of Catholicism.

Christianity began to spread all over Europe civilizing many barbaric tribes

over the centuries. Eventually Europe emerged as a Christian civilization.

Christianity with its origin in the East ended up predominantly as the religion

of the West. But, according to tradition St. Thomas and St. Bartholomew,

two of the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ, brought Christianity to India in

1st century A.D.

St. Thomas landed at Maliankara on the southwest coast of India

in 52 A.D. He preached the gospel and established the first Christian

communities in the ancient Chera kingdom known today as Kerala.

Tradition holds that he was martyred in Mylopore (Chennai, Southern

India) on the east coast in 72 A.D. Christianity has been alive in Kerala for

Joseph I. Fernando 95



more than 2,000 years. This is a fact unknown to many Indians who think

Christianity was first introduced in India by the Europeans. According to

another tradition, St. Bartholomew, an apostle of Christ, preached the

gospel in the Bombay region and established a Christian community.

“Western” Christianity in the East

With the discovery of new lands by the maritime powers of Europe

like Spain and Portugal, Christianity was introduced in many regions of

Asia by the European missionaries. Christianity, an Asian religion came

back to Asia in a European garb. Obviously, the Asian view of Christianity

as a European religion is not surprising. Christianity, the religion of the

white man was associated with the colonial powers of Europe who were

the ruthless exploiters of the colonies in Asia and elsewhere. That is why

Gandhi said, “I like Christ, but not the Christians.”

The Future of Christianity

It is inappropriate to speak of the true religion. If a religion claims

to be the only true religion, it would imply other religions are false. In fact

there are no false religions. Every religion teaches its followers to be truthful

and good. Every religion deserves to be respected and appreciated. Instead

of speaking of the true religion, we may speak of the uniqueness of each

religion. Every religion has something unique. For example, in Christianity

there is an overwhelming experience of God grounded in human history.

The call of Abraham is historical. The incarnation of God in Jesus is historical.

The death and resurrection of Jesus witnessed by his disciples are historical.

The founding of the Church by Jesus with the mission to preach the good

news is historical. The experience of a personal God is historical. As Levinas

says, “Nobody can really say I believe – or – I do not believe for that

matter – that God exists. The existence of God is not a question of an

individual soul uttering logical syllogisms. It cannot be proved. The existence

of God, the Sein Gottes, is sacred history itself, the sacredness of man’s

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relation to man through which God may pass. God’s existence is the story

of his revelation in biblical history.”11

Besides historicality, what is unique in Christianity is the incarnation

and resurrection. No other religion has a claim to incarnation and

resurrection. Incarnation means God became man in Jesus Christ. It is not

the same as the avatar. There can be a number of avatars, but incarnation

as a historical event took place only once and it is final. The resurrection

means Jesus rose from death on the third day. Another important uniqueness

of Catholic Christianity is its belief in the Eucharist, the body of Christ in

which Jesus is truly present. Another unique feature of Catholic Christianity

is succession to Peter and the other apostles. Peter was appointed by

Jesus to look after his church. The Pope is the successor to Peter and the

bishops to the other apostles. The pope and the bishops in the Church are

guardians of the teachings of Christ and protects the purity of the truth

handed down to the Church by Christ through his apostles. This solidarity

of the bishops of the world with the pope is something unique to Catholic

Christianity. Christianity, thus, can speak of its uniqueness rather than of

its claim to the true religion.

What can Christianity offer to Asia which already has a rich and

ancient heritage? In retrospect, one can speak of Christianity’s impact, for

instance, on India. Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of the Nation was

profoundly influenced by Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount which had its share

in inspiring his adoption and advocacy of nonviolence. He had read the

works of Tolstoy and Ruskin too. Social reforms such as the abolition of

sati (burning the widow in the funeral pyre of her husband), of child

marriage, and of the devadasi system (temple prostitution) were influenced

by the Christian perception of human dignity. The Christian missionaries

opened their schools to all the children whereas in the traditional educational

system of India, not all and only those from the so-called upper castes

were permitted to learn. Christianity made signal contribution to education

and health care through schools, colleges and hospitals.

The Christian organizations continue to run good schools. Many

non-Christians too run good schools. So what will be the unique

contribution of Christianity to Asia? What will be the future of Christianity

in Asia? Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen once asked Mother Teresa how she

was able to lead so many persons to Christ. She replied, “I would ask

Joseph I. Fernando 97



them: ‘Do you like to know about Jesus?’ They would ask me, ‘Who is

he? Is he like you?’ I would tell them, ‘He is not like me; I am trying to be

like him’. They would say, ‘Then tell us about Jesus’.”

