The Cross Is Heaven
The Life and Writings of Sadhu Sundar Singh · edited by A. J. Appasamy
About this book
The Cross Is Heaven: The Life and Writings of Sadhu Sundar Singh is a short volume of selections from the writings of the Indian Christian evangelist Sadhu Sundar Singh (1889 – disappeared 1929), gathered and introduced by A. J. Appasamy, a personal friend of Sundar Singh who later became Bishop of Coimbatore in the Church of South India. First published in 1956 in Britain by the United Society for Christian Literature and in 1957 in the United States by Association Press, it appeared as part of the "World Christian Books" series — small, inexpensive paperbacks meant to introduce readers around the world to significant Christian figures and writers.
- 1956 UK · 1957 US edition
- 93 pages
- World Christian Books series
- Mysticism · Christian devotional
- English
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About the editor — A. J. Appasamy
Aiyadurai Jesudasen Appasamy (1891–1975) was an Indian Christian theologian, born in Palayamkottai, Tamil Nadu. He studied philosophy and religion at Harvard University and earned a doctorate at Oxford, and went on to serve as editor for the Christian Literature Society from 1922, as a teacher at Bishop's College, Calcutta, and from 1951 to 1959 as Bishop of Coimbatore in the Church of South India. He is remembered as a pioneer of Indian Christian theology for his work interpreting Christian devotion through the lens of Hindu bhakti (devotional) literature, and as a forerunner of Christian–Hindu interfaith dialogue in India.
Appasamy came to know Sadhu Sundar Singh personally following the Sadhu's visit to Oxford in 1920, and the following year co-authored, with B. H. Streeter, the early study The Sadhu: A Study in Mysticism and Practical Religion (1921). Decades later he returned to Sundar Singh's life and writings in two further books: this volume, The Cross Is Heaven (1956), and the fuller Sundar Singh: A Biography (1958).
About Sadhu Sundar Singh
Sadhu Sundar Singh was born on 3 September 1889 in Rampur, near Doraha in the Ludhiana district of Punjab, into a Sikh family. As a boy he studied the Bhagavad Gita at home while also attending a Christian mission school to learn English. His mother's death when he was fourteen left him in bitter despair; by his own later account he burned a Bible page by page in anger. At sixteen, in the depths of that despair, he resolved to end his life unless the "true God" made himself known to him — and that night experienced a vision of Christ that led to his conversion. He was baptized at a parish church in Simla on his sixteenth birthday, enduring the anger of his family, including reported attempts on his life, in the process.
From October 1906 Sundar Singh adopted the saffron robe and turban of a Hindu sadhu (holy man) — not to blend Hinduism with Christianity, but as a deliberate sign that following Christ did not require an Indian convert to abandon Indian dress and identity for Western ones. As a barefoot, homeless itinerant preacher he travelled widely across Punjab, Kashmir, Afghanistan, Baluchistan and repeatedly into Tibet, and between 1918 and 1922 made extended tours through Britain (including Oxford, where he met Appasamy), the United States, Australia and Europe. He became known for his simple, story-based style of teaching and for a manner that many observers compared to the Gospels' own portrait of Jesus. He set out on what was intended to be a further journey into Tibet in April 1929 and was never seen again; his exact fate remains unknown, and he is presumed to have died on that journey.
1926 · Web Book (public domain) With and Without Christ
1929 · Web Book (public domain)
Sundar Singh wrote eight books of his own between 1922 and 1929 — among them At the Master's Feet (1922), Reality and Religion (1924), The Search After Reality (1925), Meditations on Various Aspects of the Spiritual Life (1926), Visions of the Spiritual World (1926) and With and Without Christ (1929) — with two further collections, The Real Life and The Real Pearl, published posthumously in 1965 and 1966. Later editors compiled further selections of his writing and preaching, including Life in Abundance (1980) and The Christian Witness of Sadhu Sundar Singh (1989); The Cross Is Heaven is one of these compiled and edited collections, distinct from any book Sundar Singh wrote unaided himself.
This summary states widely documented, publicly available facts about Sundar Singh's and Appasamy's lives. UECF.NET has not independently verified every detail and welcomes corrections at info@uecf.net.
Related Christian Books
Publication details
- Title: The Cross Is Heaven: The Life and Writings of Sadhu Sundar Singh
- Writings by: Sadhu Sundar Singh
- Edited by: A. J. Appasamy
- First published: 1956, United Society for Christian Literature (London); 1957, Association Press (New York)
- Series: World Christian Books
- Language: English
- Pages: 93
- Subjects: Mysticism; Christianity
- LCCN: 57006879 · OCLC: 864991
- Source record: Internet Archive — thecrossisheaven0000sing
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- 2026 — Published as a UECF.NET book-information page: verified bibliographic details, editor and author background, and links to legitimate reading options. No copyrighted text is reproduced on this page.
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