Religion has become a vital element in identity politics globally after the terror attacks of 11 September 2001 in the United States of America. And so the question of how religious tolerance may be secured in the modern world can no longer be avoided. Can religious tolerance be placed on a firmer footing by finding grounds for it within the different faiths themselves? This book addresses that question. In Religious Tolerance: A History, Arvind Sharma examines Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Confucianism, Daoism and Shinto - whose followers together cover over two-thirds of the globe - to identify instances of tolerance in the history of each of these to help the discussion proceed on the basis of historical facts. This is a timely book - the first of its kind in scope and ambition.
Comparison is at the heart of religious studies as a discipline and foundational to the field's methodology. In this book, Arvind Sharma introduces the term "reciprocal illumination" to describe the mutual enlightenment that can occur when a comparison is made between one tradition and another, one method and another, or between a tradition and a method. Developing the concept of reciprocal illumination through historical, phenomenological, and psychological methods, Sharma demonstrates how to use comparison, while avoiding the pitfall of treating it as merely raw material for higher order generalizations.
To write on the Manusmriti is to play with fire! This statement is not merely metaphorical; the Manusmriti has a history of being literally torched. But where there is fire, there is also the possibility of light.' Why yet another book on the Manusmriti? In From Fire to Light, acclaimed academic Arvind Sharma argues that the present understanding of the Manusmriti - regarded as a text designed by the higher castes, especially brahmanas, to oppress the lower castes and women - only tells one side of the story. As he demonstrates, this perception, when examined against textual, commentarial and historical evidence, is limited to the point of being misleading (and sometimes downright wrong). Providing an alternative reading of the Manusmriti, From Fire to Light accepts some of the conclusions associated with the existing interpretation but presents them in a new light, mitigating and at times contradicting some of its other features. In taking the plural character of the Hindu tradition and the Manusmriti's historical context more deeply into account, it brings about a paradigm shift in our understanding of this ancient text. The Manusmriti emerges as an attempt at social engineering, but of a rather different kind than imagined till now.
DIV In his Autobiography, Gandhi wrote, “What I want to achieve—what I have been striving and pining to achieve these thirty years—is self-realization, to see God face to face. . . . All that I do by way of speaking and writing, and all my ventures in the political field, are directed to this same end.” While hundreds of biographies and histories have been written about Gandhi (1869–1948), nearly all of them have focused on the political, social, or familial dimensions of his life. Very few, in recounting how Gandhi led his country to political freedom, have viewed his struggle primarily as a search for spiritual liberation. Shifting the focus to the understudied subject of Gandhi’s spiritual life, Arvind Sharma retells the story of Gandhi’s life through this lens. Illuminating unsuspected dimensions of Gandhi’s inner world and uncovering their surprising connections with his outward actions, Sharma explores the eclectic religious atmosphere in which Gandhi was raised, his belief in reincarnation, his conviction that morality and religion are synonymous, his attitudes toward tyranny and freedom, and, perhaps most important, the mysterious source of his power to establish new norms of human conduct. This book enlarges our understanding of one of history’s most profoundly influential figures, a man whose trust in the power of the soul helped liberate millions. /div
Edward Said's Orientalism (1978) is a seminal work in the field of postcolonial culture studies. It critiqued Western scholarship about the Eastern world for its patronizing attitude and tendency to view it as exotic, backward and uncivilized. Arvind Sharma, longstanding professor of comparative religion at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, now takes up the Palestinian academic's groundbreaking ideas - originally put forth predominantly in a Middle Eastern context - and tests them against Indian material. He explores in an Indian context Said's contention that the relationship between knowledge and power is central to the way the West depicts the non-West.Scholarly and accessible,The Ruler's Gaze throws fresh light on Indian colonial history through a Saidian lens.
Indian philosophy bases itself on three states of consciousness: waking, dreaming, and deep sleep. Deep sleep, or susupti, plays an important role in Advaita Vedanta, the major philosophical school that advocates a doctrine of pure consciousness. Explaining and savoring this paradox, this book shows how the concept of deep sleep can be used in Advaita Vedanta to reveal a philosophical insight, validate an argument, illustrate a moral, or adorn a tale. Arvind Sharma explores why sleep is a phenomenon that philosophers should be interested in and examines it in classical Hindu religious texts, including the Upanisads, and in foundational, early, and modern Advaita Vedanta.
