Religion Commons^™

Book Review: The Future Of Hindu-Christian Studies: A Theological Inquiry, Arvind Sharma

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Book review of The Future of Hindu-Christian Studies: A Theological Inquiry. By Francis X. Clooney, S.J. London and New York: Routledge, 2017, xi + 135 pages.

Book Review: Dancing Bodies Of Devotion: Fluid Gestures In Bharata Natyam, Michelle Voss Roberts

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Book review of Dancing Bodies of Devotion: Fluid Gestures in Bharata Natyam. By Katherine C. Zubko. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2014, xvii + 251 pages.

Recent Articles Of Interest 2017, Jhcs Staff

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

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

Editor's Introduction, Bradley Malkovsky

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

The main theme of this year’s issue, “Yoga and God: Hindu and Christian Perspectives,” continues a theme taken up five years ago by this journal, called “Yoga and Christianity.” The articles appearing in the present issue tend to give more explicit attention to the challenge of reconciling Christian theology and spirituality with various yoga systems than did the essays from 2012. Unlike the purely negative approach taken in recent years by many Christian groups to the question of integrating yoga practice and philosophy with Christian spirituality and teaching, the first three authors here affirm the value of yoga practice for …

‘I Am The Living Bread’: Ram Mohan Roy’S Critique Of The Doctrine Of The Atonement, Ankur Barua

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

A striking aspect of Vedantic Hindu and Christian devotional universes is the theme of the humanity of God. Jesus and Viṣṇu or Kṛṣṇa, the transcendental source of worldly reality, are also intensely human figures – they live with and amidst human beings, and they (seem to) suffer and, most intriguingly, even (seem to) undergo death. However, as one plumbs the doctrinal depths of these universes, various theological divergences begin to emerge, relating to the nature of the divine, the relation of the divine to the world, and the soteriological dynamics of the spiritual transformation of human beings. From a Christian …

Cultural Interactions And Religious Iconography In 16th Century Kerala: The Mural Paintings Of St. Mary’S Church In Angamaly, Patrizia Granziera

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

St. Mary's Jacobite Syrian Church is an ancient church in Angamaly (Kerala). One account has Syrian Christians arriving in Angamaly in 384 CE and the church being established in 409 CE. Syrian Christians are the earliest Christian community of India, and they attribute their origin to the evangelical efforts of the apostle Saint Thomas who is believed to have travelled through the Malabar country in 52 CE evangelizing and building churches. It was when he moved east that he is supposed to have met his death and (martyrdom) at Mylapore near Madras.

Book Review: Longing And Letting Go: Christian And Hindu Practices Of Passionate Non-Attachment, Tracy Sayuki Tiemeier

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Book review of Longing and Letting Go: Christian and Hindu Practices of Passionate Non-Attachment. By Holly Hillgardner. New York: Oxford University Press, 2017, 174 pages.

Book Review: The Gender Of Caste: Representing Dalits In Print, Claire C. Robison

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Book review of The Gender of Caste: Representing Dalits in Print. By Charu Gupta. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 2016, 352 pages.

Book Review: Christian Ashrams, Hindu Caves And Sacred Rivers: Christian-Hindu Monastic Dialogue In India 1950-1993, Daniel Soars

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Book review of Christian Ashrams, Hindu Caves and Sacred Rivers: Christian-Hindu Monastic Dialogue in India 1950-1993. By Mario I. Aguilar. Jessica Kingsley Publishers: London and Philadelphia, 2016, 200 pages.

Book Review: The Continuing Quest: Carrying Forward The Contemplative And Prophetic Vision Of Bede Griffiths, Michael Mclaughlin

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Book review of The Continuing Quest: Carrying Forward the Contemplative and Prophetic Vision of Bede Griffiths. Edited by Thomas Matus and Joseph Wong. Editions of Sankt Ottilien, Germany, 2016, 304 pages.

Orality And Intertextuality, James F. Mcgrath

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

No abstract provided.

What Is Religious Freedom?, Brent Hege

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Last year's passage of Indiana's Religious Freedom Act set off a storm of controversy about the nature of religious freedom and the status of LGBT rights in Indiana. In this presentation, Dr. Brent Hege from the Department of Philosophy, Religion, and Classics will discuss the meaning of religious freedom, offer some historical context for understanding the RFRA, and challenge the theological assumptions supporting this new law.

Faith And Foreign Policy In India: Legal Ambiguity, Selective Xenophobia, And Anti-Minority Violence, Chad M. Bauman

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

As a secular democracy, India’s constitution enshrines relatively robust safeguards for religious equality and freedom. Article 25 provides all citizens the right to “freely profess, practice, and propagate” religion, and avoids assigning to Hinduism any special role or explicit privilege (in contradistinction to the situation with Buddhism in Sri Lanka, for example). Moreover, the Indian government itself has not generally engaged in any systematic or flagrant way in the direct persecution or oppression of its religious minorities.

