Essays in Vedic Interpretation

Monday, February 19, 2007
Essays in Vedic Interpretation
Authority, Anxiety and CanonEssays in Vedic InterpretationEdited by Laurie L. Patton
Sri Garib Das Oriental Series No. 183Sri Satguru Publications (Delhi), ISBN: 81-7030-425-3
Price: Rs. 390
Contents:
PART ONEThe Vedas Reflect on Themselves
1. The Mastery of Speech( Cononicity and Control in the Vedas)David Carpenter
2. Veda in the Brahmanas( Cosmogonic Paradigms and the Delimitation of Canon)Barbara A. Holdrege
3. The Veda and the Authority of Class( Reduplicating Structures of Veda and Varna in Ancient Indian Text)Brian K. Smith
PART TWOThe Vedas in Classical Discourse
4. PuranavedaFrederick M. Smith
5. From Anxiety to Bliss( Argument, Care and Responsiblity in the Vedanta Reading of Taittiriya 2.1-6aFrancis X. Clooney, S.J.
6. "Whither the Thick Sweetness of Their Passion ?"( The Search for Vedic Origins of Sanskrit Drama)David L. Gitomer
PART THREEThe Vedas in Modernity and Beyond
7. The Authority of an Absent Text( The Veda, Upangas, Upavedas and Upnekhata in European Thought)Dorothy M. Figueira
8. From Interpretation to Reform( Dayanand's Reading of the Vedas)John E. Llewellyn
9. Redefing the Authority of Scripture( The Rejection of Vedic Infallibility by the Brahmo Samaj)Anantanand Rambachan
10. Poets and Fishes( Modern Indian Interpretation of the Vedic Rishi)Laurie L. Patton
Afterwords, Contributors, Index
About the Book
Authority, Anxiety and Canon elucidates a principal fundamental to Hinduism's self understanding - the Veda - while at the same time examining the methodological issues of the role of canon in religious tradition. Spanning the early periods of Indian religions history up to the twentieth century, the book combines theoretical sophistication and detailed scholarship to produce one of the first comprehensive works on Vedic interpretation since Louis Renou's Le Destin Du Veda.
Laurie L. Patton is Assistant Professor of Asian Religions at Bard College.
What a feast these essays provide! Together they constitute the most sophisticated yet accessible volume I have come across in years. There are moments in reading when I simply had to pause to write the word 'stunning' and to ponder the implications of what the author had just said.
Thomas B. Coburn, St. Lawrence University
This anthology assembles a series of superbly researched and written articles around the theme of authority and anxiety as it displays itself in the Hindu Tradition. The authors are the best of the generation of young scholars now establishing or having established their names in the field. There is a very good level of conversation amond the articles, and the editor's introduction does an exceptionally clear and compelling job of setting forth the issues of canon and authority with respect to the place of the Vedas in traditional Hindu culture and modern Western scholarly and Hindu tradition. The volume is well crafted, coherent and well written
Paul B. Courtright, Emory University
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Religious Pluralism and Truth - Essays on Cross cultural Philosophy of Religion

