Studies in Hindu apologetics have heretofore usually concentrated on intrareligious differences o... more Studies in Hindu apologetics have heretofore usually concentrated on intrareligious differences or argumentation vis-a-vis other religions of Indian origin. This dissertation turns instead to orthodox Hindu assessments of Christianity, taking as its focal point a controversy that started in 1839 when the Matapar(\u27)iksa {Examination of Religions}, a Sanskrit treatise against Hinduism, was published by John Muir, a Christian Orientalist. To this assault three Hindu pandits responded, also in Sanskrit. Their texts, from which extracts are translated and analyzed, offer insights into an apologetics that, unlike what one finds in Neo-Hinduism, accented resistance instead of accommodation. The Introduction and Resistant Hinduism, the second chapter, clarify the historical context of the Matapar(\u27)iksa Controversy by reference to records of previous Hindu-Christian debates. Attention is paid to certain ideas which prevented pandits from seriously grappling with religions of non-Hindu origin until the early nineteenth century. Chapter three, The New Hermeneutics, traces the efforts of missionaries to overcome Hindu reticence to engage in dialogue by forging out of Sanskrit a terminology and idiom for expressing Christain doctrines. One finds biographical profiles of each participant, with emphasis on the specific religious traditions from which they viewed each other, in the fourth chapter, The Disputants. The fifth chapter, Resistance and Accommodation, takes each principal objection to Christianity and traces its connections with presuppositions of Hindu philosophy and religion. A crucial concern here is to indicate the extent to which patterns of responses found in these texts were dependent upon preexisting argumentation in intra-Hindu apologetics. Christianity in the General Scheme of Dharma, the sixth chapter, separates interpretations of religious plurality from individual anti-Christian arguments, and relates them to such diverse ideas of the pandits as the following: the unity and compatibility of religions; the impossibility of salvation apart from Vedic revelation; and divine propagation of delusive religions as a form of punishment. An Epilogue traces the impact of the Controversy on the subsequent thinking of the participants. Doctrine by doctrine analysis indicates consistently stiff resistance on the part of the pandits to all major aspects of Muir\u27s presentation of Christianity. These include creation of matter and souls, which implicates God in the deformities of nature and the sinfulness of man; double predestination; original sin; justification by faith; probation or sanctification; heavenly rewards; and non-human life, for which there is said to be inadequate concern among Christians. Conversely, the pandits defend their religion vigorously against such allegations as the following: Hinduism is crass polytheism; its various branches lack equilibrium; it encourages idolatry; its gods disport immorally; its scriptures cannot be eternal; brahminhood contravenes human equality; and Puranic cosmography is scientifically uninformed. Notable in these arguments and counterarguments is lack of interest in Jesus Christ, Christianity\u27s central figure. At this juncture, Hindu apologists found little in Christianity that had not already been rejected by Hinduism itself in the course of its own development. Moreover, previous patterns of apologetics were useful to the pandits in their encounter with Muir. This fact notwithstanding, each pandit produced a different scheme of religious plurality, one generating tolerance and the others intolerance. This evidence overturns the prevalent misconception that Hindus view other religions uniformly. Only the concept of adhikara unifies these theologies of religion. Though negative, these texts should be understood as historically representative of Hindu orientations to other religions
International journal of Asian christianity, Sep 11, 2018
The essay explores Bible translation in early nineteenth-century India as a comprehensive and und... more The essay explores Bible translation in early nineteenth-century India as a comprehensive and under-appreciated site for intercultural and interreligious interactions involving Christians and Hindus in a complex context of asymmetrical colonial relations. Postcolonial theorists are interrogated for theory-driven approaches that lopsidedly rely on English-language resources without taking into account the actual Indian-language artefacts of translation projects that came into being. Using a philological approach, the essay treats the Dharmapustaka, the Sanskrit Bible translated at the Serampore Baptist Mission, as a case study in 'transculturation'-a multidimensional process catalyzed by an English missionary, William Carey, on the edges between India and Europe.