An adequate explanation of suffering is perhaps the most intractable issue in the study of religion and philosophy, and the answer to the question "Why me?" has eluded not only those who are the victims of suffering, but those who sympathize with them and try to understand and explain their suffering. In this highly personal account, Arvind Sharma shares his story of becoming the victim of a severe road accident and his gradual recovery from a fractured knee, which included a hospital stay, surgeries, unexpected setbacks, and a lengthy process of rehabilitation. In the second and most substantial part of the book, Sharma attempts to intellectually come to terms with his experience and to reflect on how the experience of suffering in one form or another is a universal condition of human existence.
This wide-ranging reader combines some of the best and most valuable contemporary perspectives from leading and significant writers, teachers, and thinkers who together address critical challenges and opportunities for the world's religions in a post 9/11 world. Edited by Arvind Sharma and organized by topic, the essays in this reader consider broad questions such as, What influence does religion have on contemporary life? The thematic arrangement of topics includes diverse religious perspectives on: war, terror, peace, human rights, pluralism, diversity, gender, spirituality, the interreligious dialogue, international diplomacy and globalization.
Is Hinduism a missionary religion? Merely posing this question is a novel and provocative act. Popular and scholarly perception, both ancient and modern, puts Hinduism in the non-missionary category. In this intriguing book, Arvind Sharma re-opens the question. Examining the historical evidence from the major Hindu eras, the Vedic, classical, medieval, and modern periods, Sharma's investigation challenges the categories used in current scholarly discourse and finds them inadequate, emphasizing the need to distinguish between a missionary religion and a proselytizing one. A distinction rarely made, it is nevertheless an illuminating and fruitful one that resonates with insights from the comparative study of religion. Ultimately concluding that Hinduism is a missionary religion, but not a proselytizing one, Sharma's work provides us with new insights both on Hinduism and the consideration of religion itself.
Introduces the texts and ideas of Hinduism, crystallized during the 4th to the 10th century BCE. This book explains their contemporary relevance and deals with the key concepts, the main gods and goddesses, and texts such as the Purusarthas. It also examines the different systems of yoga.
This pioneering work examines the existing understanding of Hinduism in relation to human rights discourse. Written by a leading Hindu scholar, Hindu Narratives on Human Rights is organized around specific rights, such as the right to own property, the rights of children, women's rights, and animal rights. Within these categories and in light of the questions they raise, the book provides a guided tour of Hindu narratives on ethics, ranging from the famous religious epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, to various forms of secular literature drawn from almost a thousand years of Indic civilization. The realization that Hindu ethical discourse is narrative rather than propositional is a relatively recent one. Hence, the prevailing tendency in the West has been to overlook it in the context of the discussion of human rights. This book was written to correct that oversight. It shows that the presence of the universal in the particular in Hindu stories is a key to understanding Hindu thinking about human rights—and it indicates ways in which Hindu ethical discourse can interact creatively with modern human rights discourse.
This set is an unprecedented examination of religion's influence on modern life, an honest assessment of how religion can either destroy us or preserve us, and a thorough exploration of what steps might be necessary for all religions to join together as a force for good. Convening on the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, the global congress The World's Religions after September 11 explored the negative and positive possibilities of the religious dimensions of life. The presentations from the congress have been pulled together in this set, which addresses religion's intersection with human rights, spirituality, science, healing, the media, international diplomacy, globalization, war and peace, and more. This comprehensive set includes contributions from such well-known scholars of religion as Arvind Sharma and a host of others from all the world's religious traditions. This set is an unprecedented examination of religion's influence on modern life, an honest assessment of how religion can either destroy us or preserve us, and a thorough exploration of what steps might be necessary for all religions to join together as a force for good. Because of the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, the very concept of religion underwent a paradigm shift. Instead of standing for virtue and piety, peace and harmony, the word religion also came to be inextricably associated with evil, aggression, and terror. People around the world began to question whether the religious and secular dimensions of modern life can be reconciled, whether the different religions of the world can ever coexist in harmony. Indeed, the very future of religion itself has sometimes seemed to be uncertain, or at least suspect.
