Clements 1 Samantha Clements Methods / Dr.Slavishak 29 March 2010 Methods Research Paper Jones Hope to Unite Christ and Government Politics Rufus Jones believed that he had a religious call to go to the East. This came about in 1926, when he went on a trip for the Y.M.C.A. Foreign Committee. Jones was a Quaker well known throughout the Friends community for his writing and work as a professor and speaker. By the 1920s Jones was a professor at Haverford College and was working on a historical study of Quakerism and mysticism. In the summer of 1926 the Young Men s Christian Association held a Triennial National Convention based on the subject religion in life; it was specifically intended to address the lack of religion in China during the Warlord period. Jones and his family lectured in Japan, the Philippines, and India in addition to those in China. Jones believed that Quakerism was a true religion because of its connection to Christ. He had been raised in a Quaker family and found that the meeting form in silence was preferable to other Christian religions that seemed to evolve into something other than the intended religion. This belief was carried into his adult life and work. Jones thought that Quakerism should spread in practice and worked on creating unity in the Friends community despite groups wanting to splinter off from one another. He understood religion to be meaningful and to have purpose if it focused on Christ and the individual s relationship with Christ. It was with this idea that Jones planned his tour throughout Asia.
Clements 2 The subject matter Jones spoke on was the role of religion in modern life. Throughout his experience Jones recorded his personal meetings and impressions about the political and cultural situations the countries were in. His encounters during his trip including heads of state, missionaries, as well as other significant leaders of the community. One of the most significant meetings was with Gandhi, which was towards the backend of Jones trip. In India, Jones experienced ideology that consisted of Hindu theology as well as political theory. Jones opinion on Hinduism, and therefore India, was influenced by American values, such as xenophobia and Fundamentalism, as well as western superiority and intervention. His belief that Christianity would benefit the people of India, was reflected in his journal entries both during his time in the country and his concluding entries on the trip back to America. Christian European countries had originally conceptualized Asia as a whole and labeled it as the Orient. For those countries the Orient became another method of differentiating between Christians and non-christians. American society took part in colonial discourse by creating ideals based on American values, such as the White Man s Burden. Due to societal values the American government intervened in other countries affairs. By the 1920s, however, America became diplomatically and therefore socially isolated from the international community. Xenophobia became prominent during America s role in WWII, and continued afterwards by being legally certified by government acts in regards to immigration. In 1919 President Wilson introduced is 14 point plan, which included the organization of the League of Nations, and Senate failed to ratify it for fear of compromising America s sovereignty. Socially then, America adopted
Clements 3 a unique approach to international affairs that mixed isolationist beliefs and the need of intervention. Another major aspect of American views was Christianity and specifically the emergence of Christian Fundamentalism. Fundamentalists interpreted the Bible quite literally and therefore opposed scientific theories such as evolution. Americans in the south who were conservative and Protestant made up what is known as the Bible Belt, while the KKK experienced more popularity than before. There were also a large amount of Christian missionaries throughout countries that Westerners perceived to be less developed. China and India especially were targets for missionaries due to the lack of Christianity as well as the political issues present. At that time China was in an intergovernmental period in which the communist party was attempting to overthrow all of the feudal rulers and gain control of the national government. Between the years of 1920 and 1922 Gandhi led non-violent acts of civil disobedience against the British colonial government in India. It was with those struggles occurring in Asia that the YMCA organized lectures designed to speak on the topic of religion in life. Rufus Jones was asked to speak, from the Christian standpoint, on religion and how creating a mystical relationship with God would benefit the people of those countries. Jones, however, was influenced by his Quaker belief system and the American values that were present during the 1920s, thus making it difficult not to be biased towards non-christian religious traditions. One of the primary ways that Jones constructed this American view of non- Christians was by analyzing the countries governmental circumstances. His purpose in Asia was to speak about what religion had to do with society, and he believed that
Clements 4 religion could have a positive effect on the people in Asian societies. On July 14 he attended a luncheon in Japan and spoke about the [...] fundamental principles of a new and better civilization. i Included in those principles was the belief that there should be a widespread practice of a religion that has faith in an active supreme being. This belief was supported by an American view of Christian and Western superiority. On September 7 Jones met with Dr.W.W. Yen, who had a very favorable opinion of Americans due to his higher education in America. It was in this entry that Jones concluded that Americans had a certain mentality that made it difficult for them to reconcile the differences between American and Asian cultures. In a talk with Admiral Tsai of China, a few days later, Jones discussed Christianity as well as American society and Tsai, who also had been schooled in America, [ ] expressed a strong appreciation of the spirit and ideals of Christianity as the real hope of true civilization. He contrasted the patience and confidence of the missionary worker with the impatience and irretation [sic] of the official class in China. He want[ed] some of his best men of China to go to America to interpret ii Chinese life and deepen the needs of China to our thinkers. Tsai viewed Western Christians as representatives of a progressive society. Therefore there was this idea that American ideology, which usually consisted of Christian theology and democracy, was slightly superior to ideologies in Asia. Another aspect of the government situation was the average people Jones came into contact with. The leaders had their own ideas in regards to the government institutions and infrastructure of the country, however it was the average people that would be affected the most by those decisions. Lectures given by Jones were then given to leaders, workers and students alike. There was a contrast with traditional values of Asian cultures, in which the older generation held the power and the younger generations had to respect their elders decisions. The students Jones met with were critical and had
