g Christians have recently found an open door to reenter their
ancestral faith. This is an important move; but I doubt whether it will
cause Christians to lose any converts save those who are not sincere and
who would therefore be better outside than within the Christian Church.

A generation ago few Hindus in the villages of the land would fail to
defend polytheism and idolatry as an essential part of their faith. At
present the Christian preacher, as he travels among these same people,
finds universal assent to his declaration concerning the unity of God. I
have hardly met one villager in the land who maintains today that there
are really "gods many." Polytheism is not defended but explained away, and
idolatry, it is claimed, is only an accommodation--a kind of religious
kindergarten--for the sake of the very ignorant, and "for women and
children." But of course, pantheism is the Hindu's conception of the
divine unity.

Whenever an educated Hindu defends his faith, in an argument with a
Christian, he never quotes as scriptural authority the more recent
writings of their faith--the Tantras and Puranas, which are the storehouse
of legend and myth, of myriad rites and customs and are the refuge and joy
of the orthodox and conservative pandits;--he discards these and falls back
upon the most ancient writings, which are the exponents of nature worship
and of vedantic philosophy. Or he will extol the Bhagavat Gita, which is
an eclectic attempt to unify and approve the conflicting philosophies of
Brahmanism.

In these, and in many other ways, Hinduism finds today new presentation
and defence. It is not the thing it used to be. And yet in matters of
fundamental importance it is and will remain unchanged. In some respects
these changes make that ancient faith less vulnerable to attack. In the
words of Doctor Robson,--"The influence of Christianity upon Hinduism has
been rather to strengthen its rival by forcing it to abandon certain
positions which weakened it, and bringing it more into accordance with
natural religion. But Hinduism remains the same. The contest is coming to
be between the ultimate principles of the two religions, and these are
irreconcilable."(14) Yes, it will be a good day for Christianity when the
great contest is thus narrowed down, and when the deepest teachings of the
two faiths will be placed in clear and simple juxtaposition.

One serious source of danger in this controversy lies in the Neo-Hinduism