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Recent Articles Of 2014

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

A list of recently published articles of interest to society members.

Book Review: The Wiley-Blackwell Companion To Inter-Religious Dialogue., Brandon Gallaher

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Book review of, The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Inter-Religious Dialogue. edited by Catherine Cornille.

Book Review: Religious Understandings Of A Good Death In Hospice And Palliative Care., Michelle V. Roberts

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Book review of, Religious Understandings of a Good Death in Hospice and Palliative Care. by Harold Coward and Kelli I. Stajduhar, eds.

Book Review: Gods In America: Religious Pluralism In The United States., Chad M. Bauman

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Book review of, Gods in America: Religious Pluralism in the United States. by Charles L. Cohen and Ronald L. Numbers, eds.

Book Review: Anthony Demello: The Happy Wanderer., Roselle M. Gonsalves

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Book review of, Anthony deMello: The Happy Wanderer. by Bill deMello.

Book Review: Hindu Theology And Biology. The Bhāgavata Purāṇa And Contemporary Theory., Ana Laura Funes Maderey

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Book review of, Hindu Theology and Biology. The Bhāgavata Purāṇa and Contemporary Theory by Jonathan B. Edelmann.

Book Review: The Divine Body In History: A Comparative Study Of The Symbolism Of Time And Embodiment In St. Augustine And Rāmānuja., Jon P. Sydnor

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Book review of, The Divine Body in History: A Comparative Study of the Symbolism of Time and Embodiment in St. Augustine and Rāmānuja. by Ankur Barua.

Book Review: His Hiding Place Is Darkness: A Hindu-Catholic Theopoetics Of Divine Absence., Rico G. Monge

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Book review of, His Hiding Place is Darkness: A Hindu-Catholic Theopoetics of Divine Absence. by Francis X. Clooney.

Book Review: The Ethics Of Śaṅkara And Śāntideva: A Selfless Response To An Illusory World., Reid B. Locklin

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Book review of, The Ethics of Śaṅkara and Śāntideva: A Selfless Response to an Illusory World. by Warren Lee Todd.

Book Review: Hindu-Christian Epistolary Self-Disclosures: ‘Malabarian Correspondence’ Between German Pietist Missionaries And South Indian Hindus (1712-1714)., James Ponniah

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Book review of, Hindu-Christian Epistolary Self-Disclosures: ‘Malabarian Correspondence’ between German Pietist Missionaries and South Indian Hindus (1712-1714). by Daniel Jeyaraj and Richard Fox Young.

Book Review: Hindu-Catholic Encounters In Goa: Religion, Colonialism, And Modernity, P. J. Johnston

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

A book review of Hindu-Catholic Encounters in Goa: Religion, Colonialism, and Modernity, by Alexander Henn.

Reports And News

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Reports and news for the Society for Hindu-Christian Studies 2014 Annual General Meeting.

Viewpoint: Convenience, Consumption And Creatureliness: Thoughts On Sacred Groves, Hindu And Christian, Eliza F. Kent

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

WHEN I was doing field research in India regularly from 2001-2007, I kept hearing an expression for “rich person” I’d never heard before - “vasati-karar,” where “vasati” can be loosely rendered as “convenience.” As the liberalization of India’s economy gained traction in the 2000s, lots of people were acquiring vasatis. Increasingly affordable and accessible consumer items like electric fans and mixie-grinders, cars and laptop computers were making life easier and more comfortable for people across the social spectrum. Temples and churches did not miss out on the boom. Ceiling fans and electric light eased the strain of sitting through long …

Angels And Gods: A (Radically) Orthodox Experiment, Daniel P. Sheridan

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

This is the third in a series of orthodox Catholic theological experiments that I am conducting within the theology of relationship of Catholic faith to other religions. Each experiment attempts to ask a positive, existential question of one of the world religions about the reality of one of their reality assertions. Catholic orthodox theologies have almost always answered these questions in the negative, but in my tentative and provisional judgment the negative answers may be unnecessary. To re-ask the questions using the “eyes of faith,”1 the full weight and depth of orthodoxy must be brought to bear, not as a …

