Comparative Methodologies and Theories Commons^™

“Reciprocal Illumination” Of Hinduism, Human Rights, And The Comparative Study Of Religion: Arvind Sharma’S Contributions, Nancy M. Martin

Religious Studies Faculty Articles and Research

Arvind Sharma has made immensely significant contributions in the fields of both comparative religion and the study of Hinduism through his methodology of “reciprocal illumination” and his prominent role in international conversations on women and religion, religion and human rights, freedom of religion, and religious tolerance and conflict. Aware of the power of religion and its negative valuation, especially post-September 11, he displays a deep commitment to fostering interreligious understanding, arguing for religion as an essential and positive partner in envisioning and actualizing human flourishing, upholding human dignity, and engaging in global ethical cooperation, and equally he demonstrates Hinduism’s potential …

Theological Implications Of The Symbols And Signs In The Sacrament Of Matrimony Of The Syro-Malabar Church, Nelson Mathew O. Carm.

Journal of Global Catholicism

This article discusses the significance of the signs and symbols used in the sacrament of the marriage of the Syro-Malabar Church and the adaptations from different cultures, particularly the Hindu culture of India. It concentrates on the specific elements found in the marriage celebration of the St. Thomas Christians. The rituals that are unique to the Sacrament of Matrimony of the Syro-Malabar Church, mainly expressed through symbols and signs, remain a significant contribution to the liturgy, spirituality, and theology of the Sacrament of Matrimony, and to the theology of inculturation. In the Syro-Malabar liturgy, marriage rituals, and signs and symbols …

Kirtan In The Americas: Music And Spirituality In A Transcultural Whirlpool, Gustavo Moura

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Kirtan (Sanskrit: कीर्तन; IAST: Kīrtana) is a broad term referring to various forms of devotional singing commonly done in South Asian traditions. It is a core practice in the Hindu and Sikh faiths that is becoming increasingly popular around the world among people of all ethnicities. Beyond its expected propagation within Hindu and Sikh diasporas, kirtan is also spreading among members of new religious movements such as ISKCON and the 3HO/Sikh Dharma, who may engage in this practice as part of their daily cultivation. Even more broadly, a form of what has been called “neokirtan” has been gaining popularity in …

Circling The Elephant: A Comparative Theology Of Religious Diversity [Table Of Contents], John J. Thatamanil

Religion

Christian theologians have for some decades affirmed that they have no monopoly on encounter with God or ultimate reality; other religions also have access to religious truth and transformation. If so, the time has come for Christians not just to learn about but also from their religious neighbors. Circling the Elephant affirms that the best way to move toward the mystery of divinity is to move toward the mystery of the neighbor.

In this book, Thatamanil employs the ancient Indian allegory of the elephant and blindfolded men to argue for the integration of three, often-separated theological projects: comparative theology, constructive …

Mediating Suffering: Buddhist Detachment And Tantric Responsibility In Michael Ondaatje’S Anil’S Ghost, Justin M. Hewitson

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In “Mediating Suffering: Buddhist Detachment and Tantric Responsibility in Michael Ondaatje’s Anil’s Ghost,” Justin Hewitson argues that the global mediation of suffering following human rights abuses creates the offender-victim binary. The way in which moral judgments drive urgent peacemaking is seldom connected to long-term victimhood narratives. This psychology can exacerbate cyclical patterns of anger, exploitation, and violence by deferring responsibility. Ondaatje’s controversial novel, Anil’s Ghost, which reflects these charged accusations, refuses to settle blame on any side of the Sri Lankan conflict; instead, it offers the troubling recognition that offenders, victims, and mediators are all causal agents. Hewitson …

Who Is The Viṣṇu Of The Viṣṇu Purāṇa?, Sucharita Adluri Ms.

Sucharita Adluri

Between the 12th to the 14th centuries, two commentaries on the Viṣṇu Purāṇa were composed by Viṣṇucitta (~12th CE) and Śrīdhara (13th–14th CE). Known as the Viṣṇucittīya and Ātmaprakāśa, they are interpretations from the perspectives of Viśiṣṭādvaita and Advaita Vedānta respectively. While the purāṇa weaves together Viṣṇu mythology of a creator god active in the world and worshipped in various forms with the upaniṣadic doctrine of the highest Self, this characterization undergoes various permutations in the hands of the two exegetes. In examining their commentarial strategies, this paper broadens our understanding of the Viṣṇu Purāṇa as not simply a root …

Who Is The Viṣṇu Of The Viṣṇu Purāṇa?, Sucharita Adluri Ms.

