Looking to gain fresh insights into the psychology of religion, James Bissett Pratt traveled to India, packing little more than a gift of extraordinary human sympathy. It was Pratt's interest in psychology, and his lack of training in oriental classics, that gives this book such a personal approach. India and Its Faiths is sprinkled with numerous first-hand observations and seeks to present Indian religious life as it was at the beginning of the 20th century. Pratt's striking work did much to make India's religions come alive for the first time for many Western readers. JAMES BISSETT PRATT (1875 -1944) was a professor of philosophy at Williams College and a world traveler. Best known for his works on religion, Pratt spent four summers and three sabbatical years in Europe and the East. He admitted to a serious case of wanderlust, which he documented in diaries and photographs.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1883.

This incredible history presents an interesting view of Indian culture, caste and religion. Content includes: India's Unrest The Home of Many Faiths Burma, the Beautiful The Hindu Caste System The Bhagavad Gita—The Hindu Bible Popular Hinduism Hindu Religious Ideals The Home Life of Hindus Kali Yuga—India's Pessimism Islam in India The Christ and the Buddha Modern Religious Movement The Progress of Christianity in India

The first intellectual history of interreligious dialogue, a relatively new and significant dimension of human religiosity In recent decades, organizations committed to interreligious or interfaith dialogue have proliferated, both in the Western and non-Western worlds. Why? How so? And what exactly is interreligious dialogue? These are the touchstone questions of this book, the first major history of interreligious dialogue in the modern age. Thomas Albert Howard narrates and analyzes several key turning points in the history of interfaith dialogue before examining, in the conclusion, the contemporary landscape. While many have theorized about and practiced interreligious dialogue, few have attended carefully to its past, connecting its emergence and spread with broader developments in modern history. Interreligious dialogue—grasped in light of careful, critical attention to its past—holds promise for helping people of diverse faith backgrounds to foster cooperation and knowledge of one another while contributing insight into contemporary, global religious pluralism.

The phenomenon of caste has probably aroused more controversy than any other aspect of Indian life and thought. Susan Bayly's cogent and sophisticated analysis explores the emergence of the ideas, experiences and practices which gave rise to the so-called 'caste society' from the pre-colonial period to the end of the twentieth century. Using an historical and anthropological approach, she frames her analysis within the context of India's dynamic economic and social order, interpreting caste not as an essence of Indian culture and civilization, but rather as a contingent and variable response to the changes that occurred in the subcontinent's political landscape through the colonial conquest. The idea of caste in relation to Western and Indian 'orientalist' thought is also explored.

In this book, Dr. Manohar James explores how Hindu intolerance has contributed to anti-Christian propaganda over the centuries, how such intolerance has informed the conclusions of the Niyogi Committee Report, and how the Report's ongoing publications, redactions and recessions have intensified anti-Christian rhetoric in India over the last six decades.