The World Parliament of Religions, the Swami, and the Evangelist: Contextualizing Late 19th-Century American Responses to Hinduism

Authors

Anne Richards, Kennesaw State UniversityFollow

Publication Date

12-1-2018

Abstract

This article explores how Hinduism and other religions and philosophies outside the Christian traditions were received by Americans influenced by secularism, science, globalization, and expanding U.S. imperialism in the late 19th century. The article also explores the role of two missionaries, John Henry Barrows and Swami Vivekananda, arguably the most influential participants in the World Parliament of Religions of 1893.

Get Karma, good—well rubbed into you—absorb it, wallow in it, and then you will batter down all the obstacles of life.
—New York Times book review, 1896

Author Bio(s)

Anne R. Richards is Professor of English and Interdisciplinary Studies at Kennesaw State University, where she directs the Peace Studies program and is an affiliated faculty with the School of Conflict Management, Peacebuilding, and Development. She served as a Fulbright Teaching Fellow in SFax, Tunisia in 2006-2007 and as a Fulbright Specialist in Davao City, Philippines in 2014. Anne's recent publications include Muslims in American Popular Culture (co-edited with Iraj Omidvar; Praeger, 2014) and Historic Engagements with Occidental Cultures, Religions, Powers (also edited with Omidvar, Palgrave, 2014). She is currently editing a colloquy on the topic of conflict and communication.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

DOI

10.32727/11.2018.236