The Christian missionaries who came to India believed they were proclaiming something unheard of to the inhabitants when they taught that the God of the Christians had become man. The latter were not astonished by this; they by no means denied the incarnation of God in Christ, and only found it strange that among the Christians it had happened just once, whereas with them it occurred often and in constant repetition. One cannot deny that they had more understanding of their religion than the Christian missionaries had of theirs.

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Die christlichen Missionarien, die nach Indien kamen, glaubten den Bewohnern etwas Unerhörtes zu verkündigen, wenn sie lehrten, daß der Gott der Christen Mensch geworden sei. Jene waren darüber nicht verwundert, sie bestritten die Fleischwerdung Gottes in Christo keineswegs, und fanden bloß seltsam, daß bei den Christen nur einmal geschehen sei, was sich bei ihnen oftmals und in steter Wiederholung zutrage. Man kann nicht leugnen, daß sie von ihrer Religion mehr Verstand gehabt haben, wie die christlichen Missionarien von der ihrigen.

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Über das Studium der Theologie". Cf. Schellings Sämtliche Werke, Vol. V. Stuttgart 18S9, pp. 296 et seq.

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Friedrich Schelling (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.