Sadhu Sundar Singh
Sundar Singh (* 1888 in Rampur, Patiala, † unknown, last seen alive before his trip to the Himalayas in 1929 started ) was an Indian Christian who went about the manner of a Sadhu.
Life
Sundar Singh came from a wealthy family. His father was a Sikh, his mother Hindu. After he came in contact in a missionary school with Christianity, he turned first into enmity. After a vision described by him but he was a Christian and thus broke with his family, who rejected him. He went to live ascetic, without possession, and had numerous visions. His main task, he saw it, to pull through the villages and preach Jesus Christ. Many Indians were Christians through him, and he was fascinated by the country people as well as Christians from the West. Several assassination attempts he barely survived. Again and again he traveled to the Himalayas to proselytize there to Tibet into it. After a lecture tour in South India, he was invited abroad. He traveled through Burma to Singapore, from there in large Chinese cities and on to Japan. From there he returned to India. His fame rose sharply. Subsequent invitations to Europe. On two trips that took him to England, the USA and Australia, and Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland and Norway, he learned western civilization know. He criticized the Western materialism and its lack of spirituality. In 1929 he took on a new journey to Tibet, but did not stop there. Various search expeditions were unsuccessful. It is believed that he either a violent crime fell victim or died of cholera.
Even over 70 years after his disappearance remains Sadhu Sundar Singh one of the most influential Indian Christians of the 20th century, as he proved with his life, that Christianity is not a Western and incompatible with the Indian culture religion.
Theology
Sundar Singh is the first modern Indian theologian who developed his preaching entirely within the Indian culture. This also meant that he renounced Western philosophy and its own Indian traditions heranzog. Thus he was reaching the ordinary people. The objection of Hindu circles, he proclaim a foreign religion, he met with decidedly Indian patterns of argumentation.
Works by Sadhu Sundar Singh
- At the Master's feet. Stuttgart 1923 ( At the master 's feet Madras, 1922. ) ( Indian edition: Maktib i Masih Lucknow in 1921. )
- God's reality. Thoughts about God, man and nature. Hamburg 1925 ( Reality and Religion Meditations on God, Men and Nature London 1924.. ) ( Indian edition. Mazhab our Haqiqat Lahore 1924)
- The search for God. Thoughts on Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam and Christianity. Basel 1925 ( The Search after Reality. Thoughts on Hinduism, Buddhism, Muhammadanism, and Christianity. London 1924)
- Secrets of the inner life. Reflections on the growth in the spiritual life. Basel 1930 ( Meditations on various Aspects of the Spiritual Life. London 1926)
- Visions of the world beyond. Aarau 1930 ( Visions of the Spiritual World. A Brief Description of the Spiritual Life, its different states of existence, and the destiny of good and evil men as seen in visions. London 1926)
- With and without Christ. Examples from the lives of Christians and non- Christians, who by the light of a life the difference of a life with Christ without him. Basel 1930 ( With and without Christ. Being incidents taken from the lives of Christians and non -Christians of Which illustrate the difference in lives lived with Christ and without Christ. London 1929)
- Friso Melzer (eds.): Sadhu Sundar Singh. Collected Writings. Stuttgart 2000 ( ISBN 978-3-7675-2300-5 )