Beyond Compare

Clooney, Francis X.:
Beyond Compare : St. Francis de Sales and Śrī Vedānta Deśika on Loving Surrender to God / Francis X. Clooney. - Washington D.C. : Georgetown University Press, 2008. - xiii, 271 S.
ISBN 9781589012110
US$ 34,95

Beschreibung
Beyond Compare is a remarkable work that offers a commentary on spiritual learning for the twenty-first century rooted in two classic texts from the Hindu and Christian traditions: the Essence of the Three Auspicious Mysteries by Śrī Vedānta Deśika and Treatise on the Love of God by St. Francis de Sales.
   In his commentary, Clooney achieves multiple goals - the book is a contribution to Christian spiritual theology, highlighting for today the beautiful insights into love by St. Francis de Sales (1567-1623), Doctor of the Church. At the same time it points out how even in our world of many religious paths, we can recover and deepen the ancient tradition of loving surrender into God's hands by opening ourselves to the wisdom of India and one of Hindu India's most famous traditions of loving God, explained to us by the south Indian Hindu theologian Śrī Vedānta Deśika (1268-1369). Clooney goes further, offering a comparative study of these classic works in which he self-consciously writes about the process of reading the two works and the impact this approach has on the reader. The good advice found through this deep engagement with these texts offers a deeper insight into how we can most fruitfully and spiritually think about religious pluralism in the 21st century, remaining open in heart and mind while loyal still to our own tradition.
   Not merely a book about loving surrender to God, Beyond Compare offers us the opportunity to advance along that path ourselves, learning from the wisdom of St. Francis de Sales and Śrī Vedānta Deśika, meditating on their two paths together, deepening our own love and willingness to surrender in love to God. [Verlagsinformation]

Inhalt
Preface. xi
CHAPTER 1: TWO SPIRITUAL CLASSICS AND THE POSSIBILITIES THEY PRESENT. 1
I. On Writing as a Scholar beyond Himself: 1996. 1
II. Reading Loving Surrender across Religious Boundaries. 6
III. Some Cautions as We Look Ahead. 25
CHAPTER 2: THINKING, WRITING, READING: FINDING A PATH TO LOVING SURRENDER. 32
I. The Problem of Reason in Interpreting Religious Truths. 32
II. Conversion: Reason and the Leap Beyond. 56
III. The Self-Understanding and Intentions of Deśika and de Sales as Writers. 67
IV. From Writer to Reader: On the Exercise of Religious Reading. 77
CHAPTER 3: AWAKENING: READING AND LEARNING ON THE WAY TO GOD. 83
I. Scripture, Inscribed in the Treatise and Essence. 85
II. Engaging the Reader: Person to Person. 112
III. Reading More Intensely to Discover a Destiny. 132
CHAPTER 4: LOVING SURRENDER: INSIGHT, DRAMA, AND ECSTASY. 142
I. The Theological Presuppositions of Self-Abandonment. 143
II. Deśika’s Exegesis of the Dvaya Mantra. 149
III. De Sales on Love and Loving Surrender. 166
IV. Loving Surrender—Intensified. 182
CHAPTER 5: AS WE BECOME OURSELVES: ON THE ETHICS OF LOVING SURRENDER AND OF PERSISTENCE IN READING. 189
I. Life after Loving Surrender to God. 190
II. On Being a Religious Reader and Writer after the Essence and Treatise. 202
III. A Final Word. 210
Notes. 213
Bibliography. 249
Index. 255

Autor
Francis X. Clooney, SJ, is Parkman Professor of Divinity and Comparative Theology in the Harvard Divinity School at Harvard University. Faculty profile. Homepage.

Quellen: Georgetown University Press; Amazon (Deutschland); Google Books; WorldCat.

Rückschau
Vom Verfasser haben wir in Indologica bereits das folgende Werk erfaßt:
[23.08.2005] Clooney: Divine Mother, Blessed Mother.