Julius Lipner

Offering us a major study of religious Hinduism, Julius Lipner explains the evolution and multidimensional nature of the religion in a clear and direct fashion. Covering history, belief and practice, he combines factual information with explanation and analysis.

Their Religious Beliefs and Practices

Hindus

Hinduism has been a major religious faith for well over 3000 years, and Hindus today account for over 600 million people. Lipner's book is a highly readable study of its evolution, its multidimensional nature, and influence.

The Face of Truth examines in depth the Vedantic theology of Rāmānuja, the most important and well-known of the classical Hindu theologians. Julius Lipner clearly analyzes Rāmānuja's theory of sacred language and divine predication, his views on the nature of the self, God, and the relationship between infinite and finite being. In addition to offering new insights into and analyses of religious matters, The Face of Truth exposes the theology of language — the understanding of religious language and God. This is consistent with Lipner's other purpose — the furthering of inter-religious dialogue, especially between Hindu and Christian points of view. Lipner has also translated several technical Sanskrit terms into English, making his point intelligible to non-Sanskrit readers. Drawing together the complex strands of Rāmānujan thought, Lipner succeeds in increasing inter-religious understanding.

A Study of Meaning and Metaphysics in the Vedantic Theology of Rāmānuja

The Face of Truth

Katherine K. Young

Harold Coward

Modern Western approaches to India often have focused on metaphysics at the expense of ethics, leading many to see Hinduism as only concerned with the esoteric and the otherworldly. The chapters of this book offer case study explorations that are selected and presented to invite comparisons with the modern West. Such comparisons will help to remove the apparent otherworldly nature of Hindu thought from the minds of Western readers, as well as give depth and new significance to Indian ideas in the areas of medical ethics, social ethics, and human rights. The case studies demonstrate that Indian thought has not ignored deep reflection on ethical problems that are presenting serious challenges to the modern world. They demonstrate that Hinduism has a firm grounding in ethics, even when the most difficult questions are raised.

Purity, Abortion, and Euthanasia

Hindu Ethics

Julius Lipner’s Hindus is widely recognised as essential reading for everyone wishing to understand one of the world’s great religious traditions. Hinduism comprises the religion and culture of the great majority of the people of India, a country tipped to become a world superpower politically, economically and culturally in the course of the present century. The vast array of diverse beliefs and practices usually described as ‘Hindu’ has been notoriously difficult to corral under a single regulating theme. Julius Lipner provides not only a wide-ranging introduction to Hindu religious and cultural diversity but also suggests a way to characterize Hinduism as a distinct tradition that has survived and adapted to changing circumstances from ancient times to the present day. Lipner is a recognised authority on Hinduism's polycentric emphasis, and his book is based on a lifetime of research and personal experience of his subject. In this thoroughly revised and substantially enlarged second edition, students of Hinduism will find more coverage of the debate about Hindu origins, the nature and practice of Hindu worship, the role of women, the scope of dharma and morality, Hindu philosophical thought and the use of reason, and the way caste functions.

Julius Lipner

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