This book examines the principles underlining the policies of reservation and affirmative action adopted by two non-homogeneous and multi-ethnic societies—India and the USA. Despite the fact that the governments of both countries have, for over fifty years now, applied these measures to overcome discrimination based on caste and race respectively, the author maintains that there is no comprehensive account of the grounds on which either reservations or affirmative action can be intellectually justified. Addressing the key question—What is being affirmed through affirmative action?—the author seeks the answer along four lines: - What is the religious component of such an affirmation, if any? - Is there a moral principle (or principles) underlying this affirmation? - Is this affirmation being advocated on the basis of ethical principles with which modern liberal thought is imbued? - Is the doctrine of human rights invoked in such an affirmation?
This book offers a unique perspective on September 11 and our world after this tragic event, sharing lessons from an Asian religious experience that can help heal a world troubled by religious conflicts and deepening divisions, and promote a positive global transformation. Existing literature regarding the events of September 11 and our world afterward has focused mostly on the West and the Middle East. Asian Perspectives on the World's Religions after September 11 extends this discussion to include Asia—a continent and culture far too important to be ignored in any assessment of the global impact of this event. The book is organized along the following themes, as they emerged post-September 11th: religion and civilizational dialogue; religion, conflict, and peace; religion and human rights; religion and ethics; religion and the arts; religion, hermeneutics, and literature; religion and gender; religion and ecology; and religion and globalization. Individuals who are studying or teaching political science, international relations, philosophy, ethics, Asian studies, or religious studies will find the text invaluable, while general readers will appreciate the largely unvoiced Asian perspective on this topic.
One Religion Too Many is a Hindu pilgrim's progress through the world's religious traditions. An eminent scholar of comparative religion, Arvind Sharma provides a first-hand account of how he came to be a party to the dialogue of religions—first with his own religion, then with the comparative study of religion, and finally with the religious universalism he has come to espouse because of this heritage. Starting with an account of the Hinduism of his family in Varanasi, India, Sharma then heads west, finding himself dumbfounded by the Christian Eucharist, wondering if there is a "Hinjew Connection," grappling with Zen in Massachusetts, and pressed into service to teach about Islam. Sharma writes with a light touch, but even when his encounters and perceptions are amusing, they are always insightful and thought-provoking. Western readers, in particular, will enjoy seeing their own traditions through the eyes of an Easterner who has come to know them well. Sharma's ultimate perspective on religious universalism is a welcoming vision for the globalizing world of the twenty-first century.
Philosophy of religion, as we know it today, emerged in the West and has been shaped by Western philosophical and theological trends, while the philosophical tradition of India flowed along its own course until the late nineteenth century, when active, if tentative, contact was established between the West and the East. This book provides a definite focus to this interaction by investigating issues raised in Western philosophy of religion from the perspective of Advaita Ved&_nta, the influential school of Indian thought. In promoting the emergence of a cross-cultural philosophy of religion, Arvind Sharma focuses on John H. Hick and his well-known work The Philosophy of Religion as representative of modern Western philosophy of religion, and on &_ankara, along with his modern successors such as M. Hiriyanna and S. Radhakrishnan, as representative of Advaita Ved&_nta.
Renowned scholar of Hinduism, Arvind Sharma, presents a concise and highly accessible introduction to Hindu spirituality, focusing especially on the views of the school of Advaita, or non-dual, Vedanta.
Part of the Problem, Part of the Solution unleashes religion's true potential to do good by bridging the modern divide between religion and an ever pervasive secular society, a notion often loathed by individuals on both sides of the religious aisle. As noted scholars such as Huston Smith, Karen Armstrong, Rosemary Radford Reuther, Harvey Cox, and Seyyed Hossein Nasr explain throughout the conversations related in this text, people of varied and conflicting faiths can come together to engage in civil, useful dialogue, and members of quite varied religious traditions can work together for the benefit of all humankind and can help defuse the world's current epidemic of violence. By showing how religion is an instrument in human affairs that can be tuned for both good and evil, this book lays the groundwork for an important cooperative effort to blossom. Furthermore, today's trend of associating all religion with suspicion has spiraled into a dangerous situation-that in discarding all religion because some of it causes harm, one risks throwing away the baby with the bathwater. Books such as When Religion Becomes Evil by Charles Kimball, The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, The End of Faith by Sam Harris, Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon by Daniel Dennett, and God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens have created quite a sensation, leaving the impression that religion, at its root, brings more heartache than handshakes. This development has dismayed many scholars, students, and practitioners of religion, of all faiths, who believe that only half the story-the negative half-is being told. Although demonstrating that certain religious beliefs have surely contributed to the violence that has occurred in this century, this book also explores how other religious teachings can help solve the epidemic of violence.
