The Routledge Handbook of Hindu-Christian Relations

Cover
Half Title
Series Information
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of contents
Contributors
1 Introduction
	On the “Hindu” and “Christian” in “Hindu–Christian relations”
	Intersectional analyses of caste, race, nationality, and gender
		Caste
		Ethnicity, race, and class
		Gender
	Hegemony, resistance, and the enduring legacy of the colonial encounter
		Conversion
		Hegemony and scholarship in a postcolonial era
	Hindu–Christian relations as a site for fruitful theological exchange
	Notes and acknowledgments
	Bibliography
Part I Theoretical and methodological considerations
	2 The formation and mutual re-formations of “Christianity” and “Hinduism” as “religious” categories
		The early formations of “Christianity” in relation
		To be or not to be
		The British dispensation
		Caveats and conclusions
		Bibliography
	3 The emergence of modern Hinduism
		The Western influence on modern Hindu self-understanding
		Did the British invent Hinduism?
		“Indian philosophy means Vedānta”
		“Vedānta philosophy means the Kevalādvaita of Śaṁkara”
		Hegelian versus perennialist interpretations of Vedānta
		Hindu inclusivism
		Note
		Bibliography
	4 Western philosophy and Christian theology in twentieth-century Hindu thought
		Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and Advaita Vedānta
			Idealism
			Mystical traditions
		Viśiṣṭādvaita
		Mādhva Vedānta
			Creation
			The nature of God
		Conclusion
		Bibliography
	5 Orientalism and postcolonial theory in Hindu–Christian encounters
		Setting the stage: orientalism, subaltern voices, and postcolonial theory
		Hindu universalism and the theology of difference
		Global spiritualities, cultural appropriation, and liberation
		Bibliography
Part II Historical interactions
	6 Syrian Christians and dominant-caste Hindus
		A history
		Education: dominant-caste politics
		Conclusion
		Bibliography
	7 Hindu–Jesuit encounters
		Francis Xavier and the beginnings of Hindu–Jesuit encounter
		The golden age of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
		Cautious new beginnings
		The Society of Jesus as an Indian society
		Other venues for Hindu–Jesuit relations
		Hindu views of Jesuits
		The global scene
		Note
		Bibliography
	8 State power in the relations between Catholics and Hindus
		There is no Hinduism, but the Indian state is its prophet
		The Catholic formation of Hinduism
		The Indian national movement and Catholicism
		Catholic elites and the Indian national project
		Conclusion
		Bibliography
	9 Hindu–Protestant encounters
		Bibliography
	10 The East India Company, Christianity, and Hinduism
		A Godless company?
		Pressure intensifies
		Soldiers of Christ
		Indian hostility
		1813 renewal of the Company’s charter: the Pious Clause
		Center versus periphery: the power of “the man on the spot”
		Implications of the new ecclesiastical establishment
		The Company and Christian education
		Lord Bentinck and Hinduism, 1828–1835
		Hinduism under siege
		Conclusion: a Hindu or a Christian Raj?
		Note
		Bibliography
	11 Hindu–Christian debates in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
		I.
		II.
		III.
		IV.
		V.
		Bibliography
	12 Critiques of Christianity from Savarkar to Malhotra
		Predecessors: V.D. Savarkar (1883–1966), Keshav Baliram Hedgewar (1889–1940), and M.S. Golwalkar (1906–73)
		Mohandas K. (Mahatma) Gandhi (1869–1948)
		Ram Swarup (1920–1998)
		Sita Ram Goel (1921–2003)
		Arun Shourie (1941–)
		Ashok Chowgule (1948–)
		Swami Dayananda Saraswati (1930–2015)
		Radha Rajan (1956–)
		The Hindu American Foundation
		Rajiv Malhotra (1950–)
		Consensus and conclusion
		Bibliography
Part III Contemporary exchanges
	13 Anti-conversion laws in post-Independence India
		Defining conversion
		The “foreignness” of religious conversion in the Indian context
		The Constituent Assembly Debates
		The state missionary enquiry reports
		The first wave of anti-conversion legislation
		The second wave of anti-conversion legislation
		Conclusion
		Bibliography
	14 Hindu–Christian relations through the lens of caste
		Caste: two preliminary considerations
			Precolonial caste-based antagonisms
			Epistemological and tactile collusions
		Colonial Christian self- and other-understandings
		Which (and whether) Hindus?
