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Theology After Vedanta: an Experiment in Comparative Theology"

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Theology After Vedanta: an Experiment in Comparative Theology Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies Volume 6 Article 18 January 1993 Book Review: "Theology After Vedanta: An Experiment in Comparative Theology" Harold Coward Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/jhcs Part of the Religion Commons Recommended Citation Coward, Harold (1993) "Book Review: "Theology After Vedanta: An Experiment in Comparative Theology"," Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies: Vol. 6, Article 18. Available at: https://doi.org/10.7825/2164-6279.1087 The Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies is a publication of the Society for Hindu-Christian Studies. The digital version is made available by Digital Commons @ Butler University. For questions about the Journal or the Society, please contact [email protected]. For more information about Digital Commons @ Butler University, please contact [email protected]. Coward: Book Review: "Theology After Vedanta: An Experiment in Comparative Theology" 56 Book Reviews Theology After Vedanta: An Experiment in Comparative Theology. Francis X. Clooney, S.J., Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993, XVIII+265pp., $14.95 paper, $44.50 hardcover. THIS IS A TRULY original and important approach to doing comparative theology. book. It shows that people live from the This chapter is so insightful that it could well world of scripture rather than from the be used as a text for students studying dogmas that scripture may generate. It is also comparative methodology.· It is in tune with a most original and successful experiment in modem hermeneutics in that Clooney's focus comparative theology. Clooney's aim is 'the throughout is on 'how learning, writing and delineation of a better way that is more true knowledge follow from patient reading practical, more engaged in texts and in the .. .' (p.2). A method for balancing an engage­ concreteness of multiple theological ment of an 'other' tradition through reading traditions ... ' (p.2). What is offered is nothing and through the reappraisal of one's own short of a new way of doing theology which position is outlined. Clooney's comparative is at once comparative and based upon the theology moves one beyond the mere careful reading of scriptures and com­ cataloguing of different traditions for their mentaries. The comparative aspect is focused similarities or differences. It pushes one to on the Hindu Advaita Vedanta commentarial grapple with questions of the truth of one's tradition which is read together with the own or of others' knowledge of God - this is Christian Summa Theologiae of Thomas what makes his method 'theological'. But the Aquinas. motivation is not to see whose truth wins out, What Clooney offers is more than rather 'comparative theology' aims at the simply a comparison, it is also a sensitive rereading and rewriting of one's own truth and original exploration of how in such a from the outside perspective of another study the reader moves from the status of tradition - in this case the rewriting of 'observer' to 'participant' and the impact of Catholic theology from the reading of the this shift upon one's experience of truth. A Summa in the context of Advaita. This is not further contribution is Clooney's clear an easy method, for it requires of the theo­ demonstration that, contrary to most scholar­ logian the hard linguistic and Indological ship on Advaita Vedanta, what Sankara study necessary for a credible reading of the offers us is not philosophy but theology - a Advaita texts. But unlike much Indological theology deeply embedded in an exegetical or and Religious Studies methodology, commentarial tradition. In his analysis Clooney's approach is 'throughout invested Clooney gives us a fresh presentation of the with the dimension of faith. As he observes, content, character and soteriology of Advaita 'The faith of the inquirer cannot be separated Vedanta (chapters 2-4). The concluding from the faith claims of the inquirer's chapter is devoted to the reflective compari­ community; this faith is explicitly at issue in son of this new understanding of Advaita the comparative exercise, as much as a with the Summa of Aquinas resulting in an concern for truth that may emerge and claim enriched understanding of the latter. In short the scholar more or less profoundly during the end result is a rethinking and rewriting of the project of comparison' (p.8). Thus Christian theology after a close reading of Clooney distinguishes the study of religion Advaita Vedanta. and its goal of syllpathetically understanding In Chapter One the author sets out in another religion from the goal of comparative systematic fashion the key elements of his theology which aims at a critical restating of Published by Digital Commons @ Butler University, 1993 1 Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies, Vol. 6 [1993], Art. 18 Book Reviews 