I do not think that Christianity will ever make much progress in Asia, for what is commonly known by that name is not the teaching of Christ but a re… - Charles Eliot

Compared to Islam and Christianity, Hinduism's doctrines are extraordinarily fluid, and multiform. India deals in images and metaphors. Restless, subtle and argumentative as Hindu thought is, it is less prone than European theology to the vice of distorting transcendental ideas by too stringent definition. It adumbrates the indescribable by metaphors and figures. It is not afraid of inconsistencies, which may illustrate different aspects of the infinite, but it rarely tries to cramp the divine within the limits of a logical phrase.

Though these narratives," says Sir Charles Eliot, "are compilations which accepted new matter during several centuries, I see no reason to doubt that the oldest stratum contains the recollections of those who had seen and heard the master.

Let me confess that I cannot share the confidence in the superiority of Europeans and their ways which is prevalent in the West." "European civilization is not satisfying and Asia can still offer something more attractive to many who are far from Asiatic in spirit.