Herman Tull
Lafayette College, Religious Studies, Faculty Member
In this book, the author seeks access to Karma's origins by following several clues suggested by the doctrine's earliest formulation in the Upaniṣad texts (circa 600-500 B.C.) These clues lead back to the mythical and ritual structures... more
In this book, the author seeks access to Karma's origins by following several clues suggested by the doctrine's earliest formulation in the Upaniṣad texts (circa 600-500 B.C.) These clues lead back to the mythical and ritual structures firmly established in the Brahmana texts, texts concerned with the rituals that chronologically and conceptually precede the Upaniṣad. The rise of the karma doctrine is tied to the increasing dominance in late Vedic thought of the cosmic man (Purusa/Prajapati) mythology and its ritual analogue the "building of the fire altar" (agnicayana).
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A work that at once celebrates and extends the enduring contributions of the late Edmund Perry to the study of religions, The Comity and Grace of Method brings together three generations of distinguished scholars to consider the history,... more
A work that at once celebrates and extends the enduring contributions of the late Edmund Perry to the study of religions, The Comity and Grace of Method brings together three generations of distinguished scholars to consider the history, theory, and applications of the comparative method in religious study. Both the title and the content of this volume reflect Perry's conviction that the comparative religionist is morally bound to contribute to a comity of religions-the voluntary and courteous recognition of the dignity and truth present in all religions. Following the general framework advocated by Perry for this pursuit, this collection reveals the strengths of such a framework--and of Perry's lifelong interest in theory and method-for religious understanding.
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This study engages reception history from its roots in literary theory to its employment in biblical studies. Following the Encyclopedia of Religion and Its Reception's (EBR) established domain of "other" religions, this essay explores... more
This study engages reception history from its roots in literary theory to its employment in biblical studies. Following the Encyclopedia of Religion and Its Reception's (EBR) established domain of "other" religions, this essay explores the reception of the Bible in India, focusing on the figure of Ram Mohan Roy and his interpretation of the New Testament. As a point of comparison, the essay looks at the reception history of the Bhagavad-Gītā in the West. In juxtaposition, the reception history of the Bible in India and the reception history of the Bhagavad-Gītā in the West show a striking imbalance in reading a text when "crossing the lines" of a tradition.
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The authors of the Brāhmaṇa texts enriched their view of the Vedic rituals through building unique theories of identification and connection that served to establish a notion of shared being between the sacrificer, the sacrifice, and the... more
The authors of the Brāhmaṇa texts enriched their view of the Vedic rituals through building unique theories of identification and connection that served to establish a notion of shared being between the sacrificer, the sacrifice, and the cosmos itself. In exploring identifications that were not immediately available to the senses (but were said to be "mysterious"), these thinkers set the groundwork for later Indian speculation, as seen in particular in the Upaniṣads, the texts which follow them. Although long underappreciated by students of the Indian tradition, the Brāhmaṇas represent a rich source for understanding the beginnings of Indian philosophy.
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Review Essay of Deepra Dandekar and Dinkar Shankar Savarkar, The Subhedar’s Son: A Narrative of Brahmin-Christian Conversion from Nineteenth-century Maharashtra; Shalva Weil, ed., The Baghdadi Jews in India: Maintaining Communities,... more
Review Essay of Deepra Dandekar and Dinkar Shankar Savarkar, The Subhedar’s Son: A Narrative of Brahmin-Christian Conversion from Nineteenth-century Maharashtra; Shalva Weil, ed., The Baghdadi Jews in India: Maintaining Communities, Negotiating Identities and Creating Super-Diversity; and Jenny Rose, Between Boston and Bombay: Cultural and Commercial Encounters of Yankees and Parsis, 1771–1865.
