Christianity

One could justifiably see spirituality (the Jewish, Christian and Islamic) as ‘Adhyatma’ if one focusses on the psychological transformations that a human being undergoes in the process of moving from the mundane life to a ‘spiritual’ one. You would be closer to the notion of ‘Adhyatma’ if you can also additionally guide such a process. Such guidance requires, of course, that there is some deep …

Chairman Sir, Ladies and Gentlemen, Good Morning. Actually I’m the odd man out. We have success stories. We have spiritual leaders; we have an extraordinarily organizational leader in front of us. And now I have to do an exam. You see, normally I take exams in the university. Now I have to do an exam. The exam is this I must move you from these wonderful stories, success stories, good stories, to …

I was expecting you to show me where the reasoning I formulated goes wrong , but you do not do so. The analogy you draw, I am afraid, does not quite do the job you want it to. One can easily hold the following two beliefs (your example) without any fear of contradiction: (a) There is only one way to Bombay (this is it) and (b) There are many ways to Bombay (this is one of them). The ‘how’ of it …

Actually, there are two questions that need to be distinguished from each other. There is, firstly, the question about the nature of ‘Eastern’ Christianity. If it is muted in its proselytizing drive in all cultures the same way and if it is ’tolerant’ in exactly the same way in all cultures, it makes sense to ask the question whether (a) different factors in all these cultures have brought about …

You claim that Jesus of Nazareth is a mystic. From the conversations so far, I presume that this is both your gut-feeling and conviction. The one deriving from your own mystical experience and the other because you find that mysticism, qua experience, does not distinguish between people on the basis of their color, creed, culture and country. I am perfectly willing to bow to authentic experience, …

According to Judaism, Christianity and Islam, ‘Hinduism’ is devil’s worship. Instead of quoting from their scriptures, let me give the barest of the bare outlines of their fundamental story about ‘God’ and ‘religion’. Nobelieverfrom any of these religions (their religious authorities included) could ever disagree with this outline. There are two ‘Gods’: the true God and the false God (notice the …

There are two distinct problems: one involving religions (like Christianity, Judaism and Islam) and the other involving the believers. Regarding these three religions: (a) insofar as these religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) are concerned, Hinduism is demonic. It is that because, according to all the three religions, ‘Hindus’ worship the devil (‘shaitan’) and his minions. That is to say, …

Here goes: that ‘Hindu’ religion is devil’s worship is central, crucial and vital to the religions that Judaism, Christianity and Islam are. ‘Why is that?’, you may ask. It is impossible to cover this question in the space of a post, and with the details the question demands. So, here is what can be done: (a) I will provide a very crude outline with respect to Christianity; (b) reread what I wrote …

(a) It appears to me that in these discussions, a very vital issue (if we want to talk about Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and their ‘problems’ with ‘Hinduism’, etc) is not being recognized. and that is this: religious ‘beliefs’ are not accorded their place, and are talked about as though they are merely a subset of the class of ‘beliefs’. (b) ‘Being a believer’ (I will confine myself to …

What is wrong with the intercultural exchange of categories? Throughout one gets the impression that there is something “fundamentally wrong” with categories shifting in meaning over time or with the introduction of categories from one culture into another culture. But what is important about these shifts in meaning? What exactly is the problem in introducing the category of religion into India or …

When a religion claims that it is the word of God and that the word is unconditionally true; and that, further, the word is about the Cosmos: everything that was, is and shall be. So, when I say that religion is such an entity, namely, it claims that it is the word of God and that it claims to be unconditionally true and that it is about the Cosmos, I am accepting the self description of religion. …

When we consider Paul Hacker’s story on ‘inclusivism as a typically Indian thought form’, all we can conclude is that he has used a typically Christian thought form to understand an aspect of the Indian cultural traditions, which he is unable to understand because it is completely different from what he knows. Hacker’s inclusivism is merely an attempt to strip the following Christian account from …

(1) What is called ‘mysticism’ in the western culture is not the same kind of experience that the different Indian traditions talk about. (2) I do think, as a corollary, that to describe the Indian ’enlightenment’ (let me use this word temporarily, the scare quotes indicate my reservations) as ‘mysticism’ is not to understand either. (3) There are different levels in and different ways to achieve …

In so far as the suggestion is that the English word ‘prostitute’ does not capture the connotations of the earlier uses of ‘Veshya’, as I said, I agree with all of you. In this sense, if you further suggest that ‘Apsara’ should not be considered as a synonym for ‘prostitute’, I would also agree. I do not suggest that ‘apsara’ and ‘prostitute’ are synonyms: for two words to be synonymous in this …

When a religion claims that it is the word of God and that the word is unconditionally true; and that, further, the word is about the Cosmos: everything that was, is and shall be. So, when I say that religion is such an entity, namely, it claims that it is the word of God and that it claims to be unconditionally true and that it is about the Cosmos, I am accepting the self description of religion. …

X says that Christological dilemma is some kind of theological logic and suggests that ordinary Christians are not affected by this artificial problematic. There are two issues here worth looking at separately. Is the problematic artificial? Well, it depends. I am not claiming that every Christian (past, present and future) is aware of this problematic, of course. This is a general formulation …

1: Atheism is a phenomenon that came into being in the western culture at around the time of the so-called Enlightenment. The West claims that it liberated itself from the dogmas of the Christian religion in this Enlightenment, and those who call themselves atheists mean by this that they belong to the enlightened people who “have escaped from the dogmatic illusions of religion.” Now, as it has …

The logical steps that inevitably make the claim that God revealed His Will in Jesus Christ into an unconditional and exclusive truth claim are fairly simple: (a) Christianity says that the universe was created by God, and that this universe is the perfect embodiment of His will or plan; (b) Furthermore, it claims that this God has revealed His Will to humankind, and that this revelation is the …

The first striking thing is their presumption of knowledge at several levels. Yet, they display abysmal ignorance. (a) Christianity has not just had a two thousand years’ history. It has also had two thousand years of doctrinal development. In the latter, every notion that has been employed here has been continuously discussed, refined, contested and so on. Their meanings, as they apply to …

Imagine that I were to say the following: Christ and Ganesha are manifestations of the same divinity; Christ came about 2000 years ago in the Middle East, whereas Ganesha is how he has appeared in India some 4000 years ago. Now no one can forbid me from saying this and calling myself a Christian. Question: what should a theory about Christianity do? Show how anyone who decides to call himself a …