The Philosophy of Religion and Advaita Vedanta: A Comparative Study in Religion and Reason.
Allen, William C.
This book fills a long overdue and urgent need in the comparative
philosophy of religion. Sharma's work is focused and highly
practical. For many years John Hick's book, Philosophy of Religion,
has been a standard text introducing both undergraduate and graduate
students to the most salient issues in Western philosophy of religion.
In spite of the recently revised edition of Hick's book, which
attempts to supplement the distinctively Western approach to the
subject, it remains imbalanced, treating themes arising out of
traditional Judeo-Christian concerns. Sharma's work offers a
parallel treatment of topics germane to Western philosophy of religion,
demonstrating that such categories of thought are not the peculiar or
parochial concern of the West. In fact, Sharma's book widens the
philosophical discourse on religion by extending the breadth and depth
of reflection to include Advaita Vedanta's contributions.
This book is an indispensable complement to Hick's work.
Philosophical reflection on religion has enjoyed a long and
distinguished history in India and has much to offer to its counterpart
discipline in the West. Sharma's approach is rigorously
comparative, not competitive. He illustrates that the themes of
discourse initiated by Hick entail a controversial and by no means
monolithic conversation within the Indian tradition generally and
Advaita Vedanta particularly. By organizing his text along the lines set
by Hick, Sharma's book provides innovative ways by which perennial
concerns may be revisited. E.g., the problem of evil is reopened from
vedantic perspectives that promise to resurrect rather than beat the
proverbial dead horse of theodicy. The same may be said of the existence
of God, revelation, and faith. Sharma introduces alternative ways and
means of reconsidering well-trodden topics that have occupied the
Judeo-Christian religiophilosophical legacy. Perhaps its most
significant contribution lies in dispelling the outdated yet prevailing
popular assumption that a sharp line of demarcation off its between
"Eastern" and "Western" philosophies of religion.
Sharma's project reveals that differences within Indian
philosophies of religion are as deep as any conflicts within the
"Western" philosophical discourse.
Lest this review be mistaken for an overly eulogistic advertisement for the book, I venture to say that Sharma may be a bit
soft on "The Conflicting Truth Claims of Different Religions."
He yields too much to the "synthetic unity" school of thought
and downplays the highly argumentative tone of Indian philosophical
disputation. While he is appropriately concerned to foster the
ecumenical spirit of interreligious dialogue, avoiding the combative and
competitive encounter between religious traditions characteristic of
bygone days, I believe he risks sacrificing the integrity of differences
that are too profound to be harmonized with platitudes and cliches that
have become the hallmarks of cross-cultural comparative philosophy of
religion. I contend that differences within Indian religious visions of
the world, let alone differences between "West" and
"East," are often absolutely antithetical and irreconcilable.
Genuine dialogue need not abandon the passioned, argumentive tone in
which so much of the genesis and genius of Indian philosophical
disputation was conceived and sustained long before the advent of modern
methodologies of "interreligious dialogue."