Amaladass, Anand, and Richard Fox Young, eds. "The Indian Christiad: A Concise Anthology... more Amaladass, Anand, and Richard Fox Young, eds. "The Indian Christiad: A Concise Anthology of Didactic and Devotional Literature in Early Church Sanskrit". Anand, Gujarat: Gujarat Sahitya Prakash, 1995.
Twice in 1972, Shinto rituals of the Omoto 大本 sect, founded in the late nineteenth century by Deg... more Twice in 1972, Shinto rituals of the Omoto 大本 sect, founded in the late nineteenth century by Deguchi Nao 出口なお(1837-1918〉 and Deguchi Onisaburo 出 口 王 仁 三 郎 (1871-1948〉 ， were performed in Christian churches in New York City and San Francisco. Five years later, ministers ofthe same churches reciprocated by conducting services of Christian wor ship at Ayabe and Kameoka， the twin centers of Omoto in theTamba region near Kyoto.' rhese events were heralded in an Omoto denominational publication (ANON. 1978, p. 1)as the beginning of a new age of shusaika 宗際化. This neologism, of which the official translation, "interreligious cooperation," is hardly adequate, connotes more than "working togeth er" organizationally. If coining an equally monstrous English term can be excused, the idea might be expressed as "interreligionization," the pro cess by which a plurality of religions are integrated into a unity. What pre cisely that unity consists of, and how Omoto perceives itself as the catalyst of that process, are questions this paper will address, as a study in the His tory of ideas. In so doing, it will examine the origin and early development ofbankyo-dokon 万教同根， "all religions (are derived from) the same root， " a seminal concept that has undergone-and is undergoing-complex 1 I am indebted to a num ber o f persons w ho offered insights in to my research, in partic u lar D aniel Overmyer and Miyata M am i o f the University o f British C olum bia, Koba Tsugim ori 木庭次守 o f O m o to in Kameoka, Nem oto H iro shi 根 本 宏 o f the Tokyo (G inza) N ihon K5manji-kai. Any errors are not theirs but m ine. Also， an earlier version o f this article a p peared in the Meiji Gakuin ronso N o. 426, M arch 1988， p p. 63-81. 2 The S hin to ceremonies occurred as part o f the festivities su rro u n d in g the openings o f an exhibition o f O m oto art at New Y ork's Cathedral o f S t.Jo h n the Divine and San Francisco's Grace Cathedral, both Episcopalian, under the ministries o f J. P. M orton and S. F. Rodgers.
Although there are two Mahikari, Sekai Mahikari Bunmei Kydan @8gxXY%D (Church of the World True-L... more Although there are two Mahikari, Sekai Mahikari Bunmei Kydan @8gxXY%D (Church of the World True-Light Civilization) and SiikyB Mahikari s&gx (True-Light Supra-Religious Organization), I do not differentiate between them, as the division mainly results from a successional dispute.
Preface and Acknowledgements. Introduction Chad M. Bauman and Richard Fox Young. Part 1. Who and ... more Preface and Acknowledgements. Introduction Chad M. Bauman and Richard Fox Young. Part 1. Who and What is an Indian Christian? 1. Godparents and the Mother's Brother: 'Spiritual' Parenthood among the Latin Catholics of Kerala, South India Miriam Benteler 2. Between Christian and Hindu: Khrist Bhaktas, Catholics and the Negotiation of Devotion in the Banaras Region Kerry P. C. San Chirico 3. Interlocking Caste with Congregation: A Political Necessity for Dalit Christians in Andhra, South India? Ashok Kumar M. Part 2. Whose Religion is Indian Christianity? 4. Late 16th- and Early 17th-Century Contestations of Catholic Christianity at the Mughal Court Gulfishan Khan 5. Authority, Patronage and Customary Practices: Protestant Devotion and the Development of the Tamil Hymn in Colonial South India Hephzibah Israel 6. From Christian Ashrams to Dalit Theology - or Beyond? An Examination of the Indigenisation/Inculturation Trend within the Indian Catholic Church Xavier Gravend-Tirole 7. Taking the Cross and Walking from Subalternity to Modernity James Ponniah Part 3. Can Christianity be Indian? 8. Times of Trouble for Christians in Hindu and Muslim Societies of South Asia Georg Pfeffer 9. The Interreligious Riot as a Cultural System: Globalisation, Geertz and Hindu-Christian Conflict Chad M. Bauman 10. Studied Silences? Diasporic Nationalism, 'Kshatriya Intellectuals' and the Hindu American Critique of Dalit Christianity's Indianness Richard Fox Young and Sundar John Boopalan. Afterword I Anne E. Monius. Afterword II Rowena Robinson.
