Encounters With Hinduism

In The European Encounter with Hinduism Jan Peter Schouten offers an account of European travellers coming into contact with the Hindu religion in India. From the thirteenth century on, both traders and missionaries visited India and encountered the exotic world of Hindus and Hinduism. Their travel reports reveal how Europeans gradually increased their knowledge of Hinduism and how they evaluated this foreign religion. Later on, although officials of the colonial administration also studied the languages and culture of India, it was – contrary to what is usually assumed – particularly the many missionaries who made the greatest contribution to the mapping of Hinduism.

The state of Goa on India's southwest coast was once the capital of the Portuguese-Catholic empire in Asia. When Vasco Da Gama arrived in India in 1498, he mistook Hindus for Christians, but Jesuit missionaries soon declared war on the alleged idolatry of the Hindus. Today, Hindus and Catholics assert their own religious identities, but Hindu village gods and Catholic patron saints attract worship from members of both religious communities. Through fresh readings of early Portuguese sources and long-term ethnographic fieldwork, this study traces the history of Hindu-Catholic syncretism in Goa and reveals the complex role of religion at the intersection of colonialism and modernity.

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Papers presented at a workshop held at the University of Pennsylvania.

During two extended visits to India, Professor Pohlmann became fascinated with Hindu life and set out to discover more, not through books but by meeting and talking with Hindus, particularly Hindu priests. He interviewed more than one hundred of them in and around Bangalore, making sure that the conversations included discussions of a series of key questions including, Are there many gods or one God? What is the difference between Hinduism and Christianity? What is the meaning and goal of life? Are your afraid of death? He also has long conversations with two gurus and vigorous discussions with the students and staff of United Theological College, Bangalore.

Hinduism has become a vital 'other' for Judaism over the past decades. The book surveys the history of the relationship from historical to contemporary times, from travellers to religious leadership. It explores the potential enrichment for Jewish theology and spirituality, as well as the challenges for Jewish identity.

In this comparative study of three modern religious movements, Lawrence A. Babb argues that thematic continuities exist between traditional Hinduism and its widely divergent modern expressions.