'Hinduism' is a vastly complex phenomenon, a world religion with a history of over 3000 years. It has produced men and women who have made outstanding contributions across the range of civilised human behaviour, and played a crucial part in the rise of two other great religions - Buddhism and Sikhism. Julius Lipner was born and raised in India and is able to draw on his own experience of Hindu beliefs and practices to explain what it means to be Hindu in a changing world. Hindus examines the religion as a plural phenomenon - that is, as a family of religions, rather than a monolithic entity. The approach is thematic, and the author considers various topics - such as the status of women - in more than one place and from more than one angle. He also tells and sometimes analyses Hindu stories, stressing the narrative quality of Hindu religion and giving us an insight into the nature of the Hindu phenomenon itself. Hindus provides a new perspective on what it means to live as a Hindu and enables readers to appreciate this great and marvellous religious phenomenon, its extraordinary richness, and the way it encompasses human experience from the sublime to the ridiculous.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
There is a newer edition of this item:
|
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
Review
This book is quite simply the best book I have read on Hinduism in a long time.
–Girish Karnad, Indian playwright
Julius Lipners book is scholarly but at the same time very readable guide to Hinduism - a religion which is all to often misunderstood and mispresented.
–Mark Tully, former BBC Dehli Correspondent
–Girish Karnad, Indian playwright
Julius Lipners book is scholarly but at the same time very readable guide to Hinduism - a religion which is all to often misunderstood and mispresented.
–Mark Tully, former BBC Dehli Correspondent
About the Author
Julius J. Lipner is Senior Lecturer at the University of Cambridge. His is the author of The Face of the Truth (1986) and co-author of Hindu Ethics (1989).
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great book on Hinduism,
By
This review is from: Hindus (The Library of Religious Beliefs and Practices) (Paperback)
I am a Hindu, but know very little of Vedas, Upanishads, the rituals, the festivals, and all the other things that I see being done everyday. This book links all these up telling us how they came to be and how they are related and make sense. This is a serious book. Every chapter took a double read to absorb well.
Recommended
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fine, difficult, thorough survey of the intellectual and spritual side of Hinduism,
By Phil (Michigan) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Hindus (The Library of Religious Beliefs and Practices) (Paperback)
Lipner will absolutely stand out as the ONE book to get for a thorough, if for some too dense or "academic" in style, investigation of what it has meant and now means "to be a Hindu." If you read your T.S. Eliot when you were younger and still kick yourself that you don't know what the Upanishads really are, and you know Oppenheimer repeated "I am the destroyer of worlds" that time but just haven't gotten around the finding the locus classicus: You are obviously very interested in Hinduism, but haven't had the time to bone up on it. Read this book while you are re-reading the Bhagavad Gita (not an Upanishad and careful that you don't just call it an "epic.". The depth of Lipner's knowledge of his massive subject is plain to the careful reader on every page.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Inside This Book
(learn more)
First Sentence:
'Hinduism': a plural phenomenon, a global reality. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
dicing match, psychophysical ego, kumbha meld, ancient banyan, primary scripture, eternal dharma, cosmic person, erotic ascetic, mixed castes, accumulated karma, bhakti traditions, ultimate fulfilment, own dharma, sacrificial ritual Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Ram Mohan, Common Era, Yajur Veda, Brahminic Hinduism, Atharva Veda, Hindu India, Sanskritic Hinduism, Vedic Indians, Arya Samaj, Brahmo Samaj, Hare Krishna, Ramana Maharshi, Swami Vivekananda, Swami Dayananda Sarasvati, Adorable One, Madhowdas Rugnathdas New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
'Hinduism': a plural phenomenon, a global reality. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
dicing match, psychophysical ego, kumbha meld, ancient banyan, primary scripture, eternal dharma, cosmic person, erotic ascetic, mixed castes, accumulated karma, bhakti traditions, ultimate fulfilment, own dharma, sacrificial ritual Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Ram Mohan, Common Era, Yajur Veda, Brahminic Hinduism, Atharva Veda, Hindu India, Sanskritic Hinduism, Vedic Indians, Arya Samaj, Brahmo Samaj, Hare Krishna, Ramana Maharshi, Swami Vivekananda, Swami Dayananda Sarasvati, Adorable One, Madhowdas Rugnathdas New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 81
books:
See all 81 books this book cites
- The Sants: Studies in a Devotional Tradition of India by Karine Schomer in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- The Sacred Thread by J. L. Brockington in Front Matter, and Back Matter
- Village India: Studies in the little community (Midway reprint) by McKim Marriott in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- A History of Indian Philosophy (5 volume set) by S.N. Dasgupta in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Rationality in Question: On Eastern and Western Views of Rationality (Philosophy and Religion) by Shlomo Biderman in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
See all 81 books this book cites
Books on Related Topics
(learn more)
|
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product).
|
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
