Presents the most recent thinking in Hindu studies, including coverage of systematic thought, theoretical issues, textual traditions, and Hindu society and politics.

Product Description: Partiendo de las pregunta 'Qué es el hinduismo?' el Dr. Flood sigue las huellas del desarrollo de las tradiciones hindúes desde sus primeros momentos, pasando por el estudio de las divinidades principales, hasta desembocar en la materialización de la religión en el mundo actual...read more

This book argues that the understanding and explanation of religion is always historically contingent. Grounded in the work of Bakhtin and Ricoeur, Flood positions the academic study of religion within contemporary debates in the social sciences and humanities concerning modernity and postmodernity, particularly contested issues regarding truth and knowledge. It challenges the view that religions are privileged, epistemic objects, argues for the importance of metatheory, and presents an argument for the dialogical nature of inquiry. The study of religion should begin with language and culture, and this shift in emphasis to the philosophy of the sign in hermeneutics and away from the philosophy of consciousness in phenomenology has far-reaching implications. It means a new ethic of practice which is sensitive to the power relationship in any epistemology; it opens the door to feminist and postcolonial critique, and it provides a methodology which allows for the interface between religious studies, theology, and the social sciences. (view table of contents)

Product Description: In this work the representations of "invisible worlds" from a wide range of cultures and religious traditions, and from different academic perspectives are explored. The question of why such maps are needed by humans is explored in detail in this study.

Product Description: "Kashmir Saivism" refers to monistic Hindu Saiva traditions which developed from the 9th to 11th centuries B.C. This book places the idea of the "body" in the Saiva world of religious meaning by showing how Siva, equated with pure consciousness, is thought to become embodied in the universe through a process of emanation...read more