Christians Meeting Hindus. an Analysis and Theological Critique of the Hindu-Christian Encounter in India"

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Volume 20 Article 23

January 2007

Book Review: "Christians Meeting Hindus. An Analysis and Theological Critique of the Hindu-Christian Encounter in India"

Bradley Malkovsky

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Recommended Citation Malkovsky, Bradley (2007) "Book Review: "Christians Meeting Hindus. An Analysis and Theological Critique of the Hindu-Christian Encounter in India"," Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies: Vol. 20, Article 23. Available at: https://doi.org/10.7825/2164-6279.1398

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]. Malkovsky: Book Review: "Christians Meeting Hindus. An Analysis and Theological Critique of the Hindu-Christian Encounter in India"

Book Reviews 69

Christian theology. As he sets Tillich and invariably leads the interpreter home, albeit to a Shankara side-by-side, Thatamanil also notes home that has been de-familiarized and flaws in their respective schemas: "In Sankara's transformed by the comparative exercise. In the , case, failure to adhere rigorously to nondualism case of Thatamanil, this home is self-evidently gives rise to a tendency to define away the world the 20 th'-century liberal Protestantism of Paul as unreal. In Tillich' s case, his belief that Tillich and his interpreters. The great virtue of freedom requires separation between God and The Immanent Divine is not that it shakes off creature gives rise to a tragic vision of human this tradition, but that it pursues the tradition's life as inevitably compromised by ineradicable normative theological agenda in a comparative ambiguity" (92). Both difficulties can, mode. . When Thatamani1 announces his desire moreover, be traced to a common source: a to take up "Tillich's unfulfilled intention" to re "substantialist. conception of ultimate reality" write his systematic theology in dialogue with (166). In the interest of constructing _ an "the world's religious traditions" (8), the wisest alternative, the book's final chapter mines the course would be to take him at his word and to work of contemporary Christian philosophers judge his constructive proposal accordingly. Joseph Bracken and Neville himself, proposing a Indeed, as is so often the case in these kinds "dynamic apophatic nondualism" that re-casts of studies, it may well turn out that the final divine ultimacy in terms of creative activity conclusions possess less intrinsic value than the rather than substantial existence. By making comparison itself. It is precisely when such a metaphysical move, Thatamanil argues, Thatamanil is struggling with particulars one can preserve the best insights of both arguing the persistence of worldly activity in the traditions without falling prey to what turns out life of the liberated self-knower, for example, or to be simply more subtle and insidious forms of interpreting ecstasy as a mode of human living dualism. rather than as an isolated event-that his writing Unsympathetic critics of The Immanent is most persuasive. These are the discussions Divine will no d.oubt challenge Thatamanil's that most strongly held my interest and to which alternative. It seems dubious, at the very least, I expect to find myself returning in years to to suggest that the riddle of divine immanence come. The various parts of The Immanent can be resolved by appeal to a couple of Divine are thus, I suggest, ultimately and contemporary North Americans. Why the ironically greater than the whole. laborious comparison, spanning twelve centuries, if a more compelling answer can be Reid B. Locklin found so close to home? A case can be made, University of Toronto however, that authentic interreligious study

Christians Meeting Hindus. An Analysis and Theological Critique of the Hindu-Christian Encounter in India. Bob Robinson. Carlisle, Cumbria, UK and Waynesboro, GA, USA: Regnum, 2004, 392 + XVll1 pp.

THIS book justifiably earned a place among a present volume grows out of that dissertation, it small group of finalists for the Society of Hindu has been substantially updated and expanded to Christian S~udies book award for publications include literature through the year 2000. appearing between 2003 and 2005. The author, Robinson spent extel!sive time in India in the who teaches at the Tyndale Graduate School of 1980s and 1990s in researching what has turned Theology in New Zealand, earned a doctorate in out happily to be a mine of infonnation for 1992 at the University of London under the scholars seeking extensive analysis and guidance of Geoffrey Parrinder. Although the theological sources on a myriad of issues

