There are two principal Christian Churches in the West: the Roman Catholic and the Protestant, besides the Greek Church and the Old Christian Church which are little known in most of the civilized parts of the Western world. However, as a Church there seems to be only one, which is the Roman Catholic Church. If some reminiscences of the religious form of the old, of the moral of the ancient, of the manner of the Christians, of the ancient philosophical outlook on life, of the old mystical conception can be found anywhere, it is in this Church. In organization there is no Church in the whole world which could be better founded. Its influence, although gradually being diminished, still is greater than that of any other Church. The Church of Rome is the only one that can be called a Church.
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The adherents of this faith have the greatest discipline, although many belong to this Church only outwardly; inwardly they are indifferent or even opposed to it. Not only among the followers, but even among priests, one finds some opponents of this Church. Politics in the Western world have continually taken a place of greater importance until they have uprooted religion from the surface of the Western world. One thing, the riches of the Roman Church and the other thing, its influence on world politics, have made the opponents inclined to slander the lives of the priests. Celibacy being taught in Christian religion and practiced by the Catholic priests has made the idea of celibacy a virtue in the mind of the people in the West. Even though it is not practiced by the generality still it remains, so to speak, in the subconsciousness of the Western mind as an ideal and it has caused a great confusion in the social morals of the West. Many in the West attack the priesthood and the working of the Roman Church. All the countries in the West which are known as Catholic countries are not necessarily devout Catholics though some among them, backward in civilization, still maintain their faith devoutly.
I once met a Catholic priest who is a well known man in Paris: l’abbe Clain. He asked me if I would tell him some ideas of the Eastern thinkers which they get in their meditation He listened to what I said attentively. Every word I said seemed not foreign to him, not against his ideas. He was so pleased with all he heard and with all we spoke together and with that which we could not speak in words, but can only be exchanged in silence, and in the end he only said: “What you say is not different from what we believe, except for the difference in terminology.”
Protestantism is a substitute for a faith rather than a religion; it is a protest against the original Christian Church instead of a prophetic Message. One sees that spirit of protest still alive in some countries. Protestantism is the shadow of the outer form of Islam, not necessarily the reflection of its spirit. The Muslim invasion in 1435, which caused a Reformation in the West, is the evidence of this truth. The Western mind which was to some extent revolting against the Roman Church owing to many reasons, chiefly owing to its political influence, was looking for a change and the impression that the invaders from the East left behind in the West, materialized as an outer Islam, not in name, but in sense, and it was still called a Christian Church, but Protestant. What a follower of Islam lacks in the outward show of religion he makes up for it by his faith in God, belief in Quran, and devotion to his Prophet.
Protestantism is a religion which is void both of spirit and form, a flower without color or fragrance. It is a rattle given into the hand of a child to keep him quiet, when he was crying for candy. Their belief is not very different from that of the new sect called among Muslims Ahl-i-Hadith, who stick to the letter exclusive of the spiritual personalities; to them the book is more important than a kindled heart.