However, India’s religious minorities do face certain challenges. Among them are several legal and judicial issues. Judicial rulings in independent India have weakened …

"Introduction" To Theology And Science Fiction, James F. Mcgrath

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

What is the difference between a god and a powerful alien? Can an android have a soul, or be considered a person with rights? Can we imagine biblical stories being retold in the distant future on planets far from Earth? Whether your interest is in Christianity in the future, or the Jedi in the present--and whether your interest in the Jedi is focused on real-world adherents or the fictional religion depicted on the silver screen--this book will help you explore the intersection between theology and science fiction across a range of authors and stories, topics and questions.

Throughout this volume, …

What Has Coruscant To Do With Jerusalem? A Response And Reflections At The Crossroads Of Hebrew Bible And Science Fiction, James F. Mcgrath

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

No abstract provided.

Appreciation, Analysis, And Critique: The Oxford Handbook Of Religious Conversion And The Future Of Conversion Studies, Chad Bauman

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

No abstract provided.

Book Review: *Hindu-Catholic Encounters In Goa,* By Alexander Henn, Chad Bauman

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

No abstract provided.

Book Review: *Christians In South Indian Villages, 1959-2009,* By John B. Carman And Chilkuri Vasantha Rao, Chad Bauman

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

An unedited and pre-publication version of the published review.

Is God Good? Aquinas, Śamkara, Abhinavagupta, Balinese Śaivism, And The Problematics Of The Argument From Evil, Lance E. Nelson

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

The problem of evil--as opposed to the argument from evil--is an ancient one, but it was not initially formulated as an argument in support of atheism. God's existence was taken for granted, and on that basis thinkers like Augustine engaged an serious intellectual struggle with deep questions about the divine raised by the presence of evil in the world: the unicity of God, the knowability of God, the possibility of Divine providence.⁴ The atheist argument from evil--especially as expounded of late by the New Atheists--tends to reduce this history to a caricature.

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 …

Practice And The Comparative Study Of Mysticism: The Yoga Sūtra And The Cloud Of Unknowing, Glenn Young

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

In his entry for the term “mysticism” in the updated edition of the Encyclopedia of Religion, Peter Moore writes that “the varieties of mystical practice tend to receive less scholarly attention than the varieties of experience or doctrine.”1 Bernard McGinn similarly claims that many studies of mysticism “so emphasize the moment of mystical contact . . . that they neglect the study of the fullness of the via mystica, particularly the ascetical and moral preparation for such contact.”2 Following from suggestions such as these, this article will do a comparative reading of two mystical texts: the Yoga Sūtra, a third-century …

Book Review: Sacred Matters: Material Religion In South Asian Traditions, Lloyd W. Pflueger

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Book Review of Sacred Matters: Material Religion in South Asian Traditions. Edited by Tracy Pintchman and Corinne G. Dempsey. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2015, xi + 221 pp.

Book Review: Meeting Of Opposites? Hindus And Christians In The West, Francis X. Clooney Sj

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Book Review of Meeting of Opposites? Hindus and Christians in the West. Andrew Wingate. Eugene, Oregon: Cascade Books, 2015, x + 216 pp.

Book Review:Divine Self, Human Self: The Philosophy Of Being In Two Gītā Commentaries, Ankur Barua

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Book Review of Divine Self, Human Self: The Philosophy of Being in Two Gītā Commentaries. Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad. NY and London: Bloomsbury, 2013, x + 148pp.

Book Review:Pilgrimage Of Awakening: The Extraordinary Lives Of Murray And Mary Rogers, Joseph Prabhu

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Book Review of Pilgrimage of Awakening: The Extraordinary Lives of Murray and Mary Rogers. By Mary V. T. Cattan. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2016, 421 pages.

Book Review: Modern Hindu Personalism: The History, Life And Thought Of BhaktisiddhāNta Sarasvatī, Michael Mclaughlin

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Book Review of Modern Hindu Personalism: The History, Life and Thought of Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī. Ferdinando Sardella. Oxford University Press, 2013, xv + 342 pp.

Book Review: Hindu Christian Faqir: Modern Monks, Global Christianity, And Indian Sainthood, Stephanie Corigliano

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Book Review of Hindu Christian Faqir: Modern Monks, Global Christianity, and Indian Sainthood. Timothy S. Dobe. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015, 363 + xiii pp.

Book Review: Ecclesial Identities In A Multi-Faith Context: Jesus Truth-Gatherings (Yeshu Satsangs) Among Hindus And Sikhs In Northwest India, Nadya Pohran

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Book Review of Ecclesial Identities in a Multi-Faith Context: Jesus Truth-Gatherings (Yeshu Satsangs) among Hindus and Sikhs in Northwest India. Darren Todd Duerksen. Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2015, xxiii + 292 pp.

Book Review: Sacred Groves And Local Gods: Religion And Environmentalism In South India, James Ponniah

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Book Review of Sacred Groves and Local Gods: Religion and Environmentalism in South India. Eliza F.Kent. Oxford University Press, 2013. 236 pages.