The Living Religions of the Indian People (Wilde Lectures, Oxford, 1932-34)

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The books examines the religions of the Hindus, Muslims, Jainas, Sikhs, Parsis and Christians and ascertains the factors that have made them immortal. It traces their quintessential qualities which attract and satisfy the religious needs of a broad spectrum of people ranging from the primitive tribal at one extremity and the urbane modern man at the other. The simplicity and sympathy of narration of this book makes it useful to all Religion has remained from time immemorial the one infallible and inexhaustible source of solace for Man at times of crises in his life. It is this frail bark which provides him with the means of escape from this world of unceasing turmoil. With its message as rudder, with hope, faith and courage as sails, with patience and endurance as oars and with its seers as compass, Man voyages across the ocean of life, overcomes its raging tempests and finally reaches the Promised Land whence there is no return. Man's problems and needs vary and change with his nature, age and environment. Those religions that could keep pace with his changing needs alone have survived while those that could not became extinct.

Nicol Macnicol (1870 - 1952) Born Catacol, United Kingdom. He was educated at University of Glasgow, the High School of Glasgow, he wrote many Books -Psalms of Maratha Saints, Indian Theism, War and Religion, Indian Theism, and Edited works.

This book contains-in somewhat enlarged form-the lectures delivered in 1932-34 in connection with the Wilde Lectureship in Natural and Comparative Religion at the University of Oxford. A considerable portion of the material was also made use of in a series of Overseas Lectures" delivered in the Theological Colleges of the Church of Scotland and the Theological Faculties of the Scottish Universities in the winter of 1931-32.

While I owe my personal acquaintance with the religions dealt with to many years spent in India as a Christian missionary, the aim of the book is not to institute comparisons between the religions or to criticize them. In order that we may be able to help any people wisely in what affects them as profoundly as religion does, it is of much importance that we should understand, as far as possible, what religion has meant to them in their own lives. This book is intended to be a guide towards such a sympathetic understanding. It does not deal with the details of religious observance or of the theological or philosophical conceptions on which the religions are built or by which it is sought to explain them. Its purpose is to present, as far as a stranger may, the central elements in the various religions that give them their spiritual significance. The book may thus serve as an introduction to the further study of these faiths, whether it be continued by the help of their own scriptures or through contact with the lives of those who profess them and live by them.