This book focuses on dual belonging within Hindu-Christian contexts. Written by experts in a variety of fields, the chapters explore the theological, philosophical, and cultural anthropological debates relating to religious pluralism, religious language, and social identity while addressing the fact that both Hindu and Christian forms of self-understandings have been significantly moulded through their interactions in South Asia and across certain Euro-American horizons. The limits of the definition of dual belonging are tested via case studies, and contributors address the question of whether there is anything distinctive about dual belonging across Christianity and Hinduism specifically.
A timely contribution to the emerging subject of dual religious belonging, this book will be of interest to academics in the fields of Hindu studies and Christian theology, Hindu-Christian comparative theology, religious pluralism, interreligious relations, the sociology and anthropology of religion, and comparative theology and philosophy.
Foreword–CATHERINE CORNILLE 1.Introduction: Both, Between or Beyond? An Introduction to Hindu-Christian Dual Belonging NADYA POHRAN AND DANIEL SOARS 2.Negotiating Dual Belonging: A Study of the Sociocultural History of the St. Thomas Christians of India RENISH GEEVARGHESE ABRAHAM 3.Neither myself nor another – the Interreligious Belonging of Raimon Panikkar MICHAEL BARNES SJ 4.The Possibility of Hindu-Christian Dual Belonging: Anthropological Reflections on a Theological Debate ANKUR BARUA 5.Considering the Case of Catholic-Hindu Dual Belonging from a Magisterial and Dogmatic Point of View GAVIN D’COSTA 6.Where We Start, Who We Are, What We Seek: The Born Versus the Convert ‘Dual Belonger’ RACHEL FELL McDERMOTT 7.The Comparative Theology of Francis X. Clooney SJ and the Question of Theological Dual Belonging MARTIN GANERI OP 8.Non-Dual Conversion and Non-Dual Belonging: Trajectories of Religious Transformation in Missionary Advaita Vedānta REID B. LOCKLIN 9.Hindu, Christian, Hindu-Christian, and Beyond: Exploring the Relations Between Identity and Spirituality JEFFERY D. LONG 10.The Struggle of Belonging: Considering Some On-the-Ground Realities of Multiple Religious Orientation NADYA POHRAN 11.Inculturation, Belonging, and Defining ‘Religion’: Some Reflections on Sara Grant and the Christa Prema Seva Ashram DANIEL SOARS 12.Christian Sannyāsa: Dual Belonging or a Bridge Too Far? PETER TYLER
Biography
Daniel Soars teaches in the divinity department at Eton College, UK. He received his PhD degree from the University of Cambridge, UK, for a comparative theological enquiry into the distinctive relation between the world and God in Christianity and Hinduism.
Nadya Pohran received her PhD degree from the University of Cambridge, UK. She is a cultural anthropologist currently working as a part-time professor and applied anthropologist, whose research explores existential belonging, interreligious relations, and the interdisciplinary conversations between anthropology and theology.
“This volume is a welcome addition to the growing literature on multiple religious identities, participation, and belonging. It is the first within this body of work to focus broadly on the variety of issues raised specifically by Hindu-Christian belonging.”
– Michelle Voss Roberts, Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies: Vol. 35, Article 19.
