Focusing on Christianity, Buddhism and Hinduism, this book argues that asceticism must be understood within the boundaries of tradition. It exemplifies a completely new paradigm for comparative religion which seeks to avoid a problematic universalism on the one hand and an area-specific relativism on the other. The volume's original contribution to methodology will be influential in the future development of comparative religious studies.
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Book Description
Asceticism, the idea of giving up sense pleasures for a spiritual goal, is practised in many religions. This book focuses on Christianity, Buddhism and Hinduism, and argues that asceticism must be understood within the boundaries of tradition. The book exemplifies a completely new paradigm for comparative religion which seeks to avoid a problematic universalism on the one hand and an area-specific relativism on the other. This ground-breaking contribution to methodology will be influential in the future development of the entire field of comparative religious studies.
About the Author
Gavin Flood is Professor of Religion at the University of Stirling, and the author of An Introduction to Hinduism (CUP, 1996).
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3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
The Ascetic Self,
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This review is from: The Ascetic Self: Subjectivity, Memory and Tradition (Paperback)
Although Flood is obviously a knowledgeable scholar of religion (his primer on Hinduism is excellent), I found that The Ascetic Self had limited usefulness due to Flood's forced and largely unsupported definition of asceticism. More specifically, Flood asserts that there is no asceticism outside of traditional religious contexts -- and only cosmological ones at that. This narrow and arguably untenable definition stands in opposition to the recent work of other scholars of asceticism including Geoffrey Galt Harpham and Richard Valantasis who assert (following Freud, Weber, Foucault and others) that asceticism is fundamental to the formation of culture itself and therefore, a very present force in contemporary Western societies. In the face of this compelling scholarship, Flood's definition just doesn't seem to fall within the 'realm of the true' and therefore represents a crucial flaw in his project. If Flood had wanted to limit the scope of his project to traditional religious contexts, he could have done this without excluding the possibility that some forms of secular asceticism do indeed exist and thrive in modern society.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Recommended review,
This review is from: The Ascetic Self: Subjectivity, Memory and Tradition (Paperback)
This book is not recommended for someone beginning to research the subject of asceticism. While the author does a good job exploring themes in ascetical practice, it is clear he assumes the reader already has an idea of what he is writing about. Terms, including those found in the subtitle, are never presented in a clear and delineating manner, and if the writer's intent is to offer "a new paradigm for comparative religion," the book should have been better organized to make his case, as it reads more like a collection of related essays than an effort to establish a new framework. The "essays," though, are good reading, and I found the chapter on Simone Weil informative and his concise analysis of Evagrian cosmology in Chapter 6 to be helpful, so the book is not lacking in providing insights into the subject.
If you are debating the purchase, there is a detailed review at www.hermitary.com which I recommend. (9/2008)
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
This book is devoted to the possibility of understanding the ascetic self in a time when most of us no longer find a place within ascetic traditions and in which asceticism is treated with suspicion. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
first person predicates, ascetic subjectivity, kula rite, perfectione monachorum, ascetic performance, ascetic self, cosmological religion, ascetic body, intentional suffering, ascetic discourse, inactive action, factory journal, ascetic path, ascetic acts, ascetic theology, mental fluctuation, transcendent subjectivity, hierarchical cosmos, absolute subjectivity, semantic density, scriptural traditions, subjective appropriation, liturgical order, religious reading, cosmological structure Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Peter Damian, Cambridge University Press, Simone Weil, Oxford University Press, South Asia, Acharn Mun, John Cassian, University of Chicago Press, Middle Ages, Pali Text Society, Maximus the Confessor, Princeton University Press, Clarendon Press, Fonte Avellana, Les Six Centuries, University of California Press, Patristic Greek Lexicon, Catholic Church, Greg Urban, Marguerite Porete, Paulist Press, Peter Ochs, The Craft of Thought, Theravada Buddhism New!
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
This book is devoted to the possibility of understanding the ascetic self in a time when most of us no longer find a place within ascetic traditions and in which asceticism is treated with suspicion. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
first person predicates, ascetic subjectivity, kula rite, perfectione monachorum, ascetic performance, ascetic self, cosmological religion, ascetic body, intentional suffering, ascetic discourse, inactive action, factory journal, ascetic path, ascetic acts, ascetic theology, mental fluctuation, transcendent subjectivity, hierarchical cosmos, absolute subjectivity, semantic density, scriptural traditions, subjective appropriation, liturgical order, religious reading, cosmological structure Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Peter Damian, Cambridge University Press, Simone Weil, Oxford University Press, South Asia, Acharn Mun, John Cassian, University of Chicago Press, Middle Ages, Pali Text Society, Maximus the Confessor, Princeton University Press, Clarendon Press, Fonte Avellana, Les Six Centuries, University of California Press, Patristic Greek Lexicon, Catholic Church, Greg Urban, Marguerite Porete, Paulist Press, Peter Ochs, The Craft of Thought, Theravada Buddhism New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 100
books:
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- John Cassian by Owen Chadwick on 7 pages
- A Patristic Greek Lexicon by G. W. H. Lampe on 6 pages
- Waiting for God (Perennial Classics) by Simone Weil on 5 pages
- The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism (Wiley-Blackwell Companions to Religion) by Gavin Flood on 4 pages
- RC Series Bundle: Oppression and Liberty (Routledge Classics) by Simone Weil on 4 pages
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