Review
Sharing your Faith with a Hindu
Madasamy Thirumalai
Bethany House: Minneapolis, MINN, USA 2002
Reviewed By Rev. Dr. Elwin Johnson Rethinasamy
Mission Developer and Consultant, South Asian Ministries,
Atlantic District- Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, NY, USA
Published in Global Missiology,
Review & Preview, October 2004, www.globalmissiology.net
Madasamy Thirumalai, a former professor of
Linguistics in several universities in India, widely published author, is presently a professor of world religions and
linguistics and the academic dean at
Bethany College of Missions in Minneapolis, MN. In the introduction to this book, he has briefly shared
about his own transformation from being a Hindu to knowing the Truth and
the free gift of Salvation in Jesus Christ.
As
a Lutheran myself, I am personally very taken by his view on true conversion
which is also the same confessional
position of the Lutherans. Thus he writes, “True conversion is accomplished
by the ministry of the Holy Spirit and not by any human being or human books,
including this one. Firmly believing in the work of the spirit, we will benefit
by a non-technical presentation of the concepts of the Christian faith”.
The first four chapters are addressing very key
issues of knowing who are the Hindus and varieties of Hinduism, Hinduism
its growth around the world etc. The luxury of this book is not only the information about various Hinduism
and its practices, it also challenges the
reader in every chapter by explaining its limitations for a person being saved
from his/her sinful nature and the
need of knowing the truth that Jesus is the way, truth and the light.
In
chapter five, the author urges every reader and encouraging us for a mandatory
duty to share
our Basic Christian Faith with as many Hindu neighbors as possible.
In
chapters six to fourteen he has unearthed or documented the black art practices
of Hindu mythological and traditional
concepts on material objects with divine power, astrology, sacrifice,
spirit possession, spiritism, magic, ancestral worships, traditions, superstition, idol worships, god and goddesses. He
explains each of these practices at length and helps us to understand by
referring and applying various Biblical passages which contradicts those
practices that we may better understand and be aware of.