A study in the history of the history of religions at Princeton Theological Seminary, the article... more A study in the history of the history of religions at Princeton Theological Seminary, the article reflects on the contribution of an under-appreciated figure on the faculty, Edward Jurji, a Syrian Christian acclaimed as a scholar of Islam and as a phenomenologist. Jurji’s intellectual odyssey is traced as he emerged from the shadow of his predecessor Samuel Zwemer, famed (and reviled) as a missionary polemicist in the Middle East, to become an avid proponent of a dialogical approach to the history of religions. Much is owed to Jurji for pioneering the seminary’s first large-scale interfaith colloquies.
That India once had a sustained ‘dialogue’ with Scottish Philosophy is not gener- ally known, or ... more That India once had a sustained ‘dialogue’ with Scottish Philosophy is not gener- ally known, or that the exchange occurred in the medium of Sanskrit, not English. The essay explores an important cross-cultural encounter in the colonial context of mid 19th-century Benares where two Scots, John Muir and James Ballantyne, served as principals of a Sanskrit college established by the East India Company. Educated toward the end of the Scottish Enlightenment, they endeavoured to translate such distinctive concepts of ‘Scotch Metaphysics’ as Externalism into Indian philosophical categories. The ensuing ‘dialogue’ with Brahmin interlocutors shows that the prob- lems they faced were less terminological than conceptual, having to do with contras- tive ways of understanding ‘mind’ and ‘man’. Between the two Scots, there were also signifi cant differences, although both had gone to India as Scottish Calvinists. While Muir remained largely impervious to Indian infl uence, Ballantyne was profoun...
Studies in Hindu apologetics have heretofore usually concentrated on intrareligious differences o... more Studies in Hindu apologetics have heretofore usually concentrated on intrareligious differences or argumentation vis-a-vis other religions of Indian origin. This dissertation turns instead to orthodox Hindu assessments of Christianity, taking as its focal point a controversy that started in 1839 when the Matapar(\u27)iksa {Examination of Religions}, a Sanskrit treatise against Hinduism, was published by John Muir, a Christian Orientalist. To this assault three Hindu pandits responded, also in Sanskrit. Their texts, from which extracts are translated and analyzed, offer insights into an apologetics that, unlike what one finds in Neo-Hinduism, accented resistance instead of accommodation. The Introduction and Resistant Hinduism, the second chapter, clarify the historical context of the Matapar(\u27)iksa Controversy by reference to records of previous Hindu-Christian debates. Attention is paid to certain ideas which prevented pandits from seriously grappling with religions of non-Hindu origin until the early nineteenth century. Chapter three, The New Hermeneutics, traces the efforts of missionaries to overcome Hindu reticence to engage in dialogue by forging out of Sanskrit a terminology and idiom for expressing Christain doctrines. One finds biographical profiles of each participant, with emphasis on the specific religious traditions from which they viewed each other, in the fourth chapter, The Disputants. The fifth chapter, Resistance and Accommodation, takes each principal objection to Christianity and traces its connections with presuppositions of Hindu philosophy and religion. A crucial concern here is to indicate the extent to which patterns of responses found in these texts were dependent upon preexisting argumentation in intra-Hindu apologetics. Christianity in the General Scheme of Dharma, the sixth chapter, separates interpretations of religious plurality from individual anti-Christian arguments, and relates them to such diverse ideas of the pandits as the following: the unity and compatibility of religions; the impossibility of salvation apart from Vedic revelation; and divine propagation of delusive religions as a form of punishment. An Epilogue traces the impact of the Controversy on the subsequent thinking of the participants. Doctrine by doctrine analysis indicates consistently stiff resistance on the part of the pandits to all major aspects of Muir\u27s presentation of Christianity. These include creation of matter and souls, which implicates God in the deformities of nature and the sinfulness of man; double predestination; original sin; justification by faith; probation or sanctification; heavenly rewards; and