The Ascetic Self: Subjectivity, Memory and Tradition / Edition 1

by Gavin Flood

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521604017
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	11/25/2004
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.67(d)

About the Author

Gavin Flood is Professor of Religion at the University of Stirling, and the author of An Introduction to Hinduism (Cambridge University Press, 1996).

Table of Contents

1. Setting the parameters; Part I. The Ascetic Self in Text and History: 2. The asceticism of work: Simone Weil; 3. The asceticism of action: The Bhagavad-gita and Yoga-sutras; 4. The asceticism of action: Tantra; 5. The asceticism of the Middle Way; 6. The asceticism of the desert; 7. The asceticism of love and wisdom; Part II. Theorising the Ascetic Self: 8. The ritual construction of the ascetic self; 9. Modernity and the ascetic self.