Ware, Henry; Adam, William; Roy, Rammohun. Correspondence relative to the Prospects of Christianity, and the Means of Promoting its Reception, in India. Cambridge, [Mass.]: From the University Press - Hilliard and Metcalf, 1824. First Edition. [12352]
Removed, no wrappers, 8 1/2 x 5 1/4 inches, 138 pp. Title page printed off center. Good. Disbound.
William Adam (1796-1881), b. Dunfermline, Scotland; d. Beaconsfield, Hampshire, England. He was the first foreign missionary connected with explicitly Unitarian missions. He began as a Baptist missionary connected with William Carey's mission station in Serampore; his language and Biblical studies led him into Unitarianism.
Rammohun Roy (1772-1833), b. Radhanagar, Bengal, India; d. Stapleton, Bristol, England. Styled the "Father of the Indian Renaissance," he was a social reformer and writer, and the leader of efforts to end the practices of child marriage and the burning to death of widows. He sought to revive the ethical principals of the Vedanta school of philosophy as found in the Upanishads, founded the Calcutta Unitarian Society and the Brahmo Sabha, the precurser to Brahmo Samaj. "He sought to integrate Western culture with the best features of his country's traditions." - Hodder, Alan D. (1988). "Emerson, Rammohan Roy, and the Unitarians". Studies in the American Renaissance: 133–148.
A list of 16 questions sent by the Rev. Henry Ware to the Unitarian missionary William Adam in India, regarding the prospects of the Unitarian message finding acceptance in India.
Several of the questions pertain to other denominations and their activities, i. e. no. 11: "Are there any reasons for believing that Christianity, as held by Unitarians, would be more readily received by intelligent Hindoos, than as it is held by Trinitarians?"
Several incidents appalling to Unitarians are related, such as "...the harsh representation given of the character of God as pardoning the sins of those only who believe in the atoning death of Christ, as as consigning to endless punishment, because they do not believe in him, millions who have never even heard his name, creates great and just offence." - p. 78. And, "the unguarded manner in which Scriptural language respecting the death of Christ is frequently used, tends to excite a very strong prejudice against Christianity. 'The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin.' This is true in the sense in which the sacred writer intended it to be understood, viz. of the moral influence of his death; but no sect of Christians professes to believe it in the strictly literal sense which the words convey." - pp. 78-79.
Questions were also sent by Rev. Ware to Rammohun Roy, whose answers are printed on pp. 123-138.