Philosophy and Religious Studies Department Faculty Publications

Between the 12th to the 14th centuries, two commentaries on the Viṣṇu Purāṇa were composed by Viṣṇucitta (~12th CE) and Śrīdhara (13th–14th CE). Known as the Viṣṇucittīya and Ātmaprakāśa, they are interpretations from the perspectives of Viśiṣṭādvaita and Advaita Vedānta respectively. While the purāṇa weaves together Viṣṇu mythology of a creator god active in the world and worshipped in various forms with the upaniṣadic doctrine of the highest Self, this characterization undergoes various permutations in the hands of the two exegetes. In examining their commentarial strategies, this paper broadens our understanding of the Viṣṇu Purāṇa as not simply a root …

Review Of Indian Thought And Western Theism: The Vedanta Of Ramanuja, Sucharita Adluri

Sucharita Adluri

No abstract provided.

Contextualization Of An Indian Christian Marriage: A Case Study, Chanchal Gayen

Journal of Adventist Mission Studies

"In this case study the Pheras ceremony was reinterpreted, but many of the cultural elements were retained. Biblical meanings were substituted for the cultural meanings that went against the teachings of Scripture. When doing this type of contextualization it is important to constantly pour Christian meanings into the cultural practice. Good biblical teaching is the antidote to syncretism, a danger that is always present while doing contextualization. The local people appreciated the fact that the wedding ceremony incorporated local cultural elements that were important to them. This approach also communicated the idea that Christianity is not a Western religion, but …

Sikh Self-Sacrifice And Religious Representation During World War I, John Soboslai

Department of Religion Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

This paper analyzes the ways Sikh constructions of sacrifice were created and employed to engender social change in the early twentieth century. Through an examination of letters written by Sikh soldiers serving in the British Indian Army during World War I and contemporary documents from within their global religious, legislative, and economic context, I argue that Sikhs mobilized conceptions of self-sacrifice in two distinct directions, both aiming at procuring greater political recognition and representation. Sikhs living outside the Indian subcontinent encouraged their fellows to rise up and throw off their colonial oppressors by recalling mythic moments of the past and …

Sikh Self-Sacrifice And Religious Representation During World War I, John Soboslai

Department of Religion Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

This paper analyzes the ways Sikh constructions of sacrifice were created and employed to engender social change in the early twentieth century. Through an examination of letters written by Sikh soldiers serving in the British Indian Army during World War I and contemporary documents from within their global religious, legislative, and economic context, I argue that Sikhs mobilized conceptions of self-sacrifice in two distinct directions, both aiming at procuring greater political recognition and representation. Sikhs living outside the Indian subcontinent encouraged their fellows to rise up and throw off their colonial oppressors by recalling mythic moments of the past and …

The Ecclesiology Of Pope Francis And The Future Of The Church In Africa, Bradford E. Hinze

Journal of Global Catholicism

A consideration of the future of African Catholicism in light of the ecclesiology of Pope Francis. The article explores how themes in Francis's ecclesiology work together to challenge centralization, clericalism, and triumphalism in the church by promoting practices of synodality and how these elements support the church’s mission to work against forms of colonialism, neo-colonialism, and the most fundamental matrix of colonial power by advancing radical democracy in society

Religion And Genocide Nexuses: Bosnia As Case Study, Kate E. Temoney

Department of Religion Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Social scientists have been involved in systematic research on genocide for over forty years, yet an under-examined aspect of genocide literature is a sustained focus on the nexuses of religion and genocide, a lacuna that this article seeks to address. Four ways religion and genocide intersect are proposed, of which two will receive specific attention: (1) how religious rhetoric and (2) how religious individuals and institutions foment genocide. These two intersections are further nuanced by combining a Weberian method of typologies, the Durkheimian theory of collective violence, and empirical data in the form of rhetoric espoused by perpetrators and supporters …

