J. N. Farquhar
John Nicol Farquhar | |
---|---|
Educational missionary, Orientalist |
John Nicol Farquhar (6 April 1861 – 17 July 1929) was a Scottish
He authored several books on Hinduism, notably, The Crown of Hindustan, A Primer of Hinduism, Gita and Gospel, and many alike.[1][2][3][4][6]
Biography
Farquhar was born at
He arrived at
Due to ill-health, he left India in 1923. He spent last six years of his life working as a professor of comparative religion in the University of Manchester. He died in Manchester in 1929.[1][2][4]
Bibliography
During his stint at
In his famous publication The Crown of Hinduism, he aspired to present Christ, rather than an organizational structure or intellectual system to India. He argued that
Christ and His message fulfills the quest for an ordered nation which gave rise to the institution of caste;the ethics of Christ completes this quest in a way that caste never could, since the system lacks the concept of social quality.[2]
His work An Outline of the Religious Literature of India published in 1920, clearly demonstrates his excellent
As an editor for "Religious life of India," he inspired missionaries to write to the highest standards of accuracy, sympathy, and Christian-centric; however, he was less fortunate in finding the right Indian Christian co-workers, and never agreed fully to terms with the changed climate of opinion in India after 1919.[1][4]
Publications
- The Apostle Thomas in South India (1927)
- The Apostle Thomas in North India. Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 10 (1926): 80–111.[8]
- The Fighting Ascetics of India (1925)[6]
- An Outline of the Religious Literature of India (1920)
- Modern Religious Movements in India (1915)
- A Primer of Hinduism (1914)
- The Crown of Hinduism (1913)
- The Approach of Christ to Modern India (1913)
- Gita and Gospel (1906)
- Permanent Lessons of the Gita (1903)
Fulfilment Theology
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According to O. Kandaswami Chetty, biographer of
According to Eric J. Sharpe, professor of Religious studies at University of Sydney; author of books like "Not To Destroy, But To Fulfil:the contribution of J.N. Farquhar to Protestant missionary thought in India before 1914", "John Nicol Farquhar and the missionary study of Hinduism", "John Nicol Farquhar, a memoir", and "Faith meets Faith: Some Christian Attitudes to Hinduism in the Nineteenth and Twentieth centuries"; and who extensively wrote on Farquhar's theology and missiological approach to Indian religions, has observed that Farquhar, although fully worked out "Fulfillment thesis" in his seminal work, yet his work on "Fulfillment theology" in Bengal was built on foundations laid out initially at Madras by William Miller itself.[1][2][3][6]
He was the pioneer in popularising his missionary theology Fulfillment theology. Although, he didn't invent it by himself, but based his theology on William Miller Fulfilment theology that took its shape in Madras Presidency. According to this theology, "Christ came to fulfill and bring to completion not only the law and the prophets(Matt.5:17) but all the world's higher religions." [sic]—in this sense, Christ is the "Crown" of Hinduism.[1][3]
He popularised and expressed the idea that Christianity was the fulfilment of other religions; he advocated that Christianity was not out to destroy other religions but to fulfill. He intended to develop a workable
In his publication The Crown of Hinduism published in 1913, Farquher argued that:
If all religions are human, and yet men can in the long run hold only Christianity, clearly it must be, in some sense, the climax of the religious development in the world, the end and culmination of all religions. If all the great religious instincts, which have created the other faiths, find ultimate satisfaction in Christianity, then Christianity stands in a very definite relation to every other religion. It is the fulfilment and crown of each; and it is our privilege and duty to trace the lines of connection and lead the peoples up to the Christ.[3]
Farquhar, though saw some amount of truth in non-Christian religions, yet he denounced some elements that Christianity cannot accept. Caste system is one among them, as he felt that equality, freedom, and justice are distinctive aspects of Christianity.[4] According to Farquher, though, "Fulfilment" dictated sympathy and reverence as the only "way of wisdom" for the missionary to the Hindu, it indirectly spelt ultimate extinction for all non-Christian religions.[9]
Eric Sharpe has remarked that Farquhar was "more than any other individual responsible for bringing about a decisive change in the thinking of Christians over against the phenomena of other faiths." [sic][2]
Criticism
A.G. Hogg, professor at Madras Christian College and author of Karma and Redemption in 1904, criticised Farquhar's "Fulfilment thesis" that says "Christianity fulfils all the noblest aspirations of the Hindus," [sic] as Hogg perceived that "in Hinduism there was searching and finding, and that a Christian was not offering what a Hindu was searching. Under certain circumstances, a Christian however could make the Hindu feel the need for what is available only in Christianity." [sic][3][5]
Farquhar's Fulfillment School has also been discussed, with praise and / or censor, by many writers on philosophy or theology of religion, including Gavin D'Costa, Jacques Dupuis, John Hick, David Marshall, Ivan Satyavrata, James Sharpe, and James Thrower: Satyavrata and Sharpe provide extended analyses. Farquhar is often taken as a leading representative of the Inclusivist School, though this would be more plausible if the focus were on ontology and ethics, which are Farquhar's foci, rather than on salvation.
References
- FARQUHAR, John Nicol, Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2015; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014
- ^ ISBN 9780802846808.
- ^ ISBN 9783039107087.
- ^ a b c d e f g
"Edinburgh to Tambaram: A Paradigm Shift in Missions, or the horizon of Missions broadened?". docstoc.com. Archived from the original on 1 August 2013. Retrieved 25 May 2012.
Eric Sharpe observes that Farquhar work on fulfillment theology in Bengal was built on foundation originally laid in Madras.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i "A critical study of the major contributions of J.N. Farquhar and Marcus Ward to the history of Christian thought in India". binupeniel.blogspot.in. Retrieved 27 May 2012.
- ^ ISBN 9780878083206.
- ^ a b c d e "Most widely held works about J. N Farquhar – Most widely held works by J. N Farquhar". worldcat.org. Retrieved 22 May 2012.
- ISBN 9780836911275.
- ^ Reprinted in Jacob Vellian. (1972). The Apostle Thomas in India According to the "Acts of Thomas". Kottayam, India.
- ISBN 9780802863607.