This anecdote clearly reveals what the Christians are called to do

in Asia. “Preach the gospel always; if necessary, use words,” as St. Francis

of Assisi said to his brethren. It is not the task of Christianity to proclaim

itself as the true religion. The greatest thing Christianity can do is to convince

people that God must be given the first place in their lives. People must

seek God above all else. Seeking God above all else implies obeying His

commandments and His holy will at all times. Being a seeker of the Lord,

one is immediately and simultaneously in love with his fellow human beings.

Reaching out to the brethren, especially the rejected, the persecuted, the

abandoned and the marginalized is gospel in action. When the non-

Christians see the kind of deeply spiritual, caring and unselfish lives of

Christians, they will realize what it means to love God. In such a context,

Jesus as Lord and saviour, the church as a community of believers, the

sacraments (in the case of Catholics) and the hope in resurrection and

eternal life will be seen as meaningful and true.

Without having a profound experience of God, it is impossible to

tell others about the love of God. We do not need professional evangelists

with a million dollar proselytization program, but we do need men and

women who have truly experienced the love of God and share it with their

brethren in humility and joy. If much of the evangelical preaching is unfruitful,

it is because it lacks the experience of having witnessed to the death and

resurrection of Jesus in one’s own life.

Christianity’s dialogue with other religions should not aim only at

converting others but for gently sharing with them one’s own profound

experience of God in humility and to listen attentively and respectfully to

the experiences of others. Christianity can contribute to Asia if it plays its

prophetic role with regard to justice and peace in the context of

globalization on the one hand and exploitation, poverty, environmental

decay and violation of human rights on the other. Christianity is not a

strategy. Mere organization, planning and management of the Church,

without a profound experience of the Lord and intimacy with him, would

be of no avail in sharing His light with others. It is in the holiness of the

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Christians, can one sense the hope of Christianity’s contribution to the

people of Asia and of the world at large.

We live in times of great crises everywhere despite enormous

advancement in science and technology. Many Third World nations face

economic crisis, others political, spiritual and moral. Christianity in the

West seems to be declining. The Churches are almost empty. A number of

Catholic seminaries have been converted into hotels. Many Catholic priests

are unemployed as their service is not very much required. People hardly

marry in the Church. Many do not marry at all; they prefer to cohabitate

without marriage. The single parent family is another new phenomenon.

There are also Western adherents of oriental religions and practices. Many

seem to dislike the Church for several reasons. Some young people say,

“Jesus, yes; Church, no.” Some Christian doctrines seem spurious in an

age of science and technology.

The Church in the West faces the task of revitalization of itself.

The Church can learn from the experience of the Asians. The spiritual

experience of the Christians of the West can fuse with that of the Asians.

The Church can learn from the praxis of nonviolence of Gandhi as to how

to bring about a nonviolent lifestyle the world over. The Westerners can

learn the great Indian languages of antiquity such as Tamil and Sanskrit to

discover the spiritual riches of India. The Tamil Bhakti literature of the

Saivite Nayanmars and the Vaishanavite Alwars is a rich treasure of

spirituality. It is no exaggeration to say it has no parallel in the world. One

can truly learn from this literature what it means to love God, what it

means to be human. This healing, ennobling and enriching literature should

be tapped. Discovery of Asian spirituality can lead one eventually to the

rejection of materialism, consumerism, individualism, atheism and

agnosticism. Thus Christianity in Asia rooted in the values of Asian spirituality

can contribute to the regeneration of spirituality the world over. In this

sense Christianity has a future in relation to the Asian heritage.

ENDNOTES

1 A.L. Basham, The Wonder that was India, Rupa &Co; New Delhi, 2001, p.1.
2 Ibid, p. VI.

Joseph I. Fernando 99



3 Ibid, p. 485.
4 Ibid, 486 - 487.
5 M.K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj Or Indian Home Rule, Navajuvan Publishing

House, Ahmedabad, 1998, p. 95.
6 Ibid, p. 95.
7 Ibid, p. 94.
8 Someone asked Sadhu Sundar Singh, a convert to Christianity “What is

there in Christianity which is not already there in Hinduism?” and he replied,

“Jesus Christ.”
9 A.L. Basham, The Wonder that was India, p. 9.
10 Austin Flannery (ed.), Vatican II, (Vol. 1), Declaration on the Relation of

the Church to Nonchristian Religions, Liturgical Press, Collegeville, MN 56321,

1984, p. 739.
11 Richard Kearney, Dialogue with Contemporary Continental Thinkers,

Manchester Press, 1984, p. 54.

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