Hindu Responses To Religious Diversity And The Nature Of Post-Mortem Progress, Ankur Barua

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

THE last two hundred years of Hindu–Christian encounters have produced distinctive forms of Hindu thought which, while often rooted in the broad philosophical-cultural continuities of Vedic outlooks, grappled with, on the one hand, the colonial pressures of European modernity, and, on the other hand, the numerous critiques by Christian theologians and missionaries on the Hindu life-worlds. Thus, the spectrum of Hindu responses from Raja Rammohun Roy through Swami Vivekananda to S. Radhakrishnan demonstrates attempts to creatively engage with Christian representations of Hindu belief and practice, by accepting their prima facie validity at one level while negating their adequacy at another.

Violence Against Christians In India: A Critical Discourse Analysis Of Two Indian English Newspapers, Clemens Cavallin, Julia Kuhlin

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

During recent decades violence against Christians in India has increased significantly. In spite of this development the issue has received relatively little scholarly attention. Likewise, despite the massive transformation of the newspaper business, which has made contemporary India one of the largest newspaper markets in the world, only few studies have been done on the news coverage of religious minorities in India. In this article, we aim to contribute to both these areas of research. Using a critical discourse analysis, we examine the everyday representation of violence and harassment against Christians in the two largest English daily newspapers in India, …

Thou, That, And An/Other: Hearing Śaṅkara’S Indexicals And Finding Cusa’S Seeking God, Brad Bannon

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

FINGER-pointing is a gesture generally discouraged in polite society. Having someone point a finger at you can be jarring or unsettling. However, if the finger belongs to one’s parent or to a dear and respected teacher, accompanied by an attentive gaze and direct vocative address, the experience can be powerfully awakening. According to the Chāndogya Upaniṣad, such was the experience of a young man whose father-turned-guru spoke to him directly and particularly with the words tattvamasi, Śvetaketo, “Thou art that, O Śvetaketu.”2

The intimacy of this encounter between father and son is easily overlooked, despite its familiarity to those who …

Between And Beyond Canons: Mirabai And Hadewijch In Relation To Scripture And The Self, Holly Hillgardner

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Mirabai, a sixteenth century bhakta, wrote passionate songs of her desire for God. Burning for him, she employed the genre of viraha-bhakti, a mystical eroticism of longing from the Vaiṣṇava tradition, as she begged for him to “[c]ome and extinguish the fire of separation.” Hadewijch, a thirteenth-century Beguine from low-country Europe, wrote poems, letters, and prose that tell of her longing to become Love itself—to be “God with God.” Despite their myriad differences across traditions, miles, and years, Hadewijch and Mirabai can each be said to practice love-longing as her primary contemplative mode.

Interiority And Connectivity: A Brief Comparative Study On The Relation Of Scripture And Contemplation In Bridal Mysticism And Krishna Bhakti, Graham M. Schweig

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

In this study I bring two disparate traditions together which have painted portraits of divinity as a divine lover and supreme beloved. One tradition is from sixteenth century Europe and the other from sixteenth century India. My focus here is on the function of contemplative experience and vision in relation to the scriptural depictions and descriptions of divine love within both Carmelite Catholicism and Caitanya Vaishnavism through the developed visions in the sixteenth century works of Saint John of the Cross and Krishnadāsa Kaviraja Goswami, respectively.

