Digital Commons Network^™

Rethinking Advaita: Who Is Eligible To Read Advaita Texts?, Anantanand Rambachan

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

My most recent work, The Advaita Worldview: God, World and Humanity, exemplifies two related movements. First, I join the growing stream of scholars who are making efforts to distinguish the interpretations of Sankara from later Advaita exegetes. The uncritical equation of Sankara's views with those of later exegetes needs to be challenged. Second, I contend that Advaita reflection and scholarship cannot limit itself to the clarification of Sankara's interpretations. These interpretations must also be critically evaluated in order for the tradition to be relevant and creative. It is problematic to assume that Sankara was immune from historical influences, cultural …

Book Review: "The Experience Of God: Icons Of The Mystery", Joseph Prabhu

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

A review of The Experience of God: Icons of the Mystery by Raimon Panikkar.

Response To Rambachan's "The Advaita Worldview" And Thatamanil's "The Immanent Divine", Michelle Voss Roberts

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

In light of postcolonial and feminist criticism, it has become good form for scholars to "locate themselves" with regard to their subject matter by laying out their values and presuppositions to the extent possible. Because supposedly "objective" or "neutral" scholarship often reflects hegemonic interests, this practice ideally brings self-awareness about the discourses we carry into the hermeneutical process. Postcolonial discourse since Edward Said's Orientalism (1978) instructs that if Western academics are to continue representing the so-called East, they must at least acknowledge the dominance of Western and Christian presuppositions in this scholarly tradition.

The Role Of Ethics In Hindu-Christian Dialogue, Arvind Sharma

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

I would like to offer some remarks on the role of ethics in Hindu-Christian dialogue. I shall argue that the presentations of their respective ethical positions by these traditions are often too flat, which is to say, not sufficiently nuanced so that each side enters into dialogue with an inadequate understanding of the other side. I shall then further argue that the dialogue may be more fruitful, if it proceeded with a mutual recognition of the ethical complexities involved in their respective positions.

Methodological Approaches To Hindu-Christian Studies: Some Thoughts, T.S. Rukmani

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

I was surprised that any one would want me to be a respondent for a panel which was primarily concerned with methodological approaches to Hindu-Christian Studies, my interest being mainly philosophical Sanskrit texts. However as a Hindu and having lived in India for most of my adult life I was interested to learn more about the way academics deal with this issue, which really is one that is fraught with many complications. Harold Coward, who gave a retrospect of the Society at the beginning of the session, did indeed give me a glimpse of the topics and methodology followed in …

Being Catholic The Tamil Way: Assimilation And Differentiation, Selva J. Raj

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

The ritual life of Tamil Catholics in south India defies tidy, conventional categories like assimilation, differentiation, and othering, since the complex negotiations characteristic of this lived tradition often involve both assimilation and differentiation. This dynamic reflects/reveals their hybrid and liminal cultural and religious condition where boundaries are not fixed or absolute, but constantly fluid, permeable, and negotiable. While this pattern is manifest almost in all spheres of Tamil Catholic life and practice, in this paper I focus on how lay Catholics configure and maintain their "tamilness" in the realms of devotional music, caste discourse, and public devotional rituals with relevant …

A Retrospective Of Hindu-Christian Studies: Establishment Of The Journal And Formation Of The Society, Harold Coward

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

A retrospective look at "How We Do Hindu-Christian Studies" can be had by going through the issues of our journal from 1988 to the present. In the first issue of the journal the approach was described as follows: "Materials selected for publication will be balanced between historical research and contemporary practice, and, where possible, should employ analytical and theoretical analysis set within the context of our shared human experience." The issue contained two articles illustrating this approach: an overview of Hindu-Christian dialogue in India in the 1970s and 1980s by Anand Amaladass, and an assessment of the various approaches to …

In Memoriam: Selva J. Raj (1952-2008), Corinne Dempsey

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Selva J. Raj was a man dedicated to life and work in all its breathtaking complexity. At the time of his untimely death of a heart attack on March 14th, he was the Stanley S. Kresge Endowed Professor and Chair of the Religious Studies Department at Albion College. In addition to tirelessly serving on a lengthy list of campus-wide, national, and international committees and boards, Selva was co-chair of the Comparative Studies in Religion Section of the AAR since 2001; he rekindled the Conference on the Study of Religions of India in 2004 and served as its annual organizer; he …

Scholarship On Religion And Communities Of Faith, Gerald James Larson

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Due to a formatting error, part of this article was inadvertently omitted from its original appearance in the 2006 issue of the Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies. The article is now published in its entirety.

