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Zusatztext Eclecticism and Modern Hindu Discourse is a brilliant, erudite, and wide-ranging study that will be of interest in many fields of study. Klappentext In this new book! Brian Hatcher examines the modern Hindu penchant for constructing religious worlds in an eclectic fashion. Noting how Hindu apologists from Rammohun Roy to Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan make an almost promiscuous use of the world's many philosophies and religions to define anddefend Hinduism! Hatcher sets out to explore the ancient roots and contemporary significance of such eclectic borrowing. A discussion of the Vedic and classical roots of Hindu eclecticism affords Hatcher the opportunity to reflect upon the profound and widespread role of eclecticism in South Asianreligion! while consideration of the work of Swami Vivekananda--as well as a variety of religious reformers from nineteenth-century Bengal--suggests the ongoing significance of the phenomenon in colonial and postcolonial contexts. By examining the development of Brahmo and Neo-Vedanta discourse! Hatcher is able both to problematize the notion of a monolithic concept of religious eclecticism and to reflect upon the various ways scholars might nevertheless attempt to make sense of a bewildering variety of eclectic philosophies.What emerges is not simply an attempt to refine our understanding of the role eclecticism has played in the modern Hindu context! but an extended reflection upon changing attitudes toward eclecticism in the West! from Diderot and Kant through postmodern critical theory. By investigating modern andpostmodern perspectives on such issues as history! system! authenticity! and difference! Hatcher seeks to set in motion a dialectical approach to the study of eclectic world construction that balances the positivisitic confidence of modern scholarship with the playfulexuberance of postmodernpastiche. Invoking the critical theories of Salman Rushdie! Theodor Adorno! and Richard Rorty! Hatcher advocates an approach to modern Hindu eclecticism that honors its creative poetics while retaining the critical distance necessary for judging its somet Zusammenfassung This book examines the classical roots and contempoary significance of eclecticism within modern Hindu discourse. It focuses on the thought of Swami Vivekananda as exemplary of the tone and character of modern Hindu eclecticism and then seeks to identify its historical Indian antecedents....
