Author: Parameswaran
Foreword/Introductio: Parameswaran
Publisher: Vivekananda Kendra Prakashan Trust /Suruchi
Year: 2007
Language: English
Pages: 600
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8189248847
Description
Though claiming to act from and for “the love of Jesus,” Christianity has brought suffering and destruction to individuals, communities and cultures in almost every region of the world. This collection of papers by Indian and foreign scholars, which spans two millennia and includes Europe, America, Asia and Australia, does not focus on Christianity’s teachings or theology, but on its actual expressions in the world.
Just as histories of colonialism have been largely written by the colonial powers, in effect erasing the testimony of the colonized, most histories of Christianity – and in India, all of them – have adopted a Christian standpoint as a matter of course.
This book enedavours to reverse the perspective and asserts the right of the countless victims of Christianity to be remembered, and, when still possible, to be heard.
The book’s 45 essays do not demonize Christianity; rather, they bear witness in memory of the millions it demonized and martyred for no fault of theirs. And they hold a lesson for the surviving vulnerable cultures and communities in India and elsewhere.
Contents
Introduction
Editorial Note
PART 1 - ORIGINS AND EARLY
HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY:
Christianity, a Man-Made Religion Indebted to India
How Christian is the New Testament?
Early Christian Destruction of Pagan Cultures
A Hindu Community in Ancient Armenia
A Disaster in the History of Mankind
PART 2 - EXPRESSIONS OF CHRISTIANITY
IN THE WEST:
Woman in Christianity
The Holy Inquisition
Joan of arc, a "Relapsed Heretic"
The witch Hunts: The End of Magic and Miracles
1450-1750 CE
Christianity in America
Destruction of the Indies
Petition to His Holiness Pope Pius V
Swami Vivekananda on the spread of Christianity
Huge 1,500-year-old pyramid discovered in Mexico...
Children of one Creator
A Drum and a Dream: The Suppression of African
Spirituality during Slavery in the U.S.
Impact of Christianity on Ancient Tradition and
African Indigenous Religion
From the Holy Cross to the Holocaust
A 'just and splendid' slaughter
Soon, a Fascist Saint
Thoughts from Simon Wiesenthal
PART 3 - EXPRESSIONS OF CHRISTIANITY IN
INDIA AND ELSEWHERE IN ASIA:
Christian Mission in Asia
Thus Spake Francis Xavier
Kerala, the Gateway to Indian Christianity
Antecedents of the Goa Inquisition
The Destruction of Hindu Culture in Goa
Pouncing on Goa
‘Behold another Victim of the Holy Inquisition’
Repression of Buddhism in Sri Lanka by
The Portuguese (1505-1658)
Puducherry’s Vedapuriswaran Temple
The Career of Proselytism
Demonizing India
Education in India: Destruction and Change
Under missionary and colonial influence
Christian Indology
PART 4 - INTELLECTUAL CHALLENGES
TO CHRISTIANITY:
Voltaire (1694-1778)
The Questions of Zapata
Heretics and Heresies
Why I am Not a Christian
A "Godless Orthodoxy"
Western Thinkers on Christianity
Theo-Diversity and Humane Values
PART 5 - THE DECLINE OF CHRISTIANITY:
Swami Vivekananda: Christianity vs. Science
Christianity and Science
Canada’s Residential Schools
Australia’s Stolen Generation
‘Kill the India, save the man’
A Saga of Scandals
An Open Letter to the Pope
The Retreat of Christianity in the West
Epilogue