Author: Thomas A. Forsthoefel
Publisher: Motilal Banarsidass
Year: 2007
Language: English
Pages: 199
ISBN/UPC (if available): 9788120829565
Description
This book builds on contemporary discussion of 'mysticism' and religious experience by examining the process and content of 'religious knowing' in classical and modern Advaita. Drawing from the work of William Alston and Alvin Plantinga.
Thomas Forsthoefel examines key streams of Advaita with special reference to the conditions, contexts, and scope of epistemic merit in religious experience. Forsthoefel uniquely employs specific analytical categories of contemporary Western epistemologies as heuristics to examine the cognitive dimension of religious experience in Indian Vedanta.
Showing the developing nuances in the analysis of religious experience in the thought of Shankara and his immediate disciples (Suresvara and Padmapada) as well as in the teaching of Ramana Maharshi, an understudied but important South Indian saint of the 20th century, this book offers a substantial contribution to studies of Indian philosophy as well as to contemporary philosophy of religion. Using the tools of exegesis and comparative philosophy Forsthoefel argues for a careful justification of claims following religious experience, even if such claims involve, as they do in the Advaita, a paradoxical 'knowing beyond knowledge'.
Review:
“This book will be of interest to those working in the philosophical tradition currently represented by Alston and Plantinga, as well as specialists on the Sanskrit and Tamil texts of the Ramanuja School. The unusual combination of diverse intellectual traditions is the chief strength of the book, and Forsthoefel throws light on both traditions in the process of his discussion.”
- PAUL J. GRIFFITHS
“Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of Forsthoefel’s work is his commitment to consistently drawing out both the cognitive and social implications of the epistemology of religious experience, thus providing a compelling method for thinking about Hindu-Christian studies and taking it into the future.”
- PARIMAL G. PATIL
Contents
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
A BRIEF HISTORY OF EXPERIENCE
Prolegomena
Religious experience: historical context
Religious experience: contemporary
Philosophical context
Epistemology of religious experience
Epistemologies of religious experience in
Classical and modern Vedanta
THE EPISTEMOLOGY OF RELIGIOUS
EXPERIENCE IN SANKARA
Introduction
Internalism and externalism in Sankara
Knowledge and the means of knowledge in Advaita
The culture of liberation in Sankara
LATER ADVAITA ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE
Suresvara, Padmapada, the Vivekacudamani
Suresvara
Padmapada
The Vivekacudamani
THE SAGE OF PURE EXPERIENCE:
THE ADVAITA OF RAMAN MAHARSI
Introduction
Ramana Maharsi: life and woks
Ramana’s philosophy
Revalorizing the culture of liberation
THE COGNITIVE AND SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS OF
THE EPISTEMOLOGY OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE
Cognitive implications
Social implications
How and what we know in
Ramanuja’s soteriology
Conclusions
Bibliography
Index