non-human life, for which there is said to be inadequate concern among Christians. Conversely, the pandits defend their religion vigorously against such allegations as the following: Hinduism is crass polytheism; its various branches lack equilibrium; it encourages idolatry; its gods disport immorally; its scriptures cannot be eternal; brahminhood contravenes human equality; and Puranic cosmography is scientifically uninformed. Notable in these arguments and counterarguments is lack of interest in Jesus Christ, Christianity\u27s central figure. At this juncture, Hindu apologists found little in Christianity that had not already been rejected by Hinduism itself in the course of its own development. Moreover, previous patterns of apologetics were useful to the pandits in their encounter with Muir. This fact notwithstanding, each pandit produced a different scheme of religious plurality, one generating tolerance and the others intolerance. This evidence overturns the prevalent misconception that Hindus view other religions uniformly. Only the concept of adhikara unifies these theologies of religion. Though negative, these texts should be understood as historically representative of Hindu orientations to other religions
International journal of Asian christianity, Sep 11, 2018
The essay explores Bible translation in early nineteenth-century India as a comprehensive and und... more The essay explores Bible translation in early nineteenth-century India as a comprehensive and under-appreciated site for intercultural and interreligious interactions involving Christians and Hindus in a complex context of asymmetrical colonial relations. Postcolonial theorists are interrogated for theory-driven approaches that lopsidedly rely on English-language resources without taking into account the actual Indian-language artefacts of translation projects that came into being. Using a philological approach, the essay treats the Dharmapustaka, the Sanskrit Bible translated at the Serampore Baptist Mission, as a case study in 'transculturation'-a multidimensional process catalyzed by an English missionary, William Carey, on the edges between India and Europe.
Amaladass, Anand, and Richard Fox Young, eds. "The Indian Christiad: A Concise Anthology... more Amaladass, Anand, and Richard Fox Young, eds. "The Indian Christiad: A Concise Anthology of Didactic and Devotional Literature in Early Church Sanskrit". Anand, Gujarat: Gujarat Sahitya Prakash, 1995.
Twice in 1972, Shinto rituals of the Omoto 大本 sect, founded in the late nineteenth century by Deg... more Twice in 1972, Shinto rituals of the Omoto 大本 sect, founded in the late nineteenth century by Deguchi Nao 出口なお(1837-1918〉 and Deguchi Onisaburo 出 口 王 仁 三 郎 (1871-1948〉 ， were performed in Christian churches in New York City and San Francisco. Five years later, ministers ofthe same churches reciprocated by conducting services of Christian wor ship at Ayabe and Kameoka， the twin centers of Omoto in theTamba region near Kyoto.' rhese events were heralded in an Omoto denominational publication (ANON. 1978, p. 1)as the beginning of a new age of shusaika 宗際化. This neologism, of which the official translation, "interreligious cooperation," is hardly adequate, connotes more than "working togeth er" organizationally. If coining an equally monstrous English term can be excused, the idea might be expressed as "interreligionization," the pro cess by which a plurality of religions are integrated into a unity. What pre cisely that unity consists of, and how Omoto perceives itself as the catalyst of that process, are questions this paper will address, as a study in the His tory of ideas. In so doing, it will examine the origin and early development ofbankyo-dokon 万教同根， "all religions (are derived from) the same root， " a seminal concept that has undergone-and is undergoing-complex 1 I am indebted to a num ber o f persons w ho offered insights in to my research, in partic u lar D aniel Overmyer and Miyata M am i o f the University o f British C olum bia, Koba Tsugim ori 木庭次守 o f O m o to in Kameoka, Nem oto H iro shi 根 本 宏 o f the Tokyo (G inza) N ihon K5manji-kai. Any errors are not theirs but m ine. Also， an earlier version o f this article a p peared in the Meiji Gakuin ronso N o. 426, M arch 1988， p p. 63-81. 2 The S hin to ceremonies occurred as part o f the festivities su rro u n d in g the openings o f an exhibition o f O m oto art at New Y ork's Cathedral o f S t.Jo h n the Divine and San Francisco's Grace Cathedral, both Episcopalian, under the ministries o f J. P. M orton and S. F. Rodgers.