Beginner's Mind, Martin L. Benson

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

My art distills my relationship to spirituality, digital culture, and the practices and side-effects therein, into a simplified visual language. The work manifests in the form of paintings, drawings, and light sculptures. Meditation and mindfulness training are a large part of my influence and interests. I often wonder how mindfulness practice can be mirrored in my artwork, not only in my process for creating the work, but also with what the resulting imagery does for the viewer. My intention is to provide an art form that invites one to look and experience one’s own capacity to observe, without the need …

Reaching Transcendental Meditation Followers For Jesus: Christian Meditation And Cultural Contextualization, Ashley Boyles

Masters Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to build on to research pertaining to Christian meditation, the Transcendental Meditation movement, and theological contextualization for possible evangelism strategy to reach adherents of TM. The first chapter begins with the purpose of the thesis as well as its limitations and research methods to be involved, with a layout of the rest of the thesis. In the second chapter, the literature review examines material from several different perspectives: Christianity, TM, the TM turned Christian, and the nonreligious field of science. The third chapter includes historical background on Transcendental Meditation, its interaction with Western culture, …

“I Am The Mahar Of Your Mahars:” Cokhāmelā, The Modern Dalit Movement, And The Dalit Christian Theology, Chris Conway

School of Theology and Seminary Faculty Publications

Over the last century, Cokhāmelā’s place and prominence in the Modern Dalit Movement and Dalit Christian theology have waned significantly. As the liberating potential of his work failed to be actualized, and more recent Dalit figures like Dr. B.R. Ambedkar and movements like Dalit Sahitya began to examine his work and life more critically, Cokhāmelā and his abhangas were found inadequate. Cokhāmelā became identified as one whose conscientisation remained incomplete, primarily because he failed to convert from Hinduism and saw his caste through the lens of karma. This essay re-examines Cokhāmelā’s life, death, and legacy so as to reassess his …

Contributors To Indian Catholicism: Interventions And Imaginings, Mathew Schmalz

Journal of Global Catholicism

Contributors to Indian Catholicism: Interventions and Imaginings, the inaugural issue of the Journal of Global Catholicism.

Authority, Representation, And Offense: Dalit Catholics, Foot Washing, And The Study Of Global Catholicism, Mathew Schmalz

Journal of Global Catholicism

In reflecting on a sharp scholarly exchange at a conference, this article explores issues of authority, representation, and offense in global Catholic and South Asian Studies. Focusing on the act of foot washing by Dalit Catholics, the article examines how scholarly offense is linked to particular claims of representational authority. The article also puts this discussion within the context of contemporary debates about Western portrayals of Indian culture and society.

The Tying Of The Ceremonial Wedding Thread: A Feminist Analysis Of “Ritual” And “Tradition” Among Syro-Malabar Catholics In India, Sonja Thomas

Journal of Global Catholicism

This article presents a feminist analysis of patriarchy persisting in Catholicism of the Syro-Malabar rite in Kerala. The article specifically considers the impact of charismatic Catholicism on women of the Syro-Malabar rite and argues that it is important to interrogate this new face of religiosity in order to fully understand how certain rituals are allowed to change and be fluid, while others, especially concerning female sexuality, are enshrined as “tradition” which often restricts the parameters for women’s empowerment and may reinforce caste and patriarchal hegemonies preventing feminist solidarity across different religious- and caste-based groups.

Dalit Catholic Home Shrines In A North Indian Village, Mathew Schmalz

Journal of Global Catholicism

This article examines three Catholic home shrines in a Dalit community in North Indian and argues that it is misleading to think that home shrines and other collections of material objects are somehow static conveyors of meaning. “Meaning” can mean many things or nothing at all, depending upon the terms we are using and the scholarly methods we deploy. The crucial aspect of Dalit Catholic home shrines is that they are literally open to interpretation and reinterpretation, to touching and being touched. Their significance—their meaning—depends not on decoding their structure or symbolic logic, but interacting with them as part of …

The Grace Of God And The Travails Of Contemporary Indian Catholicism, Kerry P. C. San Chirico

Journal of Global Catholicism

This essay discusses the challenges faced by Indian Catholicism, particularly as it seeks to adapt to and in contemporary, post-colonial India through the process or program of what is called inculturation, a self-conscious program of adaptation to Indian religion and culture. Since Indian Catholicism is constituted by so many irreducible persons-in-relation, the article focuses on the life of the Catholic priest, Swami Ishwar Prasad in whose life we may chart something of the inculturation movement and the Catholic tradition as it is found in North India region, in one rather long and rich lifetime connecting two centuries. The article seeks …

