Hindu Theology and Biology

Description

Western intellectual history has benefited from a rich and sophisticated conversation between theology and science, leaving us with centuries of scientific and theological literature on the subjects. Yet the Hindu traditions are virtually unused in responding to the challenging questions raised in the science and religion dialogue. This book replies to the sciences by drawing from an important Hindu text called the Bh?gavata Pura?a, as well as its commentaries, and philosophical disciplines such as ea?khya-Yoga.

One of the greatest challenges facing Hindu traditions since the nineteenth century is their own self-understanding in light of science and technology. Hoping to establish the conceptual foundations for a mutually beneficial dialogue between the Hindu Theologies and the Western Sciences, Jonathan B. Edelmann faces that challenge directly. Since so much of the Hinduism-science discussion is tangled in misconstrual, Edelmann clarifies fundamental issues in each tradition, for example the definition of consciousness, the means of generating knowledge and the goal of knowledge itself. He argues that although Darwinian theory seems to entail a materialistic view of consciousness, the Bh?gavata's views provide an alternative framework for thinking about Darwinian theory. Furthermore, Edelmann argues that objectivity is a hallmark of modern science, and this is an intellectual virtue shared by the Bh?gavata. Lastly, he critiques the view that science and religion have different objects of knowledge (that is, the natural world vs. God), arguing that many Western scientists and theologians have found science helpful in thinking about God in ways similar to that of the Bh?gavata.

About the Author

Jonathan B. Edelmann, Assistant Professor of Religion, Mississippi State University

Reviews

Winner of the 2011 John Templeton Award for Theological Promise

"Awarded the 2015 Dharma Academy of North America Book Award for Excellence in Constructive Theology, Philosophy and Critical Reflection"

"In this enterprising study, Jonathan Edelmann shows how the analysis of an ancient Indian text, the Bhagavata Purana, throws into sharp relief the often unquestioned metaphysical naturalism of the modern life sciences. The degree to which a meaningful dialogue can be constructed between the ancient and the modern is a question handled with originality and sensitivity. The result is a fascinating and rewarding exploration of contrasting cultures that, throughout the book, meet in suggestive and surprising ways." - John Hedley Brooke, Oxford University

"Jonathan B. Edelmann achieves what many talk about and few accomplish - the opening of an Indian and Hindu perspective on a topic of contemporary academic relevance, shedding new light on the old debates about Darwin and religion. Hindu Theology and Biology should be welcomed not only by scholars of Hinduism and comparativists, but by all who ponder how religion and science matter to one another, and how we are to understand nature and ourselves in today's religiously diverse era." - Francis X. Clooney, Harvard University

"This is a much-needed book, as it is one of the very few that brings a Hindu theological perspective to bear on the urgent debates on science and religion that currently dominate the Western cultural landscape. In what is often a noisy debate characterised by simplistic assumptions about the nature of religion, Jonathan Edelmann's calm, careful and thoughtful work opens up and nuances the debate, philosophically, theologically and culturally. His delineation of a theology drawn from a reading of the Bh?gavata Pur??a meets the scholarly of those who know Hindu traditions while also being clear to those who are more familiar with Christianity and other traditions. In this, it offers a proper cross-cultural and constructive theological account of areas of natural science, and amply demonstrates that sophisticated and balanced studies of the relationship between theology and the natural sciences are of universal concern." - Chakravarthi Ramprasad, University of Lancaster

"Edelmann provides an insightful elaboration of the dualistic purusa-prakrti ontology of the Samkhya school." - Andrew McGarrity, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies

Table of contents

Preface
Introduction: The Purpose and Possibility of Dialogue
A Dialogue Between Science and Religion?
The Meaning of Bh?gavata Theology
Types of Biological Texts
Anatomy of a Worldview
1: Setting the Scene
Bh?gavata Pura?a Overview
Contemporary Evolutionary Theory Overview
2: Ontology of Body, Mind and Consciousness
Ontology of the Bh?gavata
Physicalism: Views From Darwin and Neuroscience
Reconciling Physicalism and the Ontology of the Bh?gavata
3: Toward a Bh?gavata Theory of Knowledge
The Instruments of Knowledge
Relationships Between the Instruments of Knowledge
Testimony, Nonsensory Perception and Practice
4: The Study of Nature as Vaishnava-Yoga
Cosmic Body
Cosmogony
Cosmography
5: Seeing Truth, Hearing Truth
Objectivity in the Natural Sciences
Testimony in the Sciences
Transforming Vaishnava Theology: Reflections on Hermeneutics
6: Moving from Nature to God
From Scientific Theory to God
Closer Comparisons
Science as a Form of Religious Practice
Closer Comparisons
Conclusion