Clements 5 the ability to be involved in political changes their respective countries were undergoing. In China Jones gave a lecture on October 31 in which students of different religious traditions questioned Jones thoughts on religion with superficial thoughts. iii The problem he had with religion in China was that it was at odds with science and there was a distinct absence of spiritual or philosophical understanding of religion. Jones wrote that the students became [ ] anti-religion [ ] because they identify religion and superstition and believe both to be incompatible with science. iv This was an example of the difference in Christian denominations, because the point Jones was attempting to make was different from the points of American Fundamentalists. 1920s fundamentalism was opposed to Western science, evolution in particular, just as the Chinese students were. However Jones was focused primarily on creating a desire for spiritual life and philosophy. Jones then encountered a problem with Indian students because though they were not concerned with science, there was a concern of superstition of sorts. When he reflected on Indian students, Jones wrote that they were: [ ] speculative, idealistic, mystic minded, and often a religious devotee. The Hindu faith is much more for evidence than I expected it would be. v Jones experienced difficulty when he addressed Indian students because they acted so differently from him, and therefore he believed that Indians had weak understandings of faith because of their Hindu belief system. On November 26 he wrote, They [Indian students] are fixed and set. They do not let go and give their minds to the speaker. Unless he hits their trail what he says is largely foreign to them. They are elusive and they carry the world outlook of a different
Clements 6 civilization. vi His interaction with people of the Hindu faith was actually just one characteristic that Jones judged the faith and country by his American ideals. Jones viewed India through American Christian constructs and therefore Hinduism in daily life failed to serve the needs of the people and act as a basis of spiritual growth. One of the sites that he visited in Calcutta was the burning Ghat. The burning Ghat was one of the most important parts of the city because it was used, and still is today, for Hindu funerals and cremation. His inclusion of that part of his tour shows that he was not comfortable with lives of difficulty and struggle ending this way. Days later when his party visited the Taj Mahal, Jones wrote about the experience as his first chance at truly encountering the India that Americans imagined. This was part of American values though, there were certain characteristics of the society that Americans assumed all Asian countries would have. When he wrote about his experience in the Taj Mahal, he wrote, Here there is the calm that fits Indian life. and beauty of the place, but also found a physical representation of what he assumed India, as a whole would be like. His ideal of India also caused him to be less than impressed in his meeting with Gandhi. Though some of the issues also were caused by Jones interpretation of Hinduism, he met with Gandhi in order to discuss the situation of colonial India. After his meeting with Gandhi, Jones concluded that though Gandhi s ashram (Hindu monastery) was peaceful in its isolation, the practice of Hinduism did not make him an effective leader of all Indians. Jones deemed Hinduism to be superficial religion because its tenets and practices were so vastly different from Christianity. He preferred Quakerism because it was a religion that centered upon a personal connection with Christ. He could not see that vii He was amazed at the architecture
Clements 7 connection to a higher spiritual being in Hinduism, because of their abundant use of objects and a sense of dirtiness in the temples. One of Jones first references to Hinduism as an immature religion was when he visited the holy city of Conjeeveram and he wrote: [ ] the priests are ignorant and dirty and religion is still in the doll stage. viii It is significant that he used the term doll stage because that is not a term used in discussions about religion. And Jones usage of that term demonstrated how he saw Hinduism. Doll stage reflects a child like approach to religion. When children played with dolls the situations and events were imagined and had no impact on the real life of the children. Therefore the idols and pictures Jones saw in the Hindu temples were like children s toys. He did not believe that the representations of multiple gods could form a connection between the worshipers and a supreme power. For example one could examine the photograph Hindu men & women worshipping in front of images of Vishnu & Lakshmi at the Birla Temple (See Figure 1 in Appendix) New Delhi, sometime in 1946. Though this photograph was taken 20 years after Rufus Jones trip, this was a visual representation of the Hindu faith he encountered. Jones visited Delhi, and throughout his trip in India he believed that the Hindu faith was present but could not provide a deeper meaning for the people who live in India. There was a group of Hindus who were worshipping two figurines or statues of two gods in the Hindu faith. As with his description of their worship, it appeared as though their worship was of the center figures excessively decorated and removed from the sitting people. This suggested then that their practicing of Hinduism was fairly superficial because though they said that they are worshipping the greater divine being,
