Spiritualism and religion, or in the western vernacular, faith, has occupied my mind since the first conscious breaths I can remember. Who or what is God, I have asked since the time I learned to speak.
A few seekers have crossed my paths, and when they write I grab their texts in hunger and thirst, continuing my journey in search of faith, or as I prefer to name it, something worth trusting. Wendy Doniger, or once as I learned her name a while ago, Wendy O’Flaherty, has attracted me along the way because she has focused all of her distinguished career on Hinduism. http://www.faithstreet.com/onfaith/author/wendy-doniger
Equally interesting to me, she has taught for years at the University of Chicago’s divinity school, which exists just a few miles away from my family’s stomping grounds. Sanskrit was not one of the 14 languages I mastered, albeit temporarily, in my services to the US government, so the original texts related to one of the oldest human faiths have stood beyond my reach. Only English and German translations from Sanskrit, plus a few dozen excellent commentaries in English, have held my gaze. http://divinity.uchicago.edu/wendy-doniger
Happy Day! Wendy has published another fun read entitled The Hindus: An Alternative History, which now graces my Kindle reader. It won’t grace the reading devices of many Hindus, however, because the publisher, Penguin Books, just agreed today to take all of its print copies and destroy them, putting them out of the reach of anyone trying to purchase a copy in India. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/14/us-india-book-idUSBREA1D0TX20140214
Funny how the grandest democracy of them all, India, carefully squelches all divergent voices when it comes to Hinduism. What are they trying to hide, I must wonder aloud. That is precisely what Wendy’s new book uncovers: The divergent stories of great minds lost behind the hierarchical cloak of a choreographed Hindu history. That established history, similar to many other histories, offers one traditional view of Hinduism’s long reign from the perspective of its religious leaders. All divergent views critical or simply unsympathetic to that hierarchy or that traditional view have been immersed in the overbearing weight of unpublished histories. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/11/the-hindus-wendy-doniger-withdrawn_n_4769192.html
If the contemporary Hindu leaders of India had their way, Wendy Doniger’s latest excellent effort would also be immersed in obscurity…forever. But I am here to tell the world that a scholarly based, delightfully good read about an alternative Hindu history is available now, everywhere in the world except the capitol of Hinduism. http://HamiltonFinanceServices.com
Everyone should purchase or check out from the local library a copy of The Hindus: An Alternative History. Let us show the free speech aspirationalists of India how the rest of the world takes its leaders’ censorship. At least, that’s my opinion.
What do you think?
LOL… the problem might be in your asking: What do you think? I’m not a huge fan of what is happening in India (i.e. the rape of its women is disproportionate to Christian countries) and I personally lay some of the blame at the feet of its main religious beliefs. “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” What is in the heart forms the very fabric of who were are. I grew up in a pious home where my dad rose early in the morning to pray for his family and neighbors. I can still see him in my mind’s eye at the kitchen table with his bible open and his head bowed (“may his memory be eternal”). He instilled Christian values in me and my sister and we in turn in our children and grandchildren. When I see a country that appears to care more about the cattle wandering in its streets than the abused women and young girls, I can’t find it within myself to give much credence to Hinduism.
While I too, as a Christian, give little credence to most other religions, nonetheless I recognize that ancient faiths, including Hinduism, portray how humans across the world have changed over time. That’s why I find the study of tenants and histories of other faiths interesting.
To me, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints holds the most believable contemporary tenants about the Anointed Messiah (who by the Greek language is written via translation as ‘Jesus Christ’).
Ancient faiths, even those as recent as 15th and 16th century European denominations, all seem a bit out of sync with contemporary societies in Europe and North America. But I find the 19th Century faith of latter-day saints a refreshing application of 1st century Christianity. Only those unfamiliar with the first and second centuries after the crucifixion of the Messiah would claim the LDS are non-Christian. In fact, their understanding of Christianity profoundly agrees with original Christian texts preceding the Nicene Conference where Christianity was mocked into a political puzzle no faiths have understood ever since.
Ah well… c’est la difference, eh? We’ll agree to disagree. I see the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as little more than a corruption of historic Christianity that came about along with a whole series of cults and spurious denominations in the 1800 reds (i.e. 7th Day, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Christian Science, Pentecostalism, theocracy, Plymouth Brethren, Christadelphians, etc). If our Lord built His Church (as He said He would) and the gates of Hell did not prevail against her (as He claimed), then the Church was there from the get-go (i.e. at Pentecost onwards and not appearing magically by some revelation of a latter-day, self-proclaimed prophet). We happen to be Eastern Orthodox and can demonstrate historically that the Church has been in existence from the first Ecumenical Council onwards. Of course, the Roman Catholic Church can make the same claim (the only other Christian body which can do such). That opens a very long discussion which I’m loathe to repeat so I’ll leave it at that.
Is there ‘any’ truth whatsoever in Hinduism? Undoubtedly.
Wondering how you can form an opinion about anything, a church or otherwise, without seriously studying it.
For churches that espouse spiritual tenants and advocate lifestyles as religions to apply those tenants, it seems easy enough to investigate where they are on a spectrum of other churches.
Having done that sort of serious study, I find that the Church of Jesus Christ of LDS most closely matches and espouses Christian doctrines from the First and Second Centuries A.D., and to a significant degree the church legitimately claims to be part of the Abrahamic covenant from 20th century B.C. So it has nothing to do with recent cults or similar ‘spurious’ denominations. But you may not realize any of this information without looking at it yourself.
As to Eastern Orthodox, I have studied both Greek and Russian approaches to that orthodoxy, and I am am left with an appreciation for their formalism, which by the 4th century A.D. had become quite important as a means of leading the masses.
You’re making an assumption (i.e. that I have NOT seriously studied other religions). I spent a year in seminary and during that time was required to read extensively on the subject of both non-Christian and Christian religions. The Church of Jesus Christ of LDS has a history that demonstrates (at least to my satisfaction) that it is anything but Christian. Glasses provided by Moroni to Joseph Smith in order that he might decipher texts written in another language and then translate them into a poor imitation of King James’ English is hardly convincing.
Probably best that I extricate myself from the discussion, Jerry. If you’re convinced of its truth, who am I to try and persuade you otherwise? Best wishes to you. We’re heading into Lent in a few weeks so it’s time I did a little spiritual house-cleaning as it were. And arguing over these things is not recommended procedure. 🙂