Theology After Vedanta: An Experiment in Comparative Theology

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Chapter One:

Comparative Theology and the Practice of Advaita Vedanta

I. The Elements of the Experiment

II Comparative Theology

1. Calling Comparison "Theological"

2. Calling Theology "Comparative"

3. Comparative Theology in Relation to Other Disciplines

III. Comparative Theology as Practical Knowledge

IV. Advaita, Text and Commentary

1. A Brief Overview of the Advaita as a Commentarial Tradition

2. Advaita as Text: The Flourishing of a Commentarial Tradition

3. Advaita as Uttara Mimamsa: The Purva Mimamsa Paradigm

V. Practical Implications

1. Retrieving the Advaita "Text"

2. From the Study of Sankara to the Study of the Text

3. From Truth outside the Text to Truth after the Text

4. From Reader as Observer to Reader as Participant

Chapter Two:

The Texture of the Advaita Vedanta Text

I. The Texture of the Advaita Text

II. The Rough Texture of the Upanisads

III. The Organization of Upanisadic Knowledge in the UMS

1. Sutra

2. Adhikarana

a. Badarayana's Statement of the Problem regarding Taittiriya 2.1-6a

b. Sankara's Two Interpretations of Taittiriya 2.1-6a

c. The Later Commentarial Contribution to the Interpretation of Taittiriya 2.1-6a

d. Is There a World outside the Text? The Case of World- Renunciation (UMS III.4.18-20)

3. Weaving the Text Together: Samgati and Pada

a. Samgati: the Connections within a Pada

b. Textured Reasoning (nyaya)

c. Two Strategies of Coherent Practice

i. Coordination (upasamhara) in UMS III.3

ii. Harmonization (samanvaya) in UMS I.1

4. Adhyaya and the Organization of the Whole

IV. The Contextualization of Meaning through Engaged Reading

Chapter Three:

The Truth of Advaita Vedanta

I. The Problem of Truth in the Text

II. Strategies of Textual Truth

1. Denying to Brahman its Qualities (nirgunatva)

2. Paradoxes in the Text (mahavakyas)

III. Truth after the Text: The True Meaning of the Upanisads and the World of Advaita

1. UMS III.3.11-13: Can We Assume that Brahman is Always Bliss?

2. UMS I.1.5-11: The Upanisads Do Have a Right Meaning

3. UMS I.1.2: Inference within the Margins of the Upanisads

4. UMS IV.3.14 and the Systematization of Advaita

IV. Defending Brahman: The Fragmentation of the Other in the Text

1. UMS II.1.4-11: The Relative Reasonableness of the Advaita Position

2. Arguing the Advaita Position: UMS II.2.1-10

a. The Structure of UMS II.2

b. The Refutation of Samkhya in UMS II.2.1-10 and the Scriptural Reasoning of Advaita

V. Truth, Text and Reader

VI. A Concluding Note on Advaita and Intertextual Truth

Chapter Four:

Advaita Vedanta and Its Readers

I. The Tension between the Text and Its Truth

II. Timeless Truth, Timely Reading: The Truth in Reading

1. The Simplicity and Temporal Complexity of Liberative Knowledge

2. Two Analogies: Music and Yoga

III. Becoming a Reader

1. The Desire to Know Brahman and the Desire to Read

2. Authorizing the Reader: The Prerequisites of Knowledge

IV. The Constraints on Liberation and the Cessation of Reading in UMS III.4: Description as Prescription

1. Expectations about the Person Who Will Renounce

2. The Ritual Background to Renunciation

3. Prescribing Renunciation

V. Advaita Elitism and the Possibility of the Unauthorized Reader: Finding a Loophole

Chapter Five:

Theology after Advaita Vedanta:

The Text, The Truth, and The Theologian

I. The Practice of Comparative Theology

II. The Composition of the Text for Comparative Theology: Reading the Summa Theol