Bede Griffiths Images Of God

This book reveals how the images Bede Griffiths OSB Cam used for God are richly embedded with concepts ancient and new, making them especially relevant for our current times. It prompts insight into the great deposit of wisdom and scholarship that was his source, and will benefit those interested in religious imagery, gender equality, monastic life, interfaith dialogue, evolution of consciousness, practical theology and spirituality, and integral thought. Led by Christ, “the Golden String,” Griffiths made the sea-change from Great Britain to India, promoting “the marriage of East and West,” the essential value of the feminine, contemplative prayer, interreligious dialogue, and integral life. His initiation to Christian sannyasa and faith in the evolutionary process reflect his openness to change and to grow, and highlight this great sage’s masterful use of images grounded in his motto, to “always go beyond.”

Explores the work of spiritual leader and writer Bede Griffiths, who envisioned a union of Eastern and Western spirituality.

Record of a spiritual journey which led the author through the Church of England into Roman Catholic Church, by an English Benedictine abbot.

Explores the work of spiritual leader and writer Bede Griffiths, who envisioned a union of Eastern and Western spirituality.

Bede Griffiths was a Benedictine monk who achieved worldwide recognition for his pioneering efforts to bridge the great traditions of Christian and Hindu faith. He advocates a global spiritual friendship, rather than a global religion, cultivating respct for each other's spiritual practices.

People in India form images of Jesus Christ that link up with their own culture. Hindus have given Jesus a place among the teachers and gods of their own religion, seeing in his life something of the wisdom and mysticism that is so central to Hinduism. Christians in India also make use of the concepts provided by Hinduism when they wish to express the meaning of Christ. Thus, in any case, Jesus is—for Hindus and Christians—a guru, a teacher of wisdom who speaks with divine authority. But for many Hindu philosophers and Christian theologians there is much more that can be said about him within the Indian framework. He can be described as an avatara, a divine descent, or linked to the Brahman, the all-encompassing Reality. This study looks at both Hindu and Christian views of Christ, starting with that of the Hindu reformer Rammohan Roy at the beginning of the nineteenth century, as well as those of the first Christian theologians of India. The views of Mahatma Gandhi and the monks of the Ramakrishna Mission are discussed, and those of influential Christian schools such as the Ashram movement and dalit theology. Five intermezzos indicate how artists in India portray Jesus Christ.