		Colonial Hindu self- and other-understandings
		Dalit agency and anti-conversion laws: a lens to understand Hindu–Christian relations
		Accidents in objectifying subjects: after-effects on Hindu–Christian relations today
		Bibliography
	15 Race, representation, and Hindu–Christian encounters in contemporary North America
		Histories of migration and interconnection
		Hindu communities and Protestant narratives of nation-building
		Advocacy and the racialization of religion
		Conflicts and controversies
		Diversifying Hindu voices
		Bibliography
	16 ISKCON–Christian encounters
		Common cause
		Condescending comparison
		Shared devotional interlocution
		Conclusion
		Notes
		Bibliography
	17 Hindu–Christian relations in Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific
		Historical background
		Pluralism and internal diversity in the indentured communities
		Relations between Hindus and Christians in the colonial Indian diaspora
			Trinidad
			South Africa
			Fiji
		Concluding comments
		Bibliography
Part IV Sites of bodily and  material interactions
	18 Popular religious traditions and shared religious spaces
		What is a shared religious space?
		Shrines as shared religious spaces
		Shared spaces as shared indigenous cultural universe
		Shared spaces and human objects
		Shared spaces and common rituals/ritual objects
		Shared spaces as sites of ritual dialogue
		Shared space as loci of shared deities
		Shared spaces and the collapse of religious and social boundaries
		Shared space as a liminal space
		Domestic spaces as shared religious spaces
		Conclusion
		Bibliography
	19 “Religion” and Hindu–Christian relations after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami
		I.
		II.
		III.
		Bibliography
	20 Gender and the social boundaries between “Hindus” and “Christians”
		Gender relations during the Company Raj: attractive and porous boundaries
		Colonial era—drawing and transcending firm boundaries
		Conclusion
		Bibliography
	21 Ritual and ritualization in Hindu–Christian relations
		Ritual material: Hindu and Christian theologies of sacrifice
		Ritual means: hybrid practice and embodied dialogue
		Ritual metaphor: Hindu–Christian Studies as a ritualized practice
		Notes
		Bibliography
	22 Aesthetics, art, and visual culture in Hindu–Christian relations
		Global contexts
			Part 1
			Part 2
		Selections of current scholarship
		Emerging trends
		Conclusion
		Note
		Bibliography
	23 Christian and Hindu responses to Christian yoga practice in North America
		Roots of Christian responses to yoga: colonial Orientalism, missionary zeal, and the Romantics
		Christian anxiety toward yoga
		Christian ambivalence toward yoga
		Christian acceptance of Christian yoga
		Hindu perspectives on Christians practicing yoga
		Conclusion
		Bibliography
Part V Significant figures
	24 Rammohun Roy
		Rammohun’s life
		Rational theism
		Rammohun and Hinduism
		Rammohun’s relations with Christians
		Rammohun’s legacy
		Bibliography
	25 Swami Vivekananda
		Swami Vivekananda’s life
		Swami Vivekananda’s teachings
			Swami Vivekananda on Christianity
			The nature of God
			Prophets, avatars, and other religious leaders
			The evolution and development of religions
			Critique of Christian missionary efforts
		Bibliography
	26 Mohandas K. (“Mahatma”) Gandhi
		Gandhi’s encounters with and assimilations of Christianity
		Gandhi’s thought on the prospects of Hindu–Christian relations
		Christian responses to Gandhi and his work
		Bibliography
	27 Raimon Panikkar
		Bibliography
	28 Abhishiktananda
		Life
		Thought
		Importance
		Bibliography
Part VI Comparative theologies
	29 A theology of Hindu–Christian relations
		The in/adequacy of speech
		One and many
		Narrative and presence
		The particularity of encounter
		Conclusion: on the “mystical”
		Bibliography
	30 Rethinking the One and the many in Advaita
		Introduction: the tradition of Advaita Vedānta
		The problem of the One and the many
		The many as illusion
		Rethinking the One and the many
		The not-two (Advaita) relationship of the One and the many
		Intentionality and deliberation in self-multiplication
		Ontological singularity and uniqueness
		Advaita: dual mode of seeing
		“That from which all words return”
		Some comparative thoughts
		Bibliography
	31 Creation, cosmos, ecology
		Immanent presence of the divine
		Inherent goodness of nature and of nonhumans
		Cosmic and planetary order
		Conclusion
		Bibliography
	32 Competing philosophies and theologies of the human person
		The creaturely dependence of the human person
		The ontological divinity of the human person
		The dependent reality of the human person
		Hindu–Christian engagements with the category of the “human person”
		Conclusion
		Bibliography
	33 Divine embodiment in Hinduism and Christianity
		Infinite absolute, finite particular
		God as person, God as body
			Celebrating personal embodiment as divine
			Could the Christian God be personally embodied?
