Abstract
Although a theoretical connection between radical theology and Hinduism is not immediately apparent, this chapter argues in support of such connectedness. As an apocalyptic reversal of orthodox doctrines and retrieval of a more authentic Christian core, radical theology deploys the main principles operative in the tradition of Yoga, and especially Tantra. The hermeneutic dialectic between hegemonic and subaltern interpretations in both Christianity and Hinduism have elicited ever deeper understandings of the original kerygma. Both are radicalizing their respective traditions and enacting revolutionary forms of coincidentia oppositorum, incorporating the other, the repressed, in all its forms.
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Notes
- 1.
Anantanand Rambachan, A Hindu Theology of Liberation (Albany: SUNY P, 2015).
- 2.
Jeffrey W. Robbins, Radical Theology (Bloomington: Indiana UP, 2016), 6–7.
- 3.
Ibid., 9.
- 4.
Lissa McCullough, “Introduction,” in Thomas Altizer, The Call to Radical Theology (Albany: SUNY P, 2012), xxviii.
- 5.
Ibid., xxxi.
- 6.
Gavin Flood, “Introduction,” in The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism (Malden: Blackwell, 2005), 3.
- 7.
Francis X. Clooney, Comparative Theology (Malden: Blackwell, 2010), 70–73.
- 8.
The archeological excavations that began in the mid-nineteenth century uncovered vestiges of an urban civilization in the Indus valley, Harappa and Mohenjo-daro being its main cities. The silhouette on a seal of a horned figure seated in a yoga posture interpreted as proto-Siva and numerous female figurines are evidence that the Indus valley or Harappan civilization was matriarchal, observed a cult of fertility, goddess worship, as well as the practice of yoga.
- 9.
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and Charles Moore, A Sourcebook in Indian Philosophy (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1957), xix–xxii.
- 10.
G. W. F. Hegel, Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion, trans. R. Brown, P. Hodgson, and J. Stewart (Berkeley: U California P, 1988), 269.
- 11.
Ibid., 283.
- 12.
Robbins , 5–9.
- 13.
Mark Taylor, Erring (Chicago: U Chicago P, 1987).
- 14.
Mircea Eliade, Yoga, trans. Willard Trask (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1969).
- 15.
Ibid.
- 16.
Mircea Eliade, “Introduction au tantrisme,” in J. Masui, Approches de l’Inde (Cahiers du Sud, 1949), 134.
- 17.
Ibid., 132–133.
- 18.
Joshua Ramey, The Hermetic Deleuze (Durham, NC: Duke UP, 2012).
- 19.
Eliade (1969), 227–228.
- 20.
Lord Venkateshwara, endearingly called Balaji or Govinda, is worshipped at Tirumala Temple at Tirupati, in Andhra Pradesh. An avatar of Vishnu, the preserver in the Hindu trinity, he came down from his divine abode to help humanity during Kali Yuga, the final age of a cycle of manifestation. An intricate legend has him owe a large debt to Kubera, gods’ treasurer, that he must pay back before he can return to his divine milieu. Pilgrims donate money to the temple in order to help Vishnu avatar pay back his loan. In exchange, Lord Venkateshwara fulfills their desires. This is the richest temple and most visited holy site in the world: 50,000 to 100,000 pilgrims daily, reaching 500,000 on special occasions. A Tantric and apocalyptic God of Kali Yuga, Vishnu-Venkateshwara’s gaze is, legend has it, so powerful that his eyes are veiled by a white cloth in order to prevent the pilgrims from being consumed in a holocaust during darsan.
Kumbh Mela, Allahabad, 2013, was the largest religious gathering on earth: 120 million people. Vishnu is the deity associated with Kumbh Mela festival tradition.
Kumbh Mela and Tirupati illustrate the Tantric coincidentia oppositorum of transcendence and immanence as desires of God and the world are ultimately impossible to separate. The events contain secular, profane, as well as sacred elements; the sacred is being reached through and in the profane, which is thus sacralized. Ambiguity, passion, and excess are certainly their most distinguishing marks.
