Hinduism as a Missionary Religion

Reconsiders whether Hinduism can be considered a missionary religion.

Is Hinduism a missionary religion? Merely posing this question is a novel and provocative act. Popular and scholarly perception, both ancient and modern, puts Hinduism in the non-missionary category. In this intriguing book, Arvind Sharma re-opens the question. Examining the historical evidence from the major Hindu eras, the Vedic, classical, medieval, and modern periods, Sharma's investigation challenges the categories used in current scholarly discourse and finds them inadequate, emphasizing the need to distinguish between a missionary religion and a proselytizing one. A distinction rarely made, it is nevertheless an illuminating and fruitful one that resonates with insights from the comparative study of religion. Ultimately concluding that Hinduism is a missionary religion, but not a proselytizing one, Sharma's work provides us with new insights both on Hinduism and the consideration of religion itself.

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Hinduism as a Missionary Religion

Reconsiders whether Hinduism can be considered a missionary religion.

Is Hinduism a missionary religion? Merely posing this question is a novel and provocative act. Popular and scholarly perception, both ancient and modern, puts Hinduism in the non-missionary category. In this intriguing book, Arvind Sharma re-opens the question. Examining the historical evidence from the major Hindu eras, the Vedic, classical, medieval, and modern periods, Sharma's investigation challenges the categories used in current scholarly discourse and finds them inadequate, emphasizing the need to distinguish between a missionary religion and a proselytizing one. A distinction rarely made, it is nevertheless an illuminating and fruitful one that resonates with insights from the comparative study of religion. Ultimately concluding that Hinduism is a missionary religion, but not a proselytizing one, Sharma's work provides us with new insights both on Hinduism and the consideration of religion itself.

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Hinduism as a Missionary Religion

Hinduism as a Missionary Religion

by Arvind Sharma
Hinduism as a Missionary Religion

Hinduism as a Missionary Religion

by Arvind Sharma

Overview

Reconsiders whether Hinduism can be considered a missionary religion.

Is Hinduism a missionary religion? Merely posing this question is a novel and provocative act. Popular and scholarly perception, both ancient and modern, puts Hinduism in the non-missionary category. In this intriguing book, Arvind Sharma re-opens the question. Examining the historical evidence from the major Hindu eras, the Vedic, classical, medieval, and modern periods, Sharma's investigation challenges the categories used in current scholarly discourse and finds them inadequate, emphasizing the need to distinguish between a missionary religion and a proselytizing one. A distinction rarely made, it is nevertheless an illuminating and fruitful one that resonates with insights from the comparative study of religion. Ultimately concluding that Hinduism is a missionary religion, but not a proselytizing one, Sharma's work provides us with new insights both on Hinduism and the consideration of religion itself.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781438432137
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Publication date: 01/02/2012
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 203
File size: 9 MB
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Arvind Sharma is Birks Professor of Comparative Religion at McGill University. He is the author or editor of many books, including One Religion Too Many: The Religiously Comparative Reflections of a Comparatively Religious Hindu and Religious Studies and Comparative Methodology: The Case for Reciprocal Illumination, both also published by SUNY Press.


Arvind Sharma is Birks Professor of Comparative Religion at McGill University. He is the author of many books, including One Religion Too Many: The Religiously Comparative Reflections of a Comparatively Religious Hindu and Hinduism as a Missionary Religion, and the coeditor (with Ellen Bradshaw Aitken) of The Legacy of Wilfred Cantwell Smith, all published by SUNY Press.

Table of Contents

Preface

1. The Antiquity and Continuity of the Belief that Hinduism Is Not a Missionary Religion

2. The Neo-Hindu Conviction that Hinduism Is a Non-Missionary Religion

3. Hinduism as a Missionary Religion: The Evidence from Vedic India

4. Hinduism as a Missionary Religion: The Evidence from Classical India

5. Hinduism as a Missionary Religion: The Evidence from Medieval India

6. Hinduism as a Missionary Religion: The Evidence from Modern India

Conclusions

Notes
Bibliography
Index

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Related Subjects

Religion
Hinduism
General & Miscellaneous Hinduism
Religion
Hinduism
General & Miscellaneous Hinduism

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