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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Same God in different religions?,
By Hartwig Eitzen (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Majesty and Meekness (Paperback)
I admire Carman's ability and sharpness to identify similarities between Christianism and other religions. I am also glad that he pointed out the differences as well. It is a very thorough book. The author has divided this book into five parts, and subdivided each part into several chapters. Part one is called "at the edge of theology." In chapter one Carman explains how he came to understand polarities in different religions and how he discovered similar polarities in the Christian religion or Christianity. Carman affirms that polarities do not contradict each other, but are necessary to explain the amplitude in range of a given divinity. In chapter two the author calls for a "deliberate effort to reestablish communication" between different religions; what he calls the "detour of scholarly understanding" (23). Carman recognizes that the road to establish new communications between communities of faith will be very difficult. He emphasizes the efforts made in this regard by the Norwegian W. Brede Kristensen from the University of Leiden and Gerardus van der Leeuw from the University of Groningen during the first half of the 20th century. While both agree on the importance of the scholar's own religious experience, they differ on how this experience should affect the scholar's research, teaching and writing. He also recognizes the German theologian Rudolf Otto as the one that introduced him to Ramanuja and awoke his interest in the comparative studies of religion. In part two of his book the author deals with polarities in Hindu theologies. Chapter three deals with the many different faces of Siva, the Supreme Lord in Hindu religion. One of these faces is represented in an image that shows Siva and the Goddess (Parvati?) combined in a single human figure, male on one side and female on the other. The author analyzes Tamil poems to discover the different polarities of Siva. Chapters four, five and six deal with the theology of the Srivaishnavas of South India. Carman analyzes the writings of Nammalvar, a very influential poet in the community, of the philosopher and theologian Ramanuja, and of Pillan, a commentator who tries to combine and explain the writings of the former two persons. In chapter seven the author proposes to compare the Buddhist teachings of Shinran with the doctrines of the Tengalai branch of Srivaishnava tradition and Protestant theology, especially with Martin Luther's teaching on grace and "faith alone." Chapter eight looks at the polarities in different Hindu deities, like Siva with his five faces, the goddess Kali, and Lord Vishnu. There are four polarities in Ramanuja's theology: god as support and god as supported, god as utterly pure and as a treasure-trove of auspicious attributes, god as supreme and nevertheless accessible, god as "the ruler who is pleased by good deeds and as the ruler who expects loving service from his servants and who creates opportunities for them to render service" (148). Part three of this book compares the polarities that exist in different religions. In Christian hymns the polarities are between majesty and gracious condescension, between transcendence and immanence, between divine majesty and human lowliness, between transcendent power and a child's helplessness, and between God's mercy and wrath. There are striking similarities between the Hindu concept of avatar and the Christian concept of incarnation. To the relieve of conservative readers (like me) there are also important differences. Polarities in Martin Luther's theology include the hidden and the revealed aspects of God. One of these hidden notions sees God as the creator who saves some and condemns others according to His sovereign will, but non-understandable to humans. Jonathan Edwards expressed the polarities of God in terms of anger and compassion, majesty (infinite highness) and humble (infinite) condescension, humility and exaltation. As recorded in hymns and writings, the Jewish religion sees God as just and (but) merciful at the same time. The human response to God matches this polarity; it consists in fearing and (but) loving God all at once. In part four of his book, the author takes on the different conceptions of divine unity in different religious expressions. Although there are many differences between the Virgin Mary and Hindu goddesses, there are also some striking similarities between her exaltation in Roman Catholicism, that makes her the Queen of Heaven and female counterpart to a male God, and the veneration of goddesses in Hindu religion. An always-difficult task for Christians has been to reconcile the polarities between the Trinity and the oneness of God. The Trinity is also one of the greatest critic Jews and Muslims have against Christianity. Although the god of the Muslims is one, his polarities are reflected in his attributes. In chapter seventeen, Carman presents Rudolf Otto's comparison of polarities in eastern and western mystics in the persons of the Hindu philosopher Sankara and the German Johannes Eckhart. He also presents H. W. Schomerus interpretation on the teachings of the latter. It seems that paradox and polarities would just not disappear in theology. That is the theme of part five. No matter if theologians belong to the Catholic (St. Bonaventure) or Protestant (Paul Tillich, Hendrikus Berkhof - I don't know what Charles Hartshorne is) camp, no matter how much they differ between each other, polarities can be found among them as well as everywhere else in modern theology. However, "theologians ... generally seek to attain the maximum possible logical consistency, and this often leads them to adopt one of several strategies for removing or at least diminishing the paradoxical character of a particular divine polarity" (403). In chapter twenty, Carman addresses the theologians with questions about polarities in God, comparing them to polarities in other religions. These questions ask whether the violent destruction of (parts of) His creation by God himself is an expression of His justice, or whether beauty in the creation suggests beauty in the invisible creator, or lastly, what can be learned by recognizing polarities in our monotheistic concept of God?
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
In-depth comparison good,
By
This review is from: Majesty and Meekness (Paperback)
Harvard Professor Carman's book shows his background and large amounts of time spent in India. He sees the many faces of Christ and their reflections in other faiths, and he explains this all very well. The only possible drawback is that the book focuses on Christianity and Hinduism (with Buddhism, Islam, and Judaism as much smaller topics); however, as not very many books comparing just Christianity and Hinduism have been written, it fills that niche nicely!
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