The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism (Wiley-Blackwell Companions to Religion) [Hardcover]

Gavin Flood (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Wiley-Blackwell Companions to Religion | Publication Date: February 17, 2003

An ideal resource for courses on Hinduism or world religions, this accessible volume spans the entire field of Hindu studies. It provides a forum for the best scholars in the world to make their views and research available to a wider audience.

• Comprehensively covers the textual traditions of Hinduism
  
• Features four coherent sections covering theoretical issues, textual traditions, science and philosophy, and Hindu society and politics
  
• Reflects the trend away from essentialist understandings of Hinduism towards tradition and regional-specific studies
  
• Includes material on Hindu folk religions and stresses the importance of region in analyzing Hinduism
  
• Ideal for use on university courses.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This collection offers a new way to parse the multiple entryways into the vast arena of Hinduism. Using the general divisional categories of theoretical issues, text and tradition, systematic thought, and society, politics and nation, Flood has achieved significant breadth in disciplines, subjects and historical perspectives." Choice

"This is a most welcome, timely, and authoritative assessment of the entire field of study, a most commendable response to an enormous challenge." Journal of Contemporary Religion

“It effectively serves to condense the proliferation of scholarship on Hinduism... The approach is interdisciplinary and places Hinduism not within a sphere of its own, but within a larger context, reading it as a dynamic product of historical global exchange. The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism also has an important section devoted to the Indian Sciences (language, mathematics, astrology, astronomy and medicine) which collectively destabilize colonialism’s claim that Hinduism was arbitrary and irrational. … A handsome addition to academic and personal libraries.” Asian Studies Review

Book Description

This volume presents the most recent scholarly thinking about Hinduism in an accessible way. It provides a forum for the best scholars in the world to make their views and research available to a wider audience. While comprehensively covering the textual traditions of Hinduism, the volume also includes material on Hindu folk religions and stresses the importance of region in analyzing Hinduism. In doing so, it reflects the current move away from essentialist understandings of Hinduism and towards traditionally and regionally specific studies. The Companion as a whole spans the entire field of Hindu studies and is divided into four coherent sections: theoretical issues, textual traditions, theologies, and Hindu society and politics.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 616 pages
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell (February 17, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0631215352
• ISBN-13: 978-0631215356
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 7.1 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,011,186 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very well put-together, December 28, 2009

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This review is from: The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism (Wiley-Blackwell Companions to Religion) (Paperback)

Blackwell Companions are quite good. Comprehensive and too the point. Helpful to fill in all the holes.