Love Of God And Unity Of Wisdom In Plato And Leibniz, Tinu Ruparell

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

In what follows I wish to consider the following question, the relevance of which should be fairly obvious for a discussion on the love of God: does love flow from wisdom or wisdom flow from love? The question is at the heart of much Christian reflection on the nature of the love of God and how it is to be known.

A Woman's Kind Of Love: Female Longing In The Tamil Alvar Poetry, Archana Venkatesan

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

In the eighth section of Andal's Nacciyar Tirumoli, a woman calls to the clouds and bids them to take a message of love to her delinquent lover, Vishnu, here figured as the lord of Venkatam. In the opening verse of the decad, she begins by plaintively questioning the clouds of her beloved's whereabouts only to end with a bitter complaint about her sullied womanhood -- pen-nirmai. Bracketed by her eager questions -- "has the lord of Venkatam come with you" -- and her bitter complaint -- "how does this bring him pride" -- is the landscape of her …

Forgiveness: Hindu And Western Perspectives, Alan Hunter

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

This paper compares Hindu and Christian beliefs on forgiveness: it argues that forgiveness is an important element within the Hindu religious world-view, even if less explicitly so than within the Christian tradition. Before the late 1980s, discussion of forgiveness in the West was for the most part confined to Christian communities, seldom reaching mainstream publications in other areas. The situation has now changed dramatically. Since the 1990s, scholars from different disciplines have written dozens of books and journal articles on forgiveness, which also featured in numerous popular essays, exhibitions, websites, and other media. There are four major areas for forgiveness …

The Methodic Of Hindu-Christian Studies, Raimon Panikkar

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

After more than half a century struggling to find my own identity just following the universal sapiential counsel of "knowing oneself", whereby the self is not just the individual, the new editor of the Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies has put to me the most difficult question to answer in words: "Where do I now stand?". Aware that there are no stupid questions but certainly silly answers, I take the risk of summarizing my perhaps too many writings on this topic in these few pages, as a tribute to the magnificent task of this Journal, which is a practical example that …

Censorship And Censureship: Insiders, Outsiders, And The Attack On Bhandarkar Institute, Adheesh Sathaye

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

On January 5, 2004, the Bhandarkar Institute, a large Sanskrit manuscript library in Pune, was vandalized because of its involvement in James Laine's controversial study of the Maharashtrian king Shivaji. While most of the manuscripts escaped damage, less fortunate was the academic project of South Asian studies, which now faces some serious questions. if our intellectual pursuits should result in the destruction of the very materials we study, or injury to those who help us to study them, are they worth conducting at all? Or might they be conducted in such a way as to avoid violent reaction? As groundwork …

Listening To The Snake; Or, On Having A Spine, Jeffrey J. Kripal

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

The western prohibition of reflection on what we call today "religion" begins not with a banned scholarly monograph or a taunted academic, but with a myth about a transgressive desire for mature moral knowledge and a subsequent sexual emotion, namely, Adam and Even's shameful sense of being naked after accepting the serpent's gift of the knowledge of good and evil. Elsewhere, I have explored some of the ways that western religions thought has sexualized this foundational myth in order to take up this gnosis as my own and explore the problems and promises of sexual desire, gender difference, sexual orientation, …

Scholarship On Religion And Communities Of Faith, Gerald James Larson

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

When I was asked to participate in this panel, two comments came to mind that, in my view, are pertinent for my own thinking regarding the issue of "Scholarship on Religion and Communities of Faith."

Embodying "Bhakti Rasa" In Bharata Natyam: An Indian-Christian Interpretation Of "Gayatri" Mantra Through Dance, Katherine C. Zubko

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

As the five female dancers from the Indian-Christian fine art college of Kalai Kaviri encircle the South Indian brass lamp, or vilakku, awakening it to life with the flames from their own individual votives, the beginning melody of a song cues the women to stretch out their arms in preparation to rise from their seated positions and dance. As they raise their arms in unison, the light glinting off their bangles and gold threaded costumes, the Sanskrit words Om Bhur Bhuvah Svah signal the invocatory phrase of the popular Gayatri mantra chanted daily by many Hindus all over the …

Viewpoint: Dialogues Within Dialogue And Conversations Barely Begun, Corinne Dempsey

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

My interest in Hindu-Christian studies stems from adventures with two religious traditions that are, in a manner of speaking, "out of place": popular Christian practice in a predominantly Hindu south Indian setting and a Hindu temple within the Christian context of rural upstate New York. In some ways these two Hindu-Christian settings could not be more different. The Kerala Christians with whom I worked claim an ancient and lofty heritage while the upstate New York temple, established in 1998 in a refurbished barn and led by a maverick guru, represents a definitive break from orthopraxy.