On The Scholar’S Contribution To The Contemplative Work Of Hindu-Christian Studies, Francis X. Clooney

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

The following contribution to the Journal is admittedly out of the ordinary. While inscribing my actual contribution to the panel, “Canons and Contemplations: The Intersections of Scripture, Contemplation, and Community,” within this slightly larger document, it also reports on my contribution to email conversations among the panelists beforehand, and reproduces extracts from the prologue and epilogue of my new book. It is a multilevel document, aiming at a multilevel reflection on how we write from either side and across the Hindu-Christian religious and scholarly borders. There are two introductions: “the preliminary comment” written for the readers of the Journal, and …

Editor’S Introduction, Bradley Malkovsky

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

The main theme of this year’s issue, “Canons and Contemplations,” examines the ways in which contemporary comparativists, writing on spiritual texts, can contribute to a contemplative re-reading of ancient Hindu and Christian literary traditions. Today’s scholar might opt not only to report about the spiritual writings of the past in a purely academic fashion, but may also choose – through an engaged reading of the texts – to make her own contribution to these ongoing traditions of contemplation and wisdom. Academic writing can itself become contemplative practice.

Table Of Contents

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

A list of the article contents in this issue.

Professor Mcgrath Offers A Scholarly Take On Religion And Doctor Who, Marc Allen, James F. Mcgrath

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Take TV viewers on trips through time and space for 50 years and you’re going to pick up some admirers—including some scholarly ones. That’s what’s happened with Doctor Who, the British series that is celebrating 50 years this month.Two of the show’s fans—Butler University Professor of Religion James McGrath and Andrew Crome, a lecturer in the history of modern Christianity at the University of Manchester (England)—have compiled a new book, Time and Relative Dimensions in Faith: Religion and Doctor Who, in which 19 scholars who also are Doctor Who fans weigh in on how the longest-running science fiction …

“Did Jesus Die In Outer Space? Evaluating A Key Claim In Richard Carrier’S On The Historicity Of Jesus, James F. Mcgrath

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

The attempt to use later sources, interpreted in ways that are at best open to dispute, in an attempt to argue against what generations of skeptical scholars have concluded to be likely with respect to the early Christian sources, is never going to make mythicism seem more probable than the hard-earned and intensely-researched consensus of historians and scholars, namely that there was a historical Jesus of Nazareth.

Liberation Theology: Why Should The Nations Be Glad?, Marianne Burris Richardson

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

The role a just God ought to have in the struggle for sociopolitical liberation has frustrated theologians for centuries; in the twentieth century, Latin American theologians proposed that while God loves all people, God unequivocally sides with the poor in the fight for social justice, and so should the church. The relative success of this teaching in Latin American churches led to increased participation of the laity in the fight for democracy. This project will analyze liberation theology's efficacy as the motivation for social justice in Latin America, focusing on the writing of Leonardo Boff (a Brazilian theologian) and the …

Window On Eternity: A Study In The Characteristics Of Orthodox Christian Iconography, Moira Allison Leroy Frazier

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Different works of art are used for a variety of purposes, with a multitude of intentions behind them. One of the most important distinctions in the world of art is secular art versus sacred art. Secular art can express the opinions of many different types of people, and it can be used for several things. Secular art "reflects the personality of the artist. It is something like the materialization of his thought and his vision of the world" (Quenot 71). Sacred art, on the other hand, has a more focused intention and use. Sacred art serves a different purpose, one …

Contesting Faith, Truth, And Religious Language At The Creation Museum: A Historical-Theological Reflection, Brent A. R. Hege

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

The Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky, attempts to demonstrate the flaws in contemporary science and to offer an alternative explanation of human origins and biological complexity rooted in a specific reading of the biblical narrative. This effort, however, is paradoxically rooted in the worldview of modern science and the Enlightenment. This article will examine the Creation Museum’s definitions of faith, truth, and religious language and will compare these definitions to those of mainline Protestant Christianity to uncover the historical and theological presuppositions of Creationist and mainline Protestant engagements with contemporary science.

Woman At The Well, James F. Mcgrath

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Dr. James McGrath's contribution to Bible Odyssey, a Society of Biblical Literature initiative.

Monotheism, James F. Mcgrath

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

James McGrath's contribution to: The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Ethics. , 2015. Print.

The Inter-Religious Riot As A Cultural System: Globalization, Geertz, And Hindu-Christian Conflict, Chad Bauman

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

An analysis of Hindu-Christian violence, through the lens of Clifford Geertz's "Religion as a Cultural System."