Read more
This book explores a number of concepts of God in Vaisnavism, which is commonly referred to as one of the great Hindu monotheistic traditions. By addressing the question of what attributes God possesses according to particular Vaisnava textual sources and traditions, the book locates these concepts within a global philosophical framework.
The book is divided into two parts. The first part, God in Vaisnava Texts, deals with concepts of God found in some of the more prominent canonical Vaisnava texts: the Bhagavad-Gita, the Bhagavata-Purana, the Jayakhya-Sa hita as representative of the Pañcaratras, and the Mahabharata. The second part, God in Vaisnava Traditions, addresses concepts of God found in several Vaisnava traditions and their respective key theologians. In addition to the A vars, the five traditional Vaisnava schools-the Sri Vaisnava tradition, the Madhva tradition, the Nimbarka tradition, the Pus imarga tradition, and the Caitanya Vaisnava tradition-and two contemporary ones-those of Ramakrishna (who has Vaisnava leanings) and Swami Bhaktivedanta-are considered.
The book combines normative, critical, and descriptive elements. Some chapters are philosophical in nature, and others are more descriptive. Each unpacks a specific Vaisnava concept of God for future philosophical analysis and critique. Written by experts who break new ground in this presentation and representation of the diversity of Vaisnava texts and traditions, the book provides approaches that reflect the amount of philosophical and historical deliberation on the specific issues and divine attributes so far considered in the field of Hindu Studies. This book will be of interest to researchers in disciplines including philosophy of religion and Indian philosophy, cross-cultural and comparative philosophy, analytic philosophy of religion, Hindu Studies, theology, and religious studies.
List of contents
1. Introduction; 2. The concept of god in the Bhavaga-Gita: A panentheistic account; 3. Beauty and form as a corollary of a perfect being: Krsna in the Bhagavata-Purana; 4. The nature of God in the Pañcaratra with specific reference to the Jayakhya-Sa hita; 5. Supreme Self and Supreme Lord: Cosmological monotheism in the Mahabharata epicr; 6. The A var concept of God and Tamil Vaisnavism: If we examine, there is but one God! 7. Two conceptions of the relation between self and God: The debate between Sankara and Ramanuja; 8. In defence of divine transcendence: Madhva's critique of 'material panentheism'; 9. Non-theism and theism in the Nimbarka Sampradaya; 10. Embodiment and abstraction: God in Pus imarga; 11. On saktis and their divine possessor: Towards a Gaudiya Vaisnava concept of God; 12. Harmonising the personal God with the impersonal Brahman: Sri Ramakrishna's Vijñana Vedanta in dialogue with Gaudiya Vaisnavism; 13. The God of yoga: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and divine pedagogy addressing divine hiddenness; Index
About the author
Ricardo Sousa Silvestre is Associate Professor at Federal University of Campina Grande, Brazil and Professor of the Graduate Program in Philosophy at Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Also, he is the leader of the project "Concepts of God and the Variety of Theisms in Indian Traditions", funded by the John Templeton Foundation. He has authored and edited several books, including
Beyond Faith and Rationality: Essays on Logic, Religion and Philosophy (2020).
Alan C. Herbert is Research Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies (OCHS), Oxford, UK. He was a director of the research project that made this volume possible: "A Philosophical Approach to the Vaishnava Concept of God", funded by the John Templeton Foundation through the Global Philosophy of Religion Project. He is the Indian Studies Lead Researcher for the John Templeton-funded project "Concepts of God and the Variety of Theisms in Indian Traditions". He is also a co-director of the OCHS research project: Hinduism in Modern Contemporary Society.
Benedikt Paul Göcke is Professor of the Philosophy of Religion and the Philosophy of Science at the Faculty of Catholic Theology, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany, a Research Fellow in Philosophy at Blackfriars Hall, Oxford University, UK and a Life Member of Clare Hall, Cambridge University, UK.
Summary
This book analyses the concepts of God in Vai??avism. It will be of interest to researchers in the fields of philosophy of religion and Indian philosophy, cross-cultural and comparative philosophy, analytic philosophy of religion, Hindu studies, theology and religious studies.
