A Hindu Theologian's Response: A Prolegomenon to “Christian God, Hindu God”

Abstract

There are significant asymmetries in the project of “comparative theology” that reflect and reveal the complex historical, intellectual, and political realities of Christianity's encounter with “others.” The invitation by academic theologians to Hindu intellectuals to now participate in such projects is welcomed, long overdue, and must be accepted. Such participation, however, must be prefaced by an acknowledgment of these asymmetries and their effect on the interreligious, comparative, dialogical, and confessional dimensions of the rejuvenated theology called for in Hindu God, Christian God. Attention also must be paid to the two separable senses of “theology” made use of in this work: theology as an intellectual practice that has been shared by people belonging to numerous traditions of religious reflection, and theology as an academic discipline that is located in Euro‐American style academies throughout the world. Hindu God, Christian God is important, in part, because it makes significant demands of both. In what follows it must be recognized that in both senses of the term Hindu God, Christian God restricts “theology” to its more “scholastic” interpretations. Of the innumerable points of possible theological contact between Hinduism and Christianity, it is with a particular form of religious reasoning that Hindu God, Christian God chooses to begin. This form of religious reasoning results from years of academic training in institutional contexts in which highly abstract thinking is valued and often privileged. It is not for everyone, and, as Clooney has noted, it is certainly not the only way to theologize. For those of us who are Hindu and interested in practicing theology, however, such a beginning must be celebrated, since for too long now the Hindu counterparts to Swinburne, von Balthasar, Rahner, and Barth have not received the attention that they so richly deserve.