● Eschatology​[​edit​]

● Besides ​Iain Murray​'s study, ​The Puritan Hope​,[32]​

​ less attention has been paid in
Carey's numerous biographies to his ​postmillennial​ ​eschatology​ as expressed in his
major missionary manifesto, notably not even in ​Bruce J. Nichols​' article "The Theology
[33]​ [34]​
of William Carey."​ Carey was a ​Calvinist​.”​ and a ​postmillennialist​. Even the two

dissertations which discuss his achievements (by Oussoren​[35]​ and Potts​[36]​) ignore large
areas of his theology. Neither mention his eschatological views, which played a major
[37]​
role in his missionary zeal.​ One exception, found in James Beck's biography of his first
[29]​
wife,​ mentions his personal optimism in the chapter on "Attitudes Towards the Future,"
but not his optimistic perspective on world missions, which he derived from postmillennial
theology.​[38]

● Translation, education and schools​[​edit​]

● Carey's desk at the Serampore College

● Carey devoted great efforts and time to the study not only of the common language of
Bengali, but to many other Indian vernaculars including the ancient root language of
Sanskrit​. In collaboration with the ​College of Fort William​, Carey undertook the translation
of the Hindu classics into English, beginning with the three-volume epic poem the
Ramayana​. He then translated the ​Bible​ into ​Bengali​, Oriya, Marathi, Hindi, Assamese,
Sanskrit and parts of it into other dialects and languages.​[39]​ For 30 years Carey served

in the college as the professor of Bengali, Sanskrit and Marathi,​[39]​[40]​ publishing, in

1805, the first book on ​Marathi grammar​.[41]​

​ [42]

● The ​Serampore Mission Press​ that Carey founded is credited as the only press which
“consistently thought it important enough that costly fonts of type be cast for the irregular
and neglected languages of the Indian people."​[43]​ Carey and his team produced
textbooks, dictionaries, classical literature and other publications which served primary
 school children, college-level students and the general public, including the first
systematic Sanskrit grammar which served a model for later publications.​[44]

● In the latter 1700s and early 1800s in India, only children of certain social strata received
education, and even that was limited to basic accounting and Hindu religion. Only the
Brahmins and writer castes could read, and then only men, women being completely
unschooled. Carey started ​Sunday Schools​ in which children learned to read using the
Bible as their textbook.​[45]​ In 1794 Carey opened, at his own cost, what is considered the
[46]​
first primary school in all of India.​ The public school system that Carey initiated
expanded to include girls in an era when the education of the female was considered
unthinkable. Carey's work is considered to have provided the starting point of what
blossomed into the Christian Vernacular Education Society providing English medium
[47]
education across India.​