		Body of the Goddess, body of the woman
			To celebrate the female body
			The menstruating Goddess
			Is the Goddess a feminist?
		Embodiment as avatar, embodiment as incarnation
			Descent without modification
			Seeming to descend
			Descent as incarnation
			The God-forsaken God
			Wounds that scar, scars that heal
			The infinitely compassionate God
		Bibliography
	34 Truth and salvation in Hindu–Christian encounters
		Caught between Ganga and Galilee
		An overview of Hindu and Christian approaches to the question of truth or salvation
		Inclusivist–fulfillment approaches
			Keshub Chandra Sen: confluence of the fulfillment and bhakti approaches
			Krishna Mohun Banerjea: the preparatory value of Hinduism
			John Nichol Farquhar: the inclusive Christ, the crown of Hinduism
		Pluralistic–Vedantic approaches
			Swami Vivekananda: between pluralism and hierarchical inclusivism?
			Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan: the intersection of pluralism with the bhakti and jnana margas?
		Bhakti-based experiential approaches to salvation among Indian Christians
		Karma marga approaches to the question of truth
			Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi: a pragmatist approach to the truth of the other
			Stanley Jeddiah Samartha: the convergence of jnana marga, karma marga, and pluralism
			M.M. Thomas: karma marga of humanization and justice
		Truth and self-identity: multiple religious belonging
		Between Ganga and Galilee: the journey today
		Bibliography
	35 Inculturation
		Mateo Ricci and Roberto de Nobili
		The Indian story
		The Second Vatican Council: a challenge to change
		The Church in the modern world
		Inculturation
			Who? And what?
		Contemporary Indian sites for inculturation
			Popular religiosity
			The quest for an Indian Christian spirituality
			Indian Christian art
			Indian praxis and theology of liberation
		Conclusion: Indian Christian theologies
		Note
		Bibliography
	36 Peace and conflict
		Theoretical considerations
			The Mahabharata
			St. Augustine
		Hindu–Christian conflict: a survey of two millennia
			India’s indigenous Christians
			The colonial era
		The nationalist movement
		Independent India
		Note
		Bibliography
	37 Contemporary Hindu–Christian dialogue
		What kind of Hindu–Christian dialogue? Formal or informal?
			Formal, intentional dialogue
		Conditions: loyalty and openness
		Diverse understandings of dialogue
		The justification of dialogue
			Understanding and the reduction of tension
			Common social concern
			Common humanity and the shared ideal of community
			Understanding and the quest for truth
			The promotion of religious growth
			Common or complementary religious experience
		Asymmetries and impediments
			Missions and conversion, violence and Hindutva
		The future of Hindu–Christian dialogue
		Note
		Bibliography
Part VII Responses
	38 Response: shared and contested spaces: Hindu–Christian relations through a performing arts lens
		Prelude
		Introduction
		Part 1: Encounters and shared spaces of theology and rituals
			Contiguous communion: moving between the cowherd and the shepherd
		Part 2: Conversion, government management of Hindu temples, and the uniform civil code
			Conversion
			Government interference in Hindu temples’ financial affairs
			A uniform civil code
		Part 3: Performing arts—shared spaces or contested territory?
		Conclusion: cultural appropriation, continuity, and conversion
		Bibliography
	39 Response: The Handbook in light of the past and future of Hindu–Christian relations
		Bibliography
Index