The Bloomsbury Research Handbook of Vedanta

by Arindam Chakrabarti (Contribution by), Stephen Phillips (Contribution by), Francis X. Clooney, S.J. (Contribution by), Jeffery D. Long (Contribution by), Daniel Raveh (Contribution by)

Overview

This handbook brings together a distinguished team of scholars from philosophy, theology, and religious studies to provide the first in-depth discussion of Vedanta and the many different systems of thought that make up this tradition of Indian philosophy.

Emphasizing the historical development of Vedantic thought, it includes chapters on numerous classical Vedantic philosophies as well as the modern Vedantic views of Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Aurobindo, and Romain Rolland. The volume offers careful hermeneutic analyses of how Vedantic texts have been interpreted, and it addresses key issues and debates in Vedanta, including religious diversity, the nature of God, and the possibility of embodied liberation. Venturing into cross-philosophical and cross-cultural territory, it also brings Vedanta into dialogue with Saiva Nondualism as well as contemporary Western analytic philosophy.

Highlighting current scholarly controversies and charting new paths of inquiry, this is an indispensable research guide for anyone interested in the past, present, and future of Vedanta and Indian philosophy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781350063259
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	05/28/2020
Series:	Bloomsbury Research Handbooks in Asian Philosophy
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	492
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Ayon Maharaj (Swami Medhananda) is Senior Research Fellow in Philosophy at the Vedanta Society of Southern California in Hollywood, USA.

Arindam Chakrabarti, Nirmal and Augustina Mattoo Chair of Classical Indic Humanities, Stony Brook University, USA.
Stephen Phillips is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Asian Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, USA.
Francis X. Clooney, S.J., is Parkman Professor of Divinity and Professor of Comparative Theology at Harvard Divinity School.
Jeffery D. Long is professor of Religion and Asian Studies at Elizabethtown College, author of several books, and a 2018 recipient of the Dharma Seva Award for his work to dispel stereotypes about Hinduism.
Daniel Raveh is Professor of Indian and Comparative Philosophy at Tel Aviv University, Israel.

Table of Contents

Notes on Contributors
Acknowledgements
Chapter Summaries

Introduction: The Past, Present, and Future of Scholarship on Vedanta, Ayon Maharaj (Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Educational and Research Institute, India)

Part 1: Classical Vedanta
1. Contemplating Nonduality: The Method of Nididhyasana in Sankara's Advaita Vedanta, Neil Dalal (University of Alberta, Canada)
2. Soul and Knowledge in Visistadvaita Vedanta of Venkatanatha, Marcus Schmücker (Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austria)
3. Vyasatirtha's Nyayamrta: An Analytic Defense of Realism in Madhva Vedanta, Michael Williams (University of Vienna, Austria)
4. Accomplishing the Impossible: Jiva Gosvami and the Concept of Acintya in Caitanya Vaisnava Vedanta, Ravi M. Gupta

Part 2: Modern Vedanta
5. Sri Ramakrishna's Philosophy of Anekanta Vedanta, Jeffery D. Long (Elizabethtown College, USA)
6. Sri Aurobindo's Psychology of a “Psychic Being” in Support of a Metaphysical Argument for Reincarnation, Stephen Phillips (University of Texas at Austin, USA)
7. Debating Freud on the Oceanic Feeling: Romain Rolland's Vedantic Critique of Psychoanalysis and His Call for a “New Science of the Mind,” Ayon Maharaj (Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Educational and Research Institute, India)

Part 3: Key Themes, Concepts, and Debates in Vedanta
8. Making Space for God: Karma, Freedom, and Devotion in the Brahmasutra Commentaries of Sankara, Ramanuja, and Baladeva, Andrew Nicholson (SUNY Stonybrook, USA)
9. Vedantic Approaches to Religious Diversity: Grounding the Many Divinities in the Unity of Brahman, Ankur Barua (University of Cambridge, UK)
10. Nondual Philosophies in Dialogue: The World and Embodied Liberation in Advaita Vedanta and Pratyabhijña, Klara Hedling (University of Oxford, UK)

Part 4: Hermeneutic Investigations
11. Seeing Oneness Everywhere: Sri Aurobindo's Mystico-Immanent Interpretation of the Isa Upanisad, Ayon Maharaj (Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Educational and Research Institute, India)
12. On the Style of Vedanta: Reading Bharatitirtha's Vaiyasikanyayamala in Light of Madhava's Jaiminiyanyayamala, Francis X. Clooney (Harvard University, USA)
13. Sankaradigvijaya: A Narrative Interpretation of Sankara's Advaita Vedanta, Daniel Raveh (Tel Aviv University, Israel)

Part 5: Cross-Philosophical and Cross-Cultural Interventions
14. A New Debate on Consciousness: Bringing Classical and Modern Vedanta into Dialogue with Contemporary Analytic Panpsychism, Anand Jayprakash Vaidya
15. Mystical Experience as a Skeptical Scenario: Sri Harsa's Skeptical Advaita in the Khandanakhandakhadya, Ethan Mills
16. Dream and Love at the Edge of Wisdom: A Contemporary Cross-Cultural Remapping of Vedanta, Arindam Chakrabarti

Index

Editorial Reviews

The extensive scope of The Bloomsbury Research Handbook of Vedanta, covering material as diverse as an inquiry into the true image of contemplation to Romain Rolland's dialogue with Sigmund Freud on the epistemology of devotion and devotional experience, will encourage scholars to investigate an array of philosophical concerns and their expression in art and culture.” —Reading Religion

“Showcasing material from a commendably wide range of Vedantin traditions and time periods, this Research Handbook provides tantalising tasters of intra-Vedantin debates, ways of approaching texts, and modes of engaging Vedanta in cross-cultural conversations. With orienting introductions and bibliographies opening up the work of other important scholars in the field, this collection should provoke further specialist investigations and prove a rich source for those who are not specialists in Vedanta but would like to engage with these Indian examples of Asian Philosophy.” —Jacqueline Suthren Hirst, Honorary Research Fellow in South Asian Studies, University of Manchester, UK

“The Bloomsbury Research Handbook of Vedanta brings the work of scholars shaping the field of Indian philosophy into a volume that presses forward into the future of Vedanta scholarship. The book refutes misconceptions, and corrects for the historical imbalance in the coverage of this diverse set of traditions, by covering the philosphy of Viśiṣṭādvaita, Dvaitadvaita, Bhedabheda, and Advaita too, ranging from the earliest authoritative texts of the traditions to the most influential modern and contemporary thinkers. Ayon Maharaj's precise overview of Vedanta in the introduction makes the book accessible to the eager, beginning student of Indian philosophy, even as the articles push the reader into unexplored material, original theses, and innovative cross-cultural work. The book deserves a place among even small collections of contemporary research on Indian philosophy.” —Christopher Framarin, Professor of Philosophy, University of Calgary, Canada

From the Publisher