Clements 8 their worship centered on visual representations of gods. When he reflected on the temples he visited he proclaimed: Hindu popular religion shocks me and revolts me. I hear much about the symbolic character of the temple worship and I am told again and again that the "idol", the image, the figure of the god is pictorial and that the worshipper really worships the infinite and absolute reality above and beyond it but I see no signs of this idealism. The whole thing seems a crude survival, in many instances a degeneration of what once was nobler and purer. ix Jones disgust for their practices such as adoration of the cow, and belief in karma, in addition to the conditions of their holy places, show that he was not a fundamentalist Christian but still criticized religion that was not similar to his own. The criticism is rooted in fears of other countries and the push for American isolationism. Americans who wanted to remain active in the international community went to countries that were struggling to become legitimate powers in order to help the countries stabilize. Jones witnessed the same struggle between science and religion in Chinese students as it was occurring in the United States, however this was due to the absence of a Christian religion presence in China instead of an increase of conservative Christianity. There were minor cases of conservatism present among Christians that went abroad, which Jones saw as a hindrance in spreading the practice of Christianity. He wrote that Chinese students approached Christianity with suspicion because their basis for understanding was science and they had had no training in the philosophical beliefs of Christian religions. Jones description of the group of experiences he had during the Tsinana conference demonstrates that his priority in regards to spreading Christianity was to have people grasp that spiritual understanding of Christ and not to view religion as a superstition. The traditional, almost fundamentalist, way in which Christianity was presented to non-christians in Asia caused the students to have misunderstandings about
Clements 9 Christianity and its main tenants. Jones disagreed with Fundamentalism and wished to have Christianity presented in a manner in which it was adjusted to complement Chinese tradition and culture. He was convinced that religion in the context of missions had to be more accepting with an emphasis on spiritual health: It would take a brave spirit to lead the way of truth and light in the face of fundamentalist criticism, but it is the only hope of a true Christian faith in China. The Chinese pastors and Christian leaders are nearly all conservative except those in Y.M.C.A. circles who are uniformly broad. They have accepted a set scheme of thought and phrases from the early missionaries and they are helpless without this framework. x While his interpretation of religion was different from fundamentalists in the American south, it was still American in the sense that it assumed that people in general needed religion in order to better their lives. As acting in part for the Y.M.C.A., Jones attempted to spread that specific message of Christianity, but he also fell in line with Christian political ideology. Jones did a large amount of work on Quakerism, Mysticism, as well as other topics and was a respected person in his field. When he did foreign service work, his concern was mostly the spread of Christianity and specifically the Quaker faith. His work in 1926 in Japan, China, the Philippines and India helped him conceptualize how religion should be approached abroad. However Jones did not always approach non-christians with understanding, but at times with sympathy or even condemnation for practicing religions that seemed to lack a proper type of faith and devotion. His judgment stemmed from the condition America was in during the 1920s. Though it was a period of relative comfort, American citizens as well as their government had become xenophobic and isolated following the conclusion of WWI. Rufus Jones then attempted to act against the rising Fundamentalism that he did not agree with, but was socially conditioned to believe
Clements 10 that the Western countries were superior to colonial states. His experience also demonstrated the struggle in religion to remain relevant to the society in which it exists. Jones wanted religion to take hold in China because he believed that the Chinese needed a live religion to give them a spiritual perspective in life and that Hinduism lacked that depth of life. He believed that Quakerism could provide Asian countries with a fulfilling spiritual life. The role of Christianity in government building and societal growth is an important one to recognize. Before the United Nations, religion had been a powerful tool in exerting power over smaller countries. This was mainly due to missionaries that were sent to countries deemed as less developed but industrial nations. The perceived ability of the industrialized countries to judge the conditions of those states and then direct Christian missionaries to fix the conditions was how religion was an aspect of the power industrialized nations had in the international community. Today having an understanding about Christianity specifically as a motivation for foreign intervention allows us today to realize the connection there is between political ideology and theologies. More focused on Jones diary and what it can tell us, there is the possibility to put into context American supremacy that has existed in just the past few decades. American ideals have usually consisted of a version of Christianity (Protestantism) and a democratic government. Jones perspective is therefore not an exception, because it is fairly representative of that mix of ideology and theology. i Rufus Jones diary entry, 14 July 1926, Rufus Jones Diary, Triptych Tri-College Digital Library, http://triptych.brynmawr.edu/cdm4/rmj.php, accessed February 2010.
Clements 11 ii Rufus Jones diary entry, 10 September 1926, Rufus Jones Diary, Triptych Tri-College iii Rufus Jones diary entry, 31 October 1926, Rufus Jones Diary, Triptych Tri-College iv Rufus Jones diary entry, 31 October 1926, Rufus Jones Diary, Triptych Tri-College v Rufus Jones diary entry, 21 November 1926, Rufus Jones Diary, Triptych Tri-College vi Rufus Jones diary entry, 26 November 1926, Rufus Jones Diary, Triptych Tri-College vii Rufus Jones diary entry, 28 November 1926, Rufus Jones Diary, Triptych Tri-College viii Rufus Jones diary entry, 21 November 1926, Rufus Jones Diary, Triptych Tri-College ix Rufus Jones diary entry, 11 December 1926, Rufus Jones Diary, Triptych Tri-College x Rufus Jones diary entry, 13 October 1926, Rufus Jones Diary, Triptych Tri-College
Clements 12 Appendix Figure 1 Photograph by Margaret Bourke-White, New Delhi India, 1946.