SOURCE: "The Message and Influence of Vivekananda," in The Open Court, Vol. XXXIX, No. 12, December, 1925, pp. 740-54.

In the following essay, Nash discusses the means by which Vivekananda first came to visit the United States, his interaction with religious figures, and the impact of his visit.

Perhaps the most significant and fruitful element in the liberalizing of religious thought among Western peoples during recent years has been the awakening of interest in the sacred literature of the East, and a growing appreciation of the spiritual values which are to be found outside of Christianity.

For centuries, Christian speakers and writers had been content to lump all non-Christians together as "heathen," a word about which clustered the most odious and disparaging connotations. For generations, too, the Christian churches at great expense sent out their missionaries, not only to uncivilized lands such as Africa and the South Sea Islands, but...