'The Heathen in his Blindness...'

'The Heathen in his Blindness...' PDF Author: S.N. Balagangadhara
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004378863
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 579

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Book Description
Today, most intellectuals agree that (a) Christianity has profoundly influenced western culture; (b) members from different cultures experience many aspects of the world differently; (c) the empirical and theoretical study of both culture and religion emerged within the West. The present study argues that these truisms have implications for the conceptualization of religion and culture. More specifically, the thesis is that non-western cultures and religions differ from the descriptions prevalent in the West, and it is also explained why this has been the case. The author proposes novel analyses of religion, the Roman 'religio', the construction of 'religions' in India, and the nature of cultural differences. Religion is important to the West because the constitution and the identity of western culture is tied to the dynamic of Christianity as a religion.

'The Heathen in his Blindness...'

'The Heathen in his Blindness...' PDF Author: S.N. Balagangadhara
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004378863
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 579

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Book Description
Today, most intellectuals agree that (a) Christianity has profoundly influenced western culture; (b) members from different cultures experience many aspects of the world differently; (c) the empirical and theoretical study of both culture and religion emerged within the West. The present study argues that these truisms have implications for the conceptualization of religion and culture. More specifically, the thesis is that non-western cultures and religions differ from the descriptions prevalent in the West, and it is also explained why this has been the case. The author proposes novel analyses of religion, the Roman 'religio', the construction of 'religions' in India, and the nature of cultural differences. Religion is important to the West because the constitution and the identity of western culture is tied to the dynamic of Christianity as a religion.

Cultures Differ Differently

Cultures Differ Differently PDF Author: S. N. Balagangadhara
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000477738
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 183

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Book Description
This volume brings together a collection of essays by contemporary thinker and social scientist S.N. Balagangadhara which develop an alternative theoretical framework for a comparative study of Western and Asian cultures. These essays illustrate how ‘decolonisation of social sciences’ is a cognitive task and offer novel hypotheses about human beings and society. They demonstrate the implications of cultural difference in the study of domains such as psychology, political theory, ethics, religion, sociology, translation, law, Indology, and philosophy. The book addresses new questions in the study of Western and Indian culture and social sciences, and discusses themes like selfless morality and the moral self; knowledge and action; critical representations of Indian traditions and classical literature; law, religion and culture; translation and interpretations; and varna and social systems. Part of the Critical Humanities Across Cultures series, this interdisciplinary volume will be an essential read for scholars and researchers of philosophy, philosophy of science, ethics, religious studies, postcolonial studies, sociology and social anthropology, cultural studies, literature, comparative studies and Global South studies.

From Greenland's Icy Mountains

From Greenland's Icy Mountains PDF Author: Reginald Heber
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Christian poetry, English
Languages : en
Pages : 60

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Book Description
A Christian missionary poem promoting the spread of the religion to even the remotest of lands.

Reconceptualizing India Studies

Reconceptualizing India Studies PDF Author: Balagangadhara,
Publisher: OUP India
ISBN: 0198082967
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
This book presents a radical analysis of postcolonial studies as a discipline and modern India as a domain of study. It discusses wide variety of issues such as different definitions of culture, colonialism, secularism, and orientalist discourse.

Milton's Samson Agonistes

Milton's Samson Agonistes PDF Author: John Milton
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 282

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Book Description


The British Discovery of Buddhism

The British Discovery of Buddhism PDF Author: Philip C. Almond
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521033855
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
This is the first book to examine the British discovery of Buddhism during the Victorian period. It was only during the nineteenth century that Buddhism became, in the western mind, a religious tradition separate from Hinduism. As a result, Buddha emerge from a realm of myth and was addressed as a historical figure. Almond's exploration of British interpretations of Buddhism--of its founder, its doctrines, its ethics, its social practices, its truth and value--illuminates more than the various aspects of Buddhist culture: it sheds light on the Victorian society making these judgements.

Do All Roads Lead to Jerusalem?

Do All Roads Lead to Jerusalem? PDF Author: S. N. Balagangadhara
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781508578376
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
Do All Roads Lead to Jerusalem? traces the history of western encounters with other cultures on two occasions: the 'pagans' of Greece and Rome and the 'heathens' in India. The West has produced many descriptions of other cultures. A close examination of these descriptions reveals that these descriptions tell us more about western culture than about the cultures the West has attempted to describe. This over-arching theme is developed by examining one element in western culture, viz., religion. This book argues that religion is not a cultural universal and the belief that all cultures have religion is an assumption on the part of all scholars of religion. The reason for this is that western culture has been shaped by religion so that members of this culture are conceptually compelled to describe other cultures from within the framework of religion. From Biblical scholarship to the Enlightenment, from the Reformation to the Romantics, from believers to atheists, the cognitive scheme is the same - one that has been set in place by the experiential framework of Christianity. It is through this framework that all other cultures have been studied so far. Is it any wonder that members of such a culture saw religion wherever they went? By means of methodical arguments and lucid explanations this book demonstrates that religion is not a cultural universal and explains why it is believed to be so. Scholars in the field of religious and cultural studies will find this work illuminating, original, and deeply compelling.

What does it mean to be ‘Indian’?

What does it mean to be ‘Indian’? PDF Author: S.N. Balagangadhara, Sarika Rao
Publisher: Notion Press
ISBN: 1685097723
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 180

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Book Description
Why ask this question today? After all, a lot is written about India, her culture, her past, her society, the psychology and sociology of individuals and groups. Why is that not enough? It is because what we have learnt so far is either false or fragmentary. If Indian culture is not a slightly inferior, slightly idiosyncratic variant of Western culture, as the received view has it for a very long time, what else is it? Research into culture and cultural differences gives novel and surprising answers. Written for an intelligent but lay public, this book shares the results of 40 years of scientific investigations in the research programme Comparative Science of Cultures. It transcends the political distinction between ‘the right’ and ‘the left’ by looking deeper into ideas on human beings, society, culture, experience, the past, impact of colonialism etc. Today, the question ‘What does it mean to be ‘Indian’?’ is both important and difficult to answer. Is there something ‘Indian’ about this culture that goes beyond the differences between Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs or Jains? What does it überhaupt mean to belong to Indian culture?

Paradise Lost

Paradise Lost PDF Author: John Milton
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 106

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Book Description


Disabilities and the Disabled in the Roman World

Disabilities and the Disabled in the Roman World PDF Author: Christian Laes
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316730093
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
Almost fifteen per cent of the world's population today experiences some form of mental or physical disability and society tries to accommodate their needs. But what was the situation in the Roman world? Was there a concept of disability? How were the disabled treated? How did they manage in their daily lives? What answers did medical doctors, philosophers and patristic writers give for their problems? This book, the first monograph on the subject in English, explores the medical and material contexts for disability in the ancient world, and discusses the chances of survival for those who were born with a handicap. It covers the various sorts of disability: mental problems, blindness, deafness and deaf-muteness, speech impairment and mobility impairment, and includes discussions of famous instances of disability from the ancient world, such as the madness of Emperor Caligula, the stuttering of Emperor Claudius and the blindness of Homer.