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Chapter 1
Comparative Theology and the Practice of Advaita Vedanta |
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I. The Elements Of The Experiment |
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Theology after Vedanta is an experiment in the practice of comparative theology. It proceeds by the cooperation of three distinct activities. First, it is a study of that Indian system of exegetical theology known as the Advaita (Non-Dualist) Vedanta,
1 which flourished most richly after the theologian Sankara, who lived in the early 8th century CE. Advaita is a tradition of sacred and theological texts and commentaries on them, as well as arguments about texts, and the practice of meditation with textsall of these making possible and necessary post-textual philosophical claims, and culminating in events of realization to which the hitherto indispensable texts are no longer primary. Given the enormous attention, legitimate but exaggerated, that has been paid to Advaita as an epistemological and philosophical system, it has been necessary to engage extensively in a study of that school of thought in its commentarial and theological components. |
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Second, this book is an exercise in (Christian) comparative theology, as this theology is (re)thought and (re)written after a close reading of Advaita. As such, Theology after Vedanta is an experiment in that writing, one which has as its goal the delineation of a better way for theologians to do comparative work: a way that is more practical; more engaged in texts and in the |
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