Jain Approaches to Plurality: Identity as Dialogue

Erscheinungsjahr 2017
ISBN: 978-90-04-33930-9
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 55, 232 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 231 mm, Gewicht: 358 g

Reihe: Currents of Encounter

In Jain Approaches to Plurality Melanie Barbato offers a new perspective on the Jain teaching of plurality (anekantavada) and how it allowed Jains to engage with other discourses from Indian inter-school philosophy to global interreligious dialogue. Jainism, one of the world’s oldest religions, has managed to both adapt and preserve its identity across time through its inherently dialogical outlook. Drawing on a wide range of textual sources and original research in India, Barbato analyses the encounters between Jains and non-Jains in the classical, colonial and global context. Jain Approaches to Plurality offers a comprehensive introduction to anekantavada as a non-Western resource for understanding plurality and engaging in dialogue.

“Building upon earlier work in this field without simply reduplicating it, Melanie Barbato’s work delves deeply into the question of the relevance of Jain approaches to religious and philosophical diversity to contemporary issues of inter-religious dialogue, and dialogues across worldviews more generally. (…) This work is a most welcome contribution to the conversation.”

— Jeffery D. Long, Professor of Religion and Asian Studies, Elizabethtown College. April 2017. Author of Jainism: An Introduction.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Barbato, Melanie

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Religionsphilosophie, Philosophische Theologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Sonstige Religionen Östliche Religionen Jainismus
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionsphilosophie, Philosophische Theologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgements

1 Introduction: Identity in Changing Times
The Historical Development of Anekantavada
First Stage: Discourse within the Jain Community
Second Stage: Indian Inter-school Discourse
Third Stage: Colonial Discourse
Fourth Stage: Global Discourse
The Structure of the Book

2 Who are the Jains? A Community between Indian Tradition and Global Modernity
The Fordmakers
Beliefs and Worship
Punya and Papa
The Historical Development of Jainism
Conclusion

3 Jains in Inner-indian Dialogue
The Schools of Indian Philosophy
The Historical Development of Jain Philosophy
The Classical Concept of Anekantavada
Plurality in Jain Ontology
Indian Ontologies
An Ontology of Organic Plurality
Origination, Destruction and Persistence
Substance, Qualities and Modifications
The Complex Union of Reality
Classical Applications
Universals
Relations
Cause and Effect
The Nature of the Soul
Plurality in Jain Discursive Logic
Logic in India
The Nyaya Inference Model
The Aim of Indian Logic
Jain Logic: Every Statement is Conditional
Sevenfold Predication
Yasovijaya’s Interpretation of the Saptabhangi
Sankara’s Criticism of Jain Logic
Jain Logic, Nyaya Logic, Western Logic
Plurality and Perfect Knowledge
Jain Soteriology
The Stages of Knowledge
Limited Knowledge: The View-points
False Views and Absolutism
What the Omniscient Know
Plurality in the Light of Omniscience
Kundakunda’s Two Viewpoints
Conclusion

4 Plurality in Modern Jain Dialogues
Tolerance and Interreligious Dialogue
The World’s Parliament of Religions in Chicago
Indian Inclusivism
The Limits of Jain Tolerance
Gandhi and Shrimad Rajchandra
Anekantavada as Intellectual Non-violence
Anekantavada as Relativism
Identity, Values and Doctrine
Jainism in Dialogue with Science
The Historical Context
A Scientific Religion?
Jainism as Scientific Theory
Jain Diplomacy
Jain Environmental Activism
Acharya Sushil Kumar and Religious Diplomacy
Conclusion

5 Jain Dialogic Identity – Then and Now
Anekantavada between Philosophy and Rhetorics
Four Understandings of anekantavada
A Philosophical Understanding of anekantavada
A Conservative Modern Understanding of anekantavada
A Modernist Understanding of anekantavada
A Lay Orthodox Understanding of anekantavada
Who Speaks for anekantavada?
Conclusion

Bibliography

Über Autor(innen)

Melanie Barbato is a researcher at the Institute for Religious Studies and Intercultural Theology at WWU Münster. She holds a doctorate in Indology and Religious Studies from LMU Munich and a Master in Oriental Studies from the University of Oxford.