My contribution focuses how Catholic Jesuits and the Hindu Ramakrishna Mission interacted during the 19th and 20th century India and how this affected their ethical views. First, the different ways in which they interacted with each other, quite often on a subconscious level, is examined. Second, the ethical implications and changes on both sides are examined. It is argued that this interaction resulted in changed ethical options concerning societal problems and religious interaction. Adopting certain characteristics of the other religion and order was certainly part of competing each other. However, it also resulted in mutual recognition, dialogue, rediscovering ethical paradigms in their own monastic and religious traditions which had been lost, and new views on how society and the economy should work. The case-studies of the Hindu Ramakrishna mission and the Catholic Jesuits in an Indian context support this view. Inspired by European Enlightenment and Catholic concern for the poor a Hindu monk, called Swami Vivekananda started preaching a new form of Vedantism in and outside India. His Vedantism did no longer escape the material world and supported socio-economic action in order to develop India. Meanwhile Belgian Jesuits had contradicting and ambiguous attitudes towards the success of Swami Vivekananda and other Indian spiritual and artistic leaders like Rabindranath Tagore, Nobel Prize winner for Literature. Many Belgian Jesuits praised Tagore’s poetry and Vivekananda’s social actions but reacted strongly against “worshipping” Tagore or Vivekananda. They could not agree with Tagore’s claim that beside Christ also Buddha and the Hindu gods were manifestations of the divine; Christ remained the only true revelation. However, the success of Tagore and the Ramakrishna Mission, among others, pushed the Jesuits towards more tolerance, dialogue, and a more internally experienced Christianity. It is also important to note that for many Belgians, the majority of them being Catholic, the only source of cultural and to some extent scientific information about India were Jesuit journals. With them the Belgian public also began changing its attitude and understanding of Indian culture and society.
