Interfaith Dialogue and Mystical Consciousness in India

Auteur

Isaac Portilla is a visiting scholar at the University of St. Andrews, UK, researching interfaith mysticism and religions' future. He is author of What Christ Said: Revisiting the Countercultural Sayings of Christ Jesus (2022) and The Possibilities of Spiritual Experience: An Autobiographical and Philosophical Exploration (2017).

Texte du rabat

This book is a research inquiry in interfaith studies that uses hermeneutical phenomenology to address vexing issues arising in the study of mysticism and enlightened sages. It will interest religious studies, interreligious/interfaith studies, comparative religion/theology, and interfaith relations.

Contenu

Abstract

Introduction

Preliminary Sections

1. Exploring an Inter-religious Future

2. Interfaith Dialogue and Mystical Consciousness

3. Reflections on the Trinity

4. The Hindu-Christian Context

Special Section: Toward an Integrative Hermeneutical Phenomenology

Introduction

1. The Importance of the Study of Religion: Flood's Contribution to Hermeneutical Phenomenology

2. The Importance of the Circumstance and Historical Context: Ortega y Gasset in Conversation with Heidegger, Gadamer, and Dilthey

3. The Importance of Symbols and Narrative: Ricoeur's Hermeneutical Phenomenology and Its Application to the Study of Religion

4. The Importance of a Phenomenology of Intersubjectivity: Toward a Balanced Hermeneutical Phenomenology

5. The Importance of Phenomenology, Witness Consciousness, and Non-dual Consciousness: Reconsidering Husserl's Project

Final Thoughts: Envisioning an Integrative Hermeneutical Phenomenology

Chapter 1. Sri Ramana Maharshi and Sri Aurobindo in Context

1.1. The Tradition of the Rishi

1.2. The Hindu Context: Sacred Landscapes, Avatars, and Karma

1.3. Worldly and Divine: Thresholds, Politics, and War

Chapter Reflections

Chapter 2. Sri Ramana Maharshi and Sri Aurobindo: An Inquiry Focused on Mystical Experience

2.1. Sri Ramana Maharshi: Experiences and Realizations

2.2. Sri Aurobindo: Experiences and Realizations

2.3. Comparative Analysis of Ramana and Aurobindo

Chapter Reflections

Chapter 3. The Hari-Hara Mystery and Other Intra-Hindu Explorations

3.1. The Hari-Hara Mystery and the Hindu Triad(s)

3.2. The Ramana-Aurobindo Leela as an Enactment of the Hari-Hara Mystery (and the Triad)

3.3. The Role of the Devotee in the Ramana-Aurobindo Leela

Chapter Reflections

Chapter 4. Hindu-Christian Interfaith Explorations

4.1. I AM and Embodiment

4.2. Matter and Descent

4.3. Mystic Fire: The Primordial Experience

Chapter Reflections

Chapter 5. Existential Interfaith: A Practical Framework

5.1. First Characteristic: Meeting in Being

5.2. Second Characteristic: Experiential Inquiry

5.3. Third Characteristic: Focus on Truest Meaning

Conclusions:

A Different Narrative

Summary and Development of Ideas and Findings

Essential Interfaith Insights

Reflections on Method and Future Research

Concluding Thoughts

Note on Texts

Sanskrit Transliteration

Index