Book Review: "Gurus In America", Bradley Malkovsky

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

A review of Gurus in America edited by Thomas A. Forsthoefel and Cynthia Ann Humes.

Recent Articles Of Interest

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

A listing of recent articles of interest to the Society.

Recent Articles Of Interest

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

A listing of recently published articles of interest to the Society.

Justice And Gender In Ministry: Debating Women's Ordination, Maura A. Ryan

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Much has been written on the question of ordaining women in the Roman Catholic Church. Catholic scholars of all stripes have debated issues such as the biblical sources for a theology of ordination; the relationship between sacramental and non-sacramental ministries; the limits of papal authority and the development of doctrine; and, more recently, the relationship between the elevation of an all-male, celibate clergy and the failure of Catholic bishops to address reported sexual abuse by priests. This essay focuses on the ethical implications of barring women from the priesthood. Although my references are to Catholic or Christian practices primarily, I …

Leibniz And Ramanuja On The One And The Many, Tinu Ruparell

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

They polymath Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and the Visistadvaita theologian Ramanuja both face a similar conceptual problem: each holds that the universe is composed of a single substance yet is experienced by us in the phenomenal realm as plural. The problem, simply put, is that they must both show how it is that our experience of diversity arises from ontological unity - how the many comes from the one. In what follows I suggest that reading Leibniz through Ramanuja in the way suggested by the structure of metaphorical dialectic as elucidated by Ricoeur and exploited by Clooney casts Leibniz's problem in …

Briefly Noted, Bradley Malkovsky

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

A brief review of of Asian Christian Theologies: A Research Guide to Authors, Movements, Sources. Vollume 1: Asia Region 7th-20th centuries; South Asia; Austral Asia.

Dialogue 'On The Ground': The Complicated Identities And The Complex Negotiations Of Catholics And Hindus In South India, Selva J. Raj

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Interreligious dialogue is a vital theological concern for the Catholic Church in India. Over the past three decades, church leaders, progressive theologians, and maverick monastics have experimented with various models and forms of interreligious dialogue. Quite distinct from these contrived institutional initiatives is the dynamic of intimate, subtle, and spontaneous ritual exchange and dialogue between ordinary Hindus and Catholics occurring in the arena of popular piety and rituals at the grassroots level - often in opposition to institutional norms and directives - that may be described as "dialogue on the ground." In light of ethnographic research at the shrine of …

A Bibliographic Essay On Hindu And Christian Dalit Religiosity, Mathew N. Schmalz

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

In his now classic novel Untouchable, Mulk Raj Anand portrays the life of a sweeper named Bakha. Bakha works cleaning latrines at the Cantonment, imitates the British "tommies" in his attire, and negotiates the differing spaces in which is Untouchability is defined. After an incident during which Bakha inadvertently touches a caste Hindu in the street, Bakha wanders through town. During his wanderings, he first meets a Christian missionary who speaks almost incomprehensibly about Jesus. Bakha then listens to a speech by Mahatma Gandhi and while he finds the Mahatma's vision compelling, his mind turns to reflecting upon how …

Tributes, Edward T. Ulrich

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Tributes to William C. Cenkner and Judson B. Trapnell.

Viewpoint: Fostering Dialogue And Interreligious Conversation, Deepak Sarma

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Since seeing Santosh Sivan's film, "The Terrorist," a few days ago, I have been unable to rid my mind of the haunting images of Malli, a troubled young woman who has been chosen for a mission as a suicide bomber. In this fictional account, Sivan successfully reveals that she is not merely a brainwashed fanatic but that she is as human as anyone else, despite the fact that she is planning a despicable act, the assassination of an important politician. She has fears, hopes, loves, and disappointments and is not simply an unfeeling automaton. By illustrating quite clearly her zeal …

Call For Nominations

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

The Society's Nominations and Elections Committee -- Selva J. Raj (chair), Corinne G. Dempsey, and Parimal Patil -- invites nominations for three new board members. Nominees for these offices should be person willing to serve and to attend the annual meeting, which precedes the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion.

Contribution Of Harold Coward To The Study Of Religions And Hindu-Christian Studies, Francis X. Clooney

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

No one can avoid in one's activity that flash of understanding produced either through words or through the working of one's predispositions.

We all know something of Harold Coward's contribution to the Study of Religions and Hindu-Christian studies. He is the originator and long-time editor of this Bulletin, and indeed the founder of the society itself.