Moral Order and the Missing Person: Christianity and Hinduism Compared

If Christianity cannot survive without Christ, Hinduism, paradoxically, can flourish without invoking God. The historic event centered on Christ is the foundation of the Christian faith. Yet the modern West has managed to construct a “Christendom without Christ”—extracting what it calls “Christian values” to shape a moral worldview disconnected from its spiritual source. Thus, a Western “Christian civilization” continues to thrive culturally and ethically, though emptied of the Person at its core. This paradox troubles many, including Philip Yancey, who portrays it poignantly through the life of Václav Havel—the Czech playwright turned president.

Havel admitted that he had not yet worked out his religious faith, confessing, “All of this—life and the universe—is not just in and of itself. I believe that nothing disappears forever, and less so our deeds. … I try to live in the spirit of Christian morality, but that doesn’t mean that I’m a genuinely believing Christian.”¹ Yancey comments insightfully that Havel “was better at diagnosis than at cure.” His writings laid bare the spiritual sickness of modern civilization—the “poverty of life without transcendence, the chaos of morality without a moral authority.” Havel lamented that “we are going through a great departure from God which has no parallel in history.”²

Yet, although Havel could not accept Christ as the Son of God, he yearned for transcendence, describing it as “a great mystery above me which is the focus of all meaning and the highest moral authority.”³ This spiritual awareness echoes throughout his speeches and letters, where he emphasized the essential human responsibility and that “the salvation of this human world lies nowhere else than in the human heart.”⁴ Yancey, while evangelical, gives credit to Havel’s piercing diagnosis of Western spiritual malaise but sees his lack of personal faith in Christ as a failing to find the ultimate cure.⁵ As the Bible states, “Apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5), highlighting, in biblical theology, the indispensable role of Christ.

Havel’s longing resonates with Hindu thought, where Brahman can be both personal (Saguna) and impersonal (Nirguna), thus accommodating the seeker’s stage and perception. In Hindu philosophy, even one who does not affirm a personal deity may still live by dharma—the moral and cosmic order reflecting that deeper transcendence. The Mīmāṃsā school in particular argues that dharma exists autonomously, independent of any divine legislator.

Reading Yancey’s account of Havel, I was reminded of what Chaturvedi Badrinath calls the Dharmic Civilization—Indian culture fundamentally shaped by dharma, working in harmony with ṛta, the cosmic order. Ṛta governs the macrocosm, while dharma directs human life at the microcosmic level. Although the Dharmasāstras trace dharma to various authorities—from the Vedas to the Smritis and Purāṇas—they do not explicitly identify God as its ultimate source.⁶ Yet divine incarnations such as Rama and Krishna embody and restore dharma whenever it declines. The Ramayana proclaims its mission as dushta-nigrahaṃ, śiṣṭa-paripālanam (the destruction of the wicked and the protection of the virtuous), and the Mahabharata affirms Dharmo rakṣati rakṣitaḥ—“Dharma protects those who protect it.”⁷

When we compare these views, the contrast becomes striking. Christianity cannot sustain itself without a Personal God, while Hindu civilization can continue as a moral and cultural system without requiring one. Yet, as Havel’s life demonstrates, even moral order eventually hungers for a transcendent center. Civilization may diagnose its own sickness, but without communion with the Divine Person, it cannot find the cure.

0However great or noble a concept may be, unless someone embodies and guides it, it will not work automatically—just as the laws of nature require conscious recognition to be applied. Throughout history, every moral or social transformation has been initiated or realized by a person who gave form to the ideal. To understand dharma, people look to Rama, who walked that path. Buddhism, though denying a personal God, finds its center in the person of the Buddha. Likewise, though the freedom movement began before Mahatma Gandhi’s return from South Africa, it was under his leadership that it gained true direction and force.

Even in the animal world, communities instinctively follow a leader. So it is with human civilization. As we see in Havel’s life, his longing for freedom and moral order found fulfillment only when he was chosen once again to lead his nation. In the same way, in a Personal God we find both the one who diagnoses our condition and the one who heals it by guiding humanity.

Ashram, October 23, 2025

Footnotes

¹ Václav Havel quoted in Philip Yancey, The Unlikely Prophet of Prague, p. 141 — Havel’s confession of living by Christian morality without personal belief.
² Philip Yancey, The Unlikely Prophet of Prague, pp. 140–141 — Yancey’s observation of Havel diagnosing “the great departure from God.”
³ Ibid., p. 141 — Havel describing transcendence as “a great mystery above me … the highest moral authority.”
⁴ Václav Havel, Letters to Olga; also cited in various speeches emphasizing human responsibility and transcendence.
⁵ Philip Yancey, The Unlikely Prophet of Prague, Introduction — Yancey’s analysis that Havel is a gifted diagnostician but lacking the ultimate cure through Christ.
⁶ Chaturvedi Badrinath, Dharma, India and the World Order, Saint Andrew Press, 1993, pp. 3–5.
⁷ P.V. Kane, History of Dharmasastra, Bhandarkar Oriental Series, Vol. I, Part II, p. 601; including references to the Ramayana and Mahabharata texts on dharma.

Bibliography for Further Research

• Yancey, Philip. The Unlikely Prophet of Prague: Václav Havel’s Spiritual Legacy. Authentic Books, Hyderabad, 1999.
• Badrinath, Chaturvedi. Dharma, India and the World Order. Saint Andrew Press, 1993.
• Kane, P.V. History of Dharmasastra, Bhandarkar Oriental Series. Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Institute.
• Thomas, M.M. The Acknowledged Christ of the Indian Renaissance. Christian Literature Society, Madras, 1970.
• Havel, Václav. Letters to Olga. Various editions throughout the 20th century.