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Central to Paul Joshua's study, Christianity Remade: The Rise of Indian-Initiated Churches, is the notion that Indian Christianity stands on its own ground, a unique formation that blends elements of South Asian culture with the tenets... more
Central to Paul Joshua's study, Christianity Remade: The Rise of Indian-Initiated Churches, is the notion that Indian Christianity stands on its own ground, a unique formation that blends elements of South Asian culture with the tenets and practices of Christianity. This understanding of Indian Christianity runs counter to what Joshua succinctly describes as the "dominant impression…of Christianity in India…that it is a foreign religion, imposed by European colonizers" (p. 3). Joshua's assertion is meant to be not an abjuration of Christianity's roots outside the South Asian subcontinent, but a call to scholars to engage with Indian Christianity as an Indian tradition. Joshua's argument here builds not only on Christianity's historically deep roots in India (extant as early as the beginnings of the Christian era, and invigorated by the arrival of Catholic missionaries in the 16th century, and the entrance into India of European Protestant missionaries as India came under British colonial rule at the end of the 18th century), but also on the many ways in which Indian Christianity has absorbed elements of Indian religiosity in its development. To underscore the "Indianness" of Indian Christianity, Joshua adopts the term "Indian-initiated church" or "IIC," which, as Joshua declares, "is Christianity made in India" (p. 4). (Here, Joshua draws on the now longestablished terminology used to describe African-founded Christian churches, "AIC," albeit without engaging the various meanings of the "I" of "AIC"-"initiated"; "indigenous"; "independent"; and "instituted.") Joshua's concern here, however, is not to give a precise meaning to "IIC," but rather to use it to draw our attention to the deep influence of Indian religious and cultural elements in the constitution of the Indian Christian churches. Moreover, as Joshua correctly notes, previous scholarship has tended to ignore this aspect of Indian Christianity, favouring in its stead discussions of theology and conversion. (Whereas this point remains largely true today, it was perhaps more pronounced when Joshua completed this study in 2013, based on research conducted in the early 2000s. [N.B., Joshua passed away in 2016, and the volume here under review was published posthumously under the direction of Joel Carpenter, the editor of Baylor University Press's Studies in World Christianity Series.])
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Review essay of Asko Parpola, The Roots of Hinduism: The Early Aryans and the Indus Civilization; Richard K. Payne and Michael Witzel, eds., Homa Variations: The Study of Ritual Change Across the Longue Durée; and R. U. S. Prasad, The... more
Review essay of Asko Parpola, The Roots of Hinduism: The Early Aryans and the Indus Civilization; Richard K. Payne and Michael Witzel, eds., Homa Variations: The Study of Ritual Change Across the Longue Durée; and R. U. S. Prasad, The Rig-Vedic and Post-Rig-Vedic Polity (1500 BCE–500 BCE)
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Sanskrit is the classical language of ancient India; composed texts in Sanskrit represent a continuous literary tradition that reaches back at least 3500 years and consists of thousands upon thousands of works. Today, most Westerners have... more
Sanskrit is the classical language of ancient India; composed texts in Sanskrit represent a continuous literary tradition that reaches back at least 3500 years and consists of thousands upon thousands of works. Today, most Westerners have only the slightest familiarity with this great tradition, aware perhaps of a few words stereotypically related to the notion of karma or the practice of yoga. Yet, there was a time when the study of Sanskrit was of great significance in the history of Western education, holding a central place in the development in the early 1800s of the first graduate schools and academic Ph.D. programs in both Germany (where such programs originated) and later in the United States of America. To understand the rise and fall of the study of Sanskrit in the West leads us back to the nineteenth century experience of the British colonial administrators and the European Orientalists who first brought Sanskrit studies into the West, that is, to ask, Whence Sanskrit? Fundamental to this project is the broad awareness that, in modern colleges and universities in the West, the choices we make in our studies what we choose to study as well as how we study it are frequently uninformed; and, as we shall see in the case of Sanskrit, beneath an individual field of study may be found surprising (and sometimes insidious) roots.
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提要 The origin and early history of the Indian doctrine of karma and rebirth has persistently challenged students of the Vedic tradition. However, the inability to discern this doctrine's pre-history may partly be attributed to the... more
提要 The origin and early history of the Indian doctrine of karma and rebirth has persistently challenged students of the Vedic tradition. However, the inability to discern this doctrine's pre-history may partly be attributed to the biases of the nineteenth century scholars who initiated, and thus greatly influenced, the modern study of the Veda. In particular, these scholars imposed a broad notion of ethics on the earliest formulations, in the Upanisads, of the karma doctrine. The imposition of this notion of ethics at once served to denigrate the ...