Religious Pluralism and TruthEssays on Cross - Cultural Philosophy of ReligionEdited by Thomas DeanSri Garib Dass Oriental Series No. 213Sri Satguru Publications (Delhi), ISBN: 81-7030524-1
Price: Rs. 400
About the Book
This book is an introduction to cross-cultural philosophy of religion. It presents an alternative to Western-oriented philosophy of religion by focusing on questions of truth in the context of religious pluralism, including the criteria, models, and hermeneutics of cross-cultural truth in religion. The essays included are by some of the leading philosophers of religion and scholars in comparative religious thought such as Ninian Smart, Raimundo Panikkar, Harold Coward, William Wainwright, William Christian Sr., and Frederick Streng.
Thomas Dean is Associate Professor in the Department of Religion at Temple University. He is co-founder of the newly-established International Association of Asian Philosophy and Religion.
"This anthology helpfully and provocatively questions many current assumptions in various schools of scholarship about the value-free nature, or ethical, cultural, and rational relativism, inherent to the comparative study of religions. This I think in itself makes the book important and helpful. Moreover, many of the essays suggest and evaluate possible normative-constructive criteria appropriate to the cross-cultural philosophy of religion, and some essays also helpfully raise and clarify some of the methodological weaknesses of past comparative studies."
Michael Stoeber, The Catholic University of America
Contents:
PrefaceIntroduction: Cross-Cultural Philosophy of ReligionThomas Dean
Part I. Religious Pluralism and Cross-Cultural Truth
1. The Philosophy of Worldviews, or the Philosophy of Religion TransformedNinian Smart
2. Philosophical Pluralism and the Plurality of ReligionsRaimundo Panikkar
3. Religious Pluralism and the Future of ReligionsHarold Coward
Part II. Criteria of Cross-Cultural Truth in Religion
4. Truth, Criteria and Dialogue Between ReligionsNinian Smart
5. Doctrinal Schemes, Metaphysics and Propositional TruthWilliam J. Wainwright
6. Religious Pluralism and Cross-Cultural Criteria of Religious TruthMary Ann Stenger
Part III. Models of Cross-Cultural Truth in Religion
7. The Logic of Oppositions of Religious DoctrinesWilliam A. Christian, Sr.
8. The Doctrines of a Religious Community about Other ReligionsJoseph A. DiNoia
9. The Logic of Interreligious DialogueNorbert M. Samuelson
10. Gadamer's Hermeneutics as a Model for Cross-Cultural Understanding and Truth in ReligionMary Ann Stenger
Part IV. Hermeneutics of Cross-Cultural Truth in Religion
11. Rethinking the Doctrine of Double-Truth: Ambiguity, Relativity and UniversalityConrad Hyers
12. Mystical Experience as a Bridge for Cross-Cultural Philosophy of Religion: A CritiqueJohn Y. Fenton
13. Structures of Ultimate Transformation and the Hermeneutics of Cross-cultural Philosophy of ReligionFrderick J. Streng
14. The Hermeneutics of Comparative Ontology and Comparative TheologyAshok K. Gangadean
NotesContributorsIndex

The Limits of Scripture: Vivekananda's Reinterpretation of the Vedas

The Limits of ScriptureVivekananda’s Reinterpretation of the VedasBy Anantanand RambachanSri Garib Das Oriental Series No. 193Sri Satguru Publications (Delhi), ISBN 81-7030-468-7xi, 171 pages
Price: Rs. 270
Contents:Introduction. 1. Attitudes toward scriptural authority and revelation from Rammohun Roy to Ramakrishna. 2. Vivekananda’s concept of the nature, role, and authority of the Vedas. 3. Karma, Bhakti, and Jnana as direct and independent ways to Moksa. 4. The meaning and authoritativeness of Anubhava in Vivekananda. 5. Vivekananda and Sankara. 6. The Legacy of Vivekananda. Notes, Glossary, Bibliography, Index.
About the Book
Hailed as one of modern India’s cultural heroes, Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902) has been credited not only with interpreting Hinduism to the west but with interpreting it to India itself. Despite his pervasive influence, critical assessments and attempts to "demythologize" Vivekananda have been rare, and rarer still are historical and hermeneutical clarification of his work. The Limits of Scripture offers a close examination of Vivekananda’s understanding of the authority of sruti (the Vedas) and its relationship to anubhava (personal experience).
Beginning with an analysis of western influences and Hindu responses in the nineteenth century, Anantanand Rambachan moves on to a careful explication of Vivekananda’s understanding of the Vedas, the nature and scope of their authority, and the hermeneutical principles employed by him in his approach to the texts. Throughout the discussion, the author also clarifies the generally overlooked distinctions between Vivekananda’s view of anubhava as the source of liberating knowledge and that of Sankara (ca. 788-820), the principal systematizer and exponent of the Advaita tradition, who argued for the Vedas as the authoritative source of this knowledge. The task of critically distinguishing Sankara and Vivekananda has not been thoroughly accomplished elsewhere and is crucial for understanding religious and philosophical change in modern Indian thought.
In addition this work evaluates the coherence and consistency of Vivekananda’s reinterpretations, drawing attention to important problems in his claim for the supremacy of personal experience, his arguments for "many paths to the same goal," and his attempts to reconcile the insights of Hinduism with the methods and findings of science. In undertaking this assessment and analysis, The Limits of Scripture makes a real contribution to the understanding of Vivekananda’s legacy, Indian religions, and the wider study of religion."