My friend, a friendly Chaplain Joe Zaccaria presented a book to me. He told me that looking at my history of international exposure and analytical bent of mind, I might enjoy reading that book. Surely enough, I felt excited because the book on Jesus was written by an India born Ravi Zacharias. India-born individuals are famed for their rationale and critiquing ability. A large number of critiquing books on Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism are written by them over centuries. They are not afraid of contra-opinions or going against main-stream. Hinduism is unique in the sense that it does not have the concept of Blasphemy and no one is ever persecuted for speaking against Hinduism or its gods. Famously, Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen called Indians as “Argumentative Indians''.
Thus excited, I began reading, almost like a school student with pencil and notebook, making notes. Alas, it turned out to be disappointing as I turned pages after pages. But having started in earnest, I did not give up until finishing reading the entire book.
Ravi Zacharias has gone overboard in exhibiting his love, even ‘intellectual’ love for Jesus and the Bible as narrated by those who wrote its various books. It reminded me of “Tehzeebi Nargisiyat” (Translated it means, “Religious Narcissism”), written by Mubarak Haider*. It appeared as if Ravi was suffering from the pressing need to prove Jesus and the Bible to be true. In the process, he has tried to justify a few things, such as the silence of Jesus, a scattered few utterances, his actions, his kingdom, etc, on the strength of what latter day mortals, street bystanders, ordinary people, their writings, cinema scripts, songs and fictional, made-up stories are therein. While on one hand there are too many unidentified “he said, she said”, “places”, etc that arise suspicion on the veracity of accounts and on the other hand there is a total negation or ridicule of those solid references of the works of Bertrand Russel, Thomas Paine, David Hume, Mathew Parris, Mahatma Gandhi, Nietzsche, Gautam Buddha, Ramakrishna Paramhans, Shankaracharya, etc who are well established rational thought-leaders.
Perhaps, so much going overboard, rambling on and on, on some points, may have done injustice to Jesus.
Ravi Zacharias must be a well read man, he has used many quotations from what all passed under his eyes. This gives a sense to readers that Ravi is an intellectual. Perhaps to grind his intellectualism on the minds of readers, he has done an intellectual blunder when he compares the volume of 6x10²³ molecules to a stack of paper of the same number. It is simply an inappropriate comparison. Ravi has inadvertently downgraded God by comparing His ability of converting two swallows of water into wine to the inability of humans to stack 6x10²³ papers.
Ravi binds himself in knots over the issue of “Evil” and “source of Suffering” just like any other typical Christian apologist.
His quest for purpose in his initial days (Jesus and Christianity), looks to be an afterthought from what he has narrated while talking about how his father had treated him on discovery that Ravi has been bunking from college and his playing Cricket.
When he compares Jesus with other gods, he should have defined what the entity, ‘god’ he is talking about. Because, the tea and coffee look alike, they are not the same and so is a Christian ‘God’ and for example a Hindu ‘God’. Knowing a little bit of Hinduism, I can say with certainty that Ravi’s understanding of Hinduism and Hindu ‘Gods’ is flawed, his idea of Pantheistic Hinduism is erroneous. He has not intellectually applied himself on Hinduism, that is for sure.
Putting all together, Ravi’s writing appeared a facade of intellectualism.
One of my grandchildren, Kurush, is overly obsessed with Lego toys. His Parents have given him Lego sets for years, on his almost every birthday, on Christmas and even without any occasion. He also loves to watch Lego films, made very creatively by Warner Bros. This 10 year old kid has a fertile imagination and is gifted with a huge vocabulary. When he works on his Lego toys, he is lost there, he creates his own stories of that world and if I am around, would tell me some of it. Religious narcissism and obsession reflected in the writing of Ravi Zacharias inadvertently reminded me of Kurush. Lego is a real world for him but ultimately he knows it is unreal.
Ravi Zacharias gets full marks for his conviction and obsession with Jesus and the Bible. Perhaps, only with this conviction can you write what is written in his book. However, it is more a book for Christians than would-be Christians. In his narrations, the truth-claim is mixed up with truth. He has taken for granted a lot of unsubstantiated stories as ‘history’. I fully agree with Ravi that “All religions, plainly and simply, cannot be true”. If you are looking for answers as to why non-christians will go to hell for eternity or why nothing but only through Jesus can you be saved, how is it possible that Jesus has paid for our sins by crucifixion, this is not that book.
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*Mubarak Haider is an author of a best seller “Tehzeebi Nargisiyat”. It must be a unique work of its kind. Translated, the title means “Religious Narcissism” According to him, Islam and Muslims of the world are so affected that everything Islamic, their book, custom, food, manner, history, dress, is the best, their ways of confronting others, kafirs, is the best, their sultans, khalifs, Maulvis and Mullas are best, Everything you need is in Islam and its holy book and there is nothng useful anywhere else, their culture is best and every earlier culture was primitive and barbaric, if someone says that some ancient cultures were advanced, they are all made-up stories spun by enemies of Islam.