Although there are two Mahikari, Sekai Mahikari Bunmei Kydan @8gxXY%D (Church of the World True-L... more Although there are two Mahikari, Sekai Mahikari Bunmei Kydan @8gxXY%D (Church of the World True-Light Civilization) and SiikyB Mahikari s&gx (True-Light Supra-Religious Organization), I do not differentiate between them, as the division mainly results from a successional dispute.
Preface and Acknowledgements. Introduction Chad M. Bauman and Richard Fox Young. Part 1. Who and ... more Preface and Acknowledgements. Introduction Chad M. Bauman and Richard Fox Young. Part 1. Who and What is an Indian Christian? 1. Godparents and the Mother's Brother: 'Spiritual' Parenthood among the Latin Catholics of Kerala, South India Miriam Benteler 2. Between Christian and Hindu: Khrist Bhaktas, Catholics and the Negotiation of Devotion in the Banaras Region Kerry P. C. San Chirico 3. Interlocking Caste with Congregation: A Political Necessity for Dalit Christians in Andhra, South India? Ashok Kumar M. Part 2. Whose Religion is Indian Christianity? 4. Late 16th- and Early 17th-Century Contestations of Catholic Christianity at the Mughal Court Gulfishan Khan 5. Authority, Patronage and Customary Practices: Protestant Devotion and the Development of the Tamil Hymn in Colonial South India Hephzibah Israel 6. From Christian Ashrams to Dalit Theology - or Beyond? An Examination of the Indigenisation/Inculturation Trend within the Indian Catholic Church Xavier Gravend-Tirole 7. Taking the Cross and Walking from Subalternity to Modernity James Ponniah Part 3. Can Christianity be Indian? 8. Times of Trouble for Christians in Hindu and Muslim Societies of South Asia Georg Pfeffer 9. The Interreligious Riot as a Cultural System: Globalisation, Geertz and Hindu-Christian Conflict Chad M. Bauman 10. Studied Silences? Diasporic Nationalism, 'Kshatriya Intellectuals' and the Hindu American Critique of Dalit Christianity's Indianness Richard Fox Young and Sundar John Boopalan. Afterword I Anne E. Monius. Afterword II Rowena Robinson.
A study in the history of the history of religions at Princeton Theological Seminary, the article... more A study in the history of the history of religions at Princeton Theological Seminary, the article reflects on the contribution of an under-appreciated figure on the faculty, Edward Jurji, a Syrian Christian acclaimed as a scholar of Islam and as a phenomenologist. Jurji’s intellectual odyssey is traced as he emerged from the shadow of his predecessor Samuel Zwemer, famed (and reviled) as a missionary polemicist in the Middle East, to become an avid proponent of a dialogical approach to the history of religions. Much is owed to Jurji for pioneering the seminary’s first large-scale interfaith colloquies.
That India once had a sustained ‘dialogue’ with Scottish Philosophy is not gener- ally known, or ... more That India once had a sustained ‘dialogue’ with Scottish Philosophy is not gener- ally known, or that the exchange occurred in the medium of Sanskrit, not English. The essay explores an important cross-cultural encounter in the colonial context of mid 19th-century Benares where two Scots, John Muir and James Ballantyne, served as principals of a Sanskrit college established by the East India Company. Educated toward the end of the Scottish Enlightenment, they endeavoured to translate such distinctive concepts of ‘Scotch Metaphysics’ as Externalism into Indian philosophical categories. The ensuing ‘dialogue’ with Brahmin interlocutors shows that the prob- lems they faced were less terminological than conceptual, having to do with contras- tive ways of understanding ‘mind’ and ‘man’. Between the two Scots, there were also signifi cant differences, although both had gone to India as Scottish Calvinists. While Muir remained largely impervious to Indian infl uence, Ballantyne was profoun...
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