An essential introduction to the world's living religions by experts from each tradition -- published in conjunction with the 1993 Parliament of the World's Religions.
This volume outlines the approaches to human rights and responsibilities within the different world religions. Featuring contributions from over 15 scholars, the book covers such key issues as women's rights, the role of international law, and responsibility for the environment. It also includes a "Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the World's Religions", presented at the third Parliament of the World Religions.
This book addresses the relationship of Christianity and human rights—a relationship fraught with ambiguity. While human rights discourse arose in a Christian culture, it has sometimes stood in opposition to organized Christianity. Christianity has been a champion of human rights; on other occasions it has been a major violator of them. Contributors to this book explore both positive and negative views of human rights arising from Christian traditions. Among the issues discussed are the sources of ideas on human rights, Christian influences on international human rights covenants and conventions, Christian theology and human rights, the right to change religions, Roman Catholic perspectives, and Christian peace activism and human rights. Christian discourse is juxtaposed with the proposed Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the World's Religions, which is included.
The novelty of this book consists of the fact that it introduces the reader to the basic tenets of Advaita Vedanta in three independent but complementary ways: scripturally, rationally and experientially. All the three elements are usually found intertwined in accounts of Advaita Vedanta. They are presented distinctly here in the hope that each perspective will enrich one`s understanding of Advaita Vedanta as a whole and also allow the reader to form his or her own opinion about the relative merits of each approach.
The present Indian academic self-understanding of its history and culture is largely Western in origin. This Western intellectual enterprise, however, went hand in hand with a Western political enterprise, i.e. the colonization of India. This raises the question: To what extent, if any, did the two developments influence each other? It also raises another question: To what extent did West’s cultural presuppositions influence its understanding of Indian civilization? The central epistemological issue which these questions raise is the following: What significance does the fact that the self-understanding of a culture is mediated by that of another culture, over which it was culturally and politically dominant, possess for the votaries of the culture whose self-understanding has thus been mediated in this fashion? This question is not merely of historical but also of contemporary interest, for in an increasingly globalizing world, in which power is unevenly distributed at various levels, the self-understanding of all cultures is likely to be influenced by how they are being presented by other cultures. Furthermore, in such a world, shifting political alliances may generate new intellectual configurations, whose legitimacy may require constant examination. The essays in this book address these and similar issues.
All arts and sciences, in their own way, ultimately try to come to grips with reality. What sets philosophy, theology and religion apart is that they grapple with ultimate reality. Over the decades spanned by John Hick's life, in the course of this grappling (reminiscent of Jacob's nocturnal encounter with the angel) philosophy became analytic, theology dialogical and religion comparative along one line of development. In these essays, written in honour of Professor Hick, leading world scholars in these fields share their most recent insights. They are, so to speak, postcards from the cutting edge.
The Experiential Dimension of Advaita Vedanta provides a clear, concise and precise introduction to Advaita Vedanta, on the basis of something more powerful than argument, namely, experience.
Hindu thought has undergone a major reconfiguration in the nineteenth and the 20th centuries, in response to its encounter with the forces of modernity. A key element in this reconfiguration is the perception of Hinduism itself as a universal religion, or, at the very least, as promoting religious universalism. This book examines the views of several major Hindu thinkers of this period, Swami Vivekananda and Mahatma Gandhi prominent among them, on this potent theme of modern Hinduism.
Sinceits founding by Jacques Waardenburg in 1971, Religion and Reason has been a leading forum for contributions on theories, theoretical issues and agendas related to the phenomenon and the study of religion. Topics include (among others) category formation, comparison, ethnophilosophy, hermeneutics, methodology, myth, phenomenology, philosophy of science, scientific atheism, structuralism, and theories of religion. From time to time the series publishes volumes that map the state of the art and the history of the discipline.
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