57 one's own beliefs in the context of the non­ its function in determining the main meaning reductionist reading of another's tradition. In of a text. Unlike the modem West where this sense comparative theology results in reason (as in Kant) functions ontologically to practical rather than theoretical knowledge - generate meaning, here reason is a technical it opens one to the possibility of being trans­ tool that removes obstacles to seeing the formed through the process of comparative given revelation of a text. reading and writing. It is in this sense that Although available to outsiders and Clooney talks of moving 'from reader as moderns, the reading of Advaita texts, as observer to reader as participant' (pp.34-5). Clooney demonstrates, is a slow and Chapter Two offers a close examination demanding process, which for the one willing \ of the texture of the Advaita text. The to make the intellectual effort can be a Upanishads upon which the Advaita pathway to truth. The way in which the commentaries depend are shown to evoke the extratextual truth of Brahman is realised teacher-student context and the proper through various reading strategies is relation of oneself to the world. What they described in Chapter Three. The truth claims offer is not to be passively received nor is it of Advaita Vedanta are embedded in the mere information, rather, it is new knowledge Truth-Text-Reader complex relationship. the student must gain through direct experi­ The truth of Advaita is shown to be inter­ ence. Clooney shows that the approach of the textual. Although language is limited it can, Upanishads in raising questions that are not through the careful reading of Upanishads entirely answered is preserved and extended and commentaries, mediate knowledge of in Advaita texts. He then goes on to examine Brahman. Chapter Four offers a sensitive the forms of Advaita text - sutra and analysis of just how this truth about adhikarana - and how they function in· Brahman is mediated in the interaction relation to the original Upanishads. They' are between the Advaita texts and their readers. shown to lead to an ever-deeper reading of Vacaspati Misra's analogy that learning the text as well as a widened understanding to hear Brahman in the text is like learning to of the passage in the context of those coming truly hear a note of music (p.126) is before and after it (p.48). revealing. It also highlights one problem I The way in which this process works in have with Clooney's otherwise splendid Badarayana's systematisation of the presentation. He does not give enough Upanishadic text and the later commentaries attention to the oral hearing aspect of the of Sankara and others is well demonstrated in Advaita process of having truth mediated Clooney's careful tracing of specific example through texts. Clooney's approach con­ texts such as Taittiriya 2.1-6a ('Is Brahman centrates too much on careful reading at the the fifth sheath "consisting of bliss" or is it expense of careful hearing through constant beyond that sheath?'). The author's aim in repetition of the sort suggested by this close reading of Advaita texts is not just Vacaspati's analogy. However, it may well to provide a better insight into these ancient be that the careful reading is 'hearing' the texts but to show that through this process words read 'in the mind' so that the reading the modem reader becomes a part of the process of Advaita is functioning as a yogic exchange - the ancient process comes alive repetition of the meaning mantra of the text. as one participates in it, offering new clari­ In this chapter Clooney offers the best fications and posing new questions. It i$ in analysis I have seen on Sankara's famous this way that the revealed text of the prerequisite requirements for 'becoming a Upanishad is kept fresh and relevant in its reader' (Brahmajijndsa). These are nicely constant evolution through the commentarial integrated with the four stages of life which process. The role of reason in this intricate is the only way to have them make sense. process is also examined (pp.63-74) to show The same may be said for the necessary https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/jhcs/vol6/iss1/18 DOI: 10.7825/2164-6279.1087 2 Coward: Book Review: "Theology After Vedanta: An Experiment in Comparative Theology" 58 Book Reviews inter-relation of ritual and textual knowledge. parallel reading is introduced with To his credit Clooney also takes up the Amalananda's text dealing with the qualities traditional exclusivism and elitism of Advaita of Brahman (p.163). After identifying some (its reading is open only to upper-caste basic similarities and differences, Clooney males) and offers what he considers a outlines five strategies for reading the two 'loophole' - namely the fact that he, a texts together, two of which come from Christian outsider, has been able (faithfully it Advaita while the others include would seem) to take part in the prescribed Wheelwright's understanding of metaphor careful reading of Advaita texts.
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