The 'Heathen in His Blindness...': Asia, the West and the Dynamic of Religion (Studies in the History of Religions) [Hardcover]

S. N. Balagangadhara (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 9004099433 | ISBN-13: 978-9004099432 | Publication Date: January 1, 1994

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. This 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. The author proposes 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.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 563 pages
• Publisher: Brill Academic Pub (January 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9004099433
• ISBN-13: 978-9004099432
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,823,809 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent book: read it., August 5, 2000

By 

J. M. Fox (Chicago, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The 'Heathen in His Blindness...': Asia, the West and the Dynamic of Religion (Studies in the History of Religions) (Hardcover)

It is not often that one reads a book that changes one's outlook drastically. This is one such book. I am really impressed. Sooner or later, the ideas propounded in this book will prove to be a major challenge to many disciplines like anthropology, religious studies, and such like.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent book: read it., August 5, 2000

By 

J. M. Fox (Chicago, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The 'Heathen in His Blindness...': Asia, the West and the Dynamic of Religion (Studies in the History of Religions) (Hardcover)

It is not often that one reads a book that changes one's outlook drastically. This is one such book. I am really impressed. Sooner or later, the ideas propounded in this book will prove to be a major challenge to many disciplines like anthropology, religious studies, and such like.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars most misunderstood, August 26, 2005

By 

V. Annem "feng blao" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The 'Heathen in His Blindness...': Asia, the West and the Dynamic of Religion (Studies in the History of Religions) (Hardcover)

This work is most misunderstood by those who approvingly cite this, and by those who criticize this work. This misunderstanding has nothing to do with the structure of the book, but everything to do with the nature of any scientific hypothesis. The author has *not* criticized the concept 'religion' because the latter is western: do we think the concept of positron is western? And this book is not a critique of essentialism: entire natural sciences are `essentialistic.' `culture' is not monolithic; of course, species is not monolithic either, yet is amenable to study. What properties of Christianity are ones by virtue of which Christianity is a religion? Here Sweet Willman, in his criticism of the book, presumed that the properties of Christianity = the properties of religion. There are others who criticize it because it conflicts with their intuition. Of course, the author explained the necessity of experiencing religion in India.

Coming back to what the book does: the author identified a set of problems through historical research. Any theory of religion has to solve these problems. The author proposed a hypothesis of religion that solves these problems, and further explains the experience of believers; that shows why one can't study, say, Christianity as religion without being a believer. Then it is showed, one is compelled to do theology in order to study Christianity as a world view. Given this, the author shifted the study to a different level of abstraction: religion as that which generates a configuration of learning. This hypothesis sheds light on various issues: skepticism of Antiquity; origin of natural sciences in the West; vacuous debates of all sorts of relativism; cultural differences; theories of actions; etc. In other words, this theory does generate more problems, and can solve the same problems-in the long run.

The author nowhere did mention that `Hinduism', `Buddhism' etc. are not `something' else but not religions; whatever conceptual gestalts these entities `Hinduism' etc. refer to are non-existent in the way unicorn is.