Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons^™

Some Thoughts On God And Spiritual Practice In Yoga And Christianity, Bradley Malkovsky

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

I do not approach this topic as an expert historian of the diverse schools of yoga or as a systematician of their teachings or as an exegete of their classical texts.¹ Rather I address the theme of yoga and Christianity as a Christian theologian who has been a practitioner of Iyengar yoga, a prominent method of modern postural yoga, for more than thirty years and who has done some scholarly reading on contemporary and classical yoga and on Patanjali’s Yoga-Sutra (hereafter YS) in particular.² Despite all the controversy that has arisen in recent years about whether or not …

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.

"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, …

Editor's Introduction, Bradley Malkovsky

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

One of the oldest and most persistent challenges to faith in an all-good and all-powerful Creator is the reality of evil and suffering. This issue of the Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies addresses the perennial issue of theodicy in a wide-ranging way, examining both well-known and lesser-known Hindu and Christian approaches, even going so far as to question the very legitimacy of theodicy itself.

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.

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: Re-Imagining South Asian Religions: Essays In Honour Of Professors Harold G. Coward And Ronald W. Neufeldt, Bob Robinson

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Book Review of Re-imagining South Asian Religions: Essays in Honour of Professors Harold G. Coward and Ronald W. Neufeldt. (Numen Book Series: Studies in the History of Religions, volume 141.) Edited by Pashaura Singh and Michael Hawley. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2013, xxv + 302 pp.

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: Indian Thought And Western Theism: The VedāNta Of RāMāNuja, Sucharita Adluri

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Book Review of Indian Thought and Western Theism: the Vedānta of Rāmānuja. Martin Ganeri. London: Routledge, 2015, x + 176 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: 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: 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.

Briefly Noted: God’S Other Children: Personal Encounters With Faith, Love, And Holiness In Sacred India, Kerry San Chirico

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Book Review of God’s Other Children: Personal Encounters with Faith, Love, and Holiness in Sacred India. By Bradley Malkovsky. New York: Harper Collins, 2013, xiii + 289 pp.

Reflections On God And Evil In The Krishna Bhakti Theology Of Caitanya, Graham M. Schweig

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

The story that forms the short prologue at the start of Valmiki’s Rāmāyana expresses something of how the bhakta deals with tragic loss and senseless violence. In the briefest of words, the story goes something like this: As Valmiki is performing his morning ablutions in the Tamasa River, he witnesses two cranes sweetly cooing at one another lovingly on a branch in a nearby tree. Suddenly, a hunter comes along and shoots an arrow through the chest of the male crane, who immediately drops to the ground. The female, herself alighting on the ground, sees her beloved mate writhing in …

Narasimha, Lord Of Transitions, Transformations, And Theater Festivals: God And Evil In Hindu Cosmology, Myth, And Practice, Lavanya Vemsani

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

This paper focuses on the multi-faceted nature of the divine depicted in Narasimha and the unique perspectives on God and evil offered by the myths of Narasimha, which is also subliminally represented within the religious practice and performance traditions associated with Narasimha.

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 …

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.

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.

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.

How Jesus Became God: One Scholar’S View, James F. Mcgrath

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Dr. James McGrath's brief analysis of early Christology. Originally presented as a seminar paper at the University of Michigan, March 19, 2015.

Explicit And Implicit Religion In Doctor Who And Star Trek, James F. Mcgrath

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

It has often been proposed that the original series of Star Trek reflected a modern, enlightenment perspective on religion, and that subsequent spinoffs like Deep Space Nine moved in a more post-modern direction. Doctor Who, the longest running science fiction show, provides an interesting basis for comparison. Both television shows offer similar tropes, and in both instances, the rhetoric that claims to explain away religion in scientific terms ends up treating it as literally true. Both shows depict our universe as populated with “natural gods” which are sometimes explicitly identified with the gods and demons of ancient human religious literature.

Forward To The Son Of God: Three Views Of The Identity Of Jesus, James F. Mcgrath

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

James McGrath's Forward to: The Son of God: Three Views of the Identity of Jesus, by Charles Lee Irons, Danny Andre Dixon, and Dustin R. Smith. Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2015.

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.

Hindu-Christian Conflict In India: Globalization, Conversion, And The Coterminal Castes And Tribes, Chad M. Bauman

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

While Hindu-Muslim violence in India has received a great deal of scholarly attention, Hindu-Christian violence has not. This article seeks to contribute to the analysis of Hindu-Christian violence, and to elucidate the curious alliance, in that violence, of largely upper-caste, anti-minority Hindu nationalists with lower-status groups, by analyzing both with reference to the varied processes of globalization. The article begins with a short review of the history of anti-Christian rhetoric in India, and then discusses and critiques a number of inadequately unicausal explanations of communal violence before arguing, with reference to the work of Mark Taylor, that only theories linking …

Review Of "Thinking Christ: Christology And Contemporary Critics", Brent A. R. Hege

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

A review of Thinking Christ: Christology and Contemporary Critics by Jane Barter Moulaison.

Theology, Politics, And Antimodernism In Nazi Germany: Problematizing Theological Rhetoric And Political Theology, Brent A. R. Hege

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

A review essay of:

Hitler’s Theology: A Study in Political Religion. By Rainer Bucher. Translated by Rebecca Pohl. Edited and with an introduction by Michael Hoelzl. London: Continuum, 2011. xx+140 pp. $120.00 Cloth, $34.95 Paper

Theological Tractates. By Erik Peterson. Edited, translated, and with an introduction by Michael J. Hollerich. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2011. xxx + 256 pp. $75.00 Cloth, $24.95 Paper

„Zurück Zu Schleiermacher! Und Von Schleiermacher Aus Vorwärts!“ Georg Wobbermin And The Legacy Of Schleiermacher In Weimar Liberal Protestantism, Brent A. R. Hege

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

As dialectical theology rose to prominence in the years following World War I, the new theologians sought to distance themselves from liberalism in a number of ways, an important one being a rejection of Schleiermacher’s methods and conclusions. In reading the history of Weimar-era theology as it has been written in the twentieth century one would be forgiven for assuming that Schleiermacher found no defenders during this time, as liberal theology quietly faded into the twilight. However, a closer examination of this period reveals a different story. The last generation of liberal theologians consistently appealed to Schleiermacher for support and …

Conversion Careers, Conversions-For, And Conversion In The Study Of Religion, Chad Bauman

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Invited response to Up, Over, Through: Rethinking "Conversion" as a Category of Hindu-Christian Studies by Reid B. Locklin (St. Michael's College, University of Toronto)