In Continuity With The Past: Indigenous Environmentalism And Indian Christian Visions Of Flora, James Ponniah

Journal of Global Catholicism

This article considers whether Indian Christianity can be said to have a distinctive ecological vision. The first two parts of the article examine Christian environmentalism in two native forms of Indian Christianity: Tamil Christianity and Tribal Christianity. Continuing with the theme of conformity to the local culture—though of the elite—the third part of the article investigates how Christian Ashrams function as dynamic centers for ecological praxis. The last part of the article considers how contemporary Indian Christian communities can respond to the ecological challenges confronting them.

Antoniyar Kōvil: Hindu-Catholic Identity At The St. Anthony Shrine In St. Mary’S Co-Cathedral, Chennai, Pj Johnston

Journal of Global Catholicism

This article combines ethnographic description of the practices of Hindu and Christian visitors of the St. Antony Shrine in Chennai with the observation that this material cannot be understood using the standard world religions paradigm that essentializes Christianity as exclusivistic. Drawing upon the visual and material culture of the shrine in light of premodern and Vatican II templates for inculturation and the negotiation of religious difference, the article highlights overlap between Tamil Hinduism and the Tamil Popular Catholicism of the site to argue that the beliefs and practices documented should inform descriptive and normative accounts of Catholic Christianity. Because Tamil …

Viewpoint: Hinduism And The Academy: Towards A Dialogue Between Scholar And Practitioner, Ravi M. Gupta

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Gupta articlulates a rationale as to why the position of both the academician and the practitioner are necessary for meaningful religious dialog.

Review Of Indian Thought And Western Theism: The Vedanta Of Ramanuja, Sucharita Adluri

Philosophy and Religious Studies Department Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Book Review:Against Dogmatism: Dwelling In Faith And Doubt, Michelle Voss Roberts

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Book Review of Against Dogmatism: Dwelling in Faith and Doubt. Madhuri M. Yadlapati. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2013, 204 pp.

The Limits Of Theodicy: An Eastern Orthodox Perspective On Evil And Interreligious Theology, Rico G. Monge

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

This essay is written from the vantage point of a comparative theologian who is personally steeped in the Eastern Orthodox Christian tradition and who primarily specializes in Christian-Muslim comparative theology. It might seems curious, then, that the present essay employs the comparative theological method in order to focus on questions of theodicy in the Christian and Hindu traditions. Perhaps even more curious, however, is that I aim not at articulating a comparative Christian-Hindu theodicy, but rather at suggesting that the most productive path forward is a comparative theological rejection of theodicy as a productive enterprise. Drawing from resources within my …

Agency In The Subaltern Encounter Of Evil: Subverting The Dominant And Appropriating The Indigenous, James Ponniah

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

This essay focuses on subaltern encounter of evil that occurred in two different religious orbits, namely, Hinduism and Christianity in India. The Hindu phenomenon to be studied is Ayya Vaḻi1 (henceforth, AV) founded by Ayya Vaikundar (1809-1851) and the Christian phenomenon, Bible Mission (henceforth, BM) established by Devadas Ayyagaru (1840-1960). While attempts have been made earlier in the writings of Chad Bauman, Zoe Sherinian, Eleanor Zeliott, Sathianathan Clarke and G.Patick2 to study the relation between religion and subaltern agency in India, this work has a different focus in that it employs the idea of subaltern agency to discuss the parallel …

Dasaran: A Medium For Grief In Bali, Anna Spencer

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Coming to Bali, I knew that I wanted to understand a sliver of the experiences that people have after a loved-one dies. Of course, there is no one way that people in Bali or anywhere process the loss of a loved-one, yet I am continually fascinated by how people understand and cope with the many feelings that occur after someone dies.

My interest in this topic started out of necessity my junior year of high school when I attended three funerals in ten days. The first was for an elderly friend, then one for my teammate’s father, and the last …

Review Of Ramanuja And Schleiermacher: Toward A Constructive Comparative Theology, Sucharita Adluri Ms.

Philosophy and Religious Studies Department Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.