- 21.
Ray Hart, God Being Nothing (Chicago: U Chicago P, 2016).
- 22.
Mircea Eliade (1969).
- 23.
Ibid., 205–206.
- 24.
Ibid., 206–207.
- 25.
Ibid., 202–203.
- 26.
Varanasi also known as Benares or Kashi has been the city considered blessed by Mother Ganga, Ganges River anthropomorphized as Mother Ganga. As Shakti, Mother Ganga is a kind of chora, a receptacle of all, capable of transfiguring, transubstantiating all. Taking the myth literally, pilgrims come to bathe, cleanse, purify, physically, morally, spiritually, they sink their pain, sinfulness, dead bodies , offering them to the all-embracing, all-encompassing, forgiving, healing, loving Mother. Although the pollution of the river has reached high levels, pilgrims continue to flow into Varanasi, exasperating ecological concerns. A literal, first naivete interpretation of myth? A Tantric coincidentia oppositorum? Moral irresponsibility? Ecological unawareness? The power of tradition? Faith taken to the limit? All of the above, fusing into a perennial symbol of totality and the primordial, pre and post-reflective.
- 27.
Paul Eduardo Muller-Ortega, The Triadic Heart of Shiva (Albany: SUNY P, 1989)
- 28.
Abhishiktananda (1910–1973), born Henri Le Saux, was a French monk who, having moved to India in 1948 in search of a more radical form of spiritual life, adopted sannyasa in accordance with Indian tradition and became one of the pioneers of Hindu-Christian dialogue. Multiple contacts with prominent saints such as Sri Ramana Mararshi led him to profound Advaitic experience as well as to final recognition of the truth of Advaita during the last years of his life.
- 29.
Sara Grant (1922–2002) was a British Indologist, Christian missionary, and one of the pioneers of interreligious dialogue in the twentieth century. She came to India in 1956, as a missionary and member of the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and became actively engaged in interreligious dialogue in India. Her association with Swami Abhishiktananda further led to working on Shankara Advaita Vedanta as revealed in her spiritual autobiography, Towards an Alternative Theology (South Bend, IN: U Notre Dame P, 1992).
She taught philosophy in Mumbai and Pune and spent many years as co-acharya of the Christa Prema Seva Ashram in Pune, which combines the Hindu ashram and sannyasa model and Christian monasticism.
- 30.
Eliade (1969), 203–204.
- 31.
Ibid., 204.
- 32.
Ibid., 206–207.
- 33.
Danny Boyle’s film Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight, 2008) is a cinematic adaptation of Indian author and diplomat Vikas Swarup’s novel Q & A (New York: Scribner, 2005). Acclaimed in the west (eight Academy Awards and four Golden Globes) and submitted to vitriolic critiques by Indian press, scholars, and film directors, the film plays out a series of Tantric reversals following the biography of an untouchable from childhood to adulthood: through a typical picaresque trajectory, retold in flashback in his own defense, in spite of all odds, the uneducated Muslim boy living in the slums, Jamal Malik (Dev Patel) gains his 20 million in a Who Wants to Be a Millionaire televised contest thanks to personal experience rather than formal education and scholastic training. Several Tantric claims are illustrated: true knowledge is gained through personal total engagement in the world, the winner at the game of life can be Everybody, distinctions in society are illusory and can be transcended, the last could be the first.
This Tantric principle is embodied in real life by Mata Amritanandamayi, known as Amma, the hugging mother, for whose loving, healing, transforming touch thousands line up during her tours in India and abroad, embraces the everybody, irrespective of caste, gender, race, nationality, condition. Her global charitable organizations, Embrace the World, are extensions of interreligious universal principles of love, serve, and conserve.
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Feld, A.N. (2018). Hinduism. In: Rodkey, C., Miller, J. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Radical Theology. Radical Theologies and Philosophies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96595-6_38
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