Published by Digital Commons @ Butler University, 2007 1 Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies, Vol. 20 [2007], Art. 23 70 Book Reviews 1 relating to the Hindu-Christian encounter. His very insightful commentary. And there is no intent is to examine as comprehensively as trace of polemics from this evangelical possible dialogue. as it has been pursued Christian. especially in India during the last four decades In the final two. chapters the author of the twentieth century. This is a tall order to establishes the need for a dialogue that is based fill, and no one book can claim to exhaustively on Indian Christo logy rather than on report on every aspect of such an encounter. But theocentrism or pluralism. Robinson's this book comes nearer than any other in conviction is that the most useful Christo logy is attaining such a lofty goal. I would go so far as one that will best promote understanding and to state that the volume is breathtaking in both dialogue between the two religions. He first breadth and depth. The author has read, takes up standard themes of cosmic Christology . assimilated, and theologically evaluated a truly and the historical Jesus before examining the astonishing amount of material. Indeed each usefulness of various Hindu terms and section of the book is a compact and categories to mediate a deeper awareness of the theologically well-written essay in itself. The value and significance of Christ, not only for book will appeal especially to those interested in Hindus, but also for Christians. Christ the philosophical and theological encounter of expressed as guru, avatar, cit, sabda, prajnana, Hinduism and Christianity. Though pp. 41-53 and others are all considered; with reference to I take up various forms of informal dialogue, e.g. attempts by past and contemporary writers to I' mutual participation in festivals and worship, make such connections. Also discussed are the I!I

,,' 1 literature and art, the book for the most part possibility of seeing Christ primarily in the '" treats the encounter of theological ideas. context of bhakti or advaita or' social liberation. One of the guiding concerns of the book is After all these Christo logical considerations' to examine "why and how the practice of Robinson surprises the reader by suggesting that dialogue has ,come to displace, for some, "a wholly christocentric justification of Hindu- previous attitudes of confrontation and , Christian dialogue is difficult to sustain. Some monologue." (xi) To that end chapter 1, "The aspects of the trintarian and pneumatological Path to Dialogue in India," examines the pre dimensions of a theology of religious encounter dialogical history of a less than lustrous and dialogue may be even more appropriate than Christian mISSIOnary triumphalism and Christology" (336). apologetic approach to Hinduism followed by This is an excellent reference work for various Hindu responses, especially during the obtaining a reliable overview and theological last two centuries. The shift to dialogue that evaluation of the best literature on a multitude of began in the early 1960s and picked up .steam for topics, whether it be comparisons of avatar and the remainder of the century was made possible incarnation, a summary and evaluation of by a number of factors, listed in chapters 2 and models of mission, an extensive summary and 3, such as the desire to defuse inter-religious appraisal of the work of R. Panikkar and other tension, common concerns for social justice and important figures in twentieth century nation-building, the recognition of a shared interreligious exchange, religious double humanity with members of other faiths, as well belonging, christocentrism vs. theocentrism, as a growing acceptance of religious pluralism Hindu and Christian fulfillment theories and as a fact of the modern world. their rejection, the value of history and As with the rest of the book, already in the personhood in the Hindu-Christian encounter, first chapter one comes away impressed by the the theological significance of religious thoroughness with which every idea, person, and experience, changing Catholic and Protestant mode of encounter is summarized, whether assessments of Hinduism, or many others. One briefly or extensively. For example, the list of learns to appreciat~ the complexity of 'Hindu important literature on Christian theological Christian encounter' and its changing contours. reactions to the work of S. Radhakrishnan runs We discover, for' example, that in the first six more than half a page long (12). One is helped decades of the twentieth century, i.e. prior to along the way, too, by the author's learned and Vatican II, the official Catholic. approach to

https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/jhcs/vol20/iss1/23 DOI: 10.7825/2164-6279.1398 2 , :1' Malkovsky: Book Review: "Christians Meeting Hindus. An Analysis and Theological Critique of the Hindu-Christian Encounter in India"

Book Reviews 71

encounter with Hindus was more conservative brief. In a book as comprehensive as this one, and more hostile than Protestant attitudes. an extensive bibliography is absolutely The book has nonetheless two defects that indispensable for locating particular authors, will prove challenging to the scholar seeking to literature, and ideas. . track down information. First, the bibliography These flaws are relatively small when sometimes lists only some of the important compared to the great accomplishment of this works of a given author while omitting other book. It is a theological resource that is to be ,even more important writings, even though the . savored and digested slowly. entries missing have already been included in the footnotes. Julis Lipner, who is referred to several times in the book, is omitted from the Bradley Malkovsky bibliography altogether. Second, and even more University of Notre Dame problematic, is the index, which is much too