"There’s what the philosophers say about it, and then there’s what people actually believe. And there’s some relation between those two things, but there are also lots of differences." I agree with you about that! It also helps to know what is our own personal philosophy. I asked this of one of my teenage children this week and she said she did not know. A person's philosophy directs how they live, so it is indeed important to know. Most importantly, it is the basis of how we relate to the cosmos. Being a Christian (which wasn't my place, growing up in a secular home), I see the universe as moving toward a good outcome, although there will be dystopia before this happens (The Book of Revelation). The Godhead is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Kingdom of God will one day be here with Jesus as King and everybody who trusts in Him will live together in peace as brothers and sisters. There will be no more need to find status, security, or satisfaction outside of God because we will all desire to depend on Jesus for these things. Is this how Christians live our lives now? It should be. Those in the community of Christians should know we are loved by Jesus and seek Him everyday and depend on Him for everything, especially being loving toward those who the world does not treat kindly. Thank you for helping me to think more about my own personal philosophy!
What you’re describing here reminds me a lot of how I understand the relationship between Neoplatonism and Greco-Roman religion in late antiquity. Like sure the hierophantic philosophers were monotheists, sorta (inasmuch as the platonic unity is a deity) but that’s not how the guy sacrificing to Zeus or Venus or Isis or Baal understood things at all.
There's an argument that there is no such thing as "Hinduism". That is, the term was coined by outsiders to describe the religious practices they observed in the subcontinent, but there is no single unified tradition. Sure, there are ideas that people more or less agree on such as the concept of Karma, but there's nothing like the canonical texts of other religions. Instead, there is a huge amount of variance in practice, and there is no formal religious institution or set of doctrines that everyone agrees on.
I've asked Indians about this, and they tend to split about 50/50 on this. Some say yes, there really is a coherent religion called "Hinduism", while others agree that the practices are so varied that it doesn't make sense to bundle them all together as one "religion".
This is definitely something that came up in the world religions class in grade 10 at my fancy school in India, and no one was quite sure what it meant
Well, what do you think? Do you think there is a single coherent religious tradition that encompasses everything that we call "Hinduism", or do you think that there are many different traditions that seem to have some common features? The claim isn't that there are no spiritual practices in India; instead, it's that there is no unified doctrine the way there is with Judaism, Christianity, or Islam.
How you define coherence in a religious context influences your answer to that question. A religion that insists that there are a multitude of paths — possibly infinite — that can take a soul to the ultimate reality will naturally appear incoherent to someone whose idea of coherence is a single, well-defined path. Practitioners — regardless of their chosen path — find it coherent, and that is sufficient.
"There’s what the philosophers say about it, and then there’s what people actually believe. And there’s some relation between those two things, but there are also lots of differences." I agree with you about that! It also helps to know what is our own personal philosophy. I asked this of one of my teenage children this week and she said she did not know. A person's philosophy directs how they live, so it is indeed important to know. Most importantly, it is the basis of how we relate to the cosmos. Being a Christian (which wasn't my place, growing up in a secular home), I see the universe as moving toward a good outcome, although there will be dystopia before this happens (The Book of Revelation). The Godhead is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Kingdom of God will one day be here with Jesus as King and everybody who trusts in Him will live together in peace as brothers and sisters. There will be no more need to find status, security, or satisfaction outside of God because we will all desire to depend on Jesus for these things. Is this how Christians live our lives now? It should be. Those in the community of Christians should know we are loved by Jesus and seek Him everyday and depend on Him for everything, especially being loving toward those who the world does not treat kindly. Thank you for helping me to think more about my own personal philosophy!
You're welcome!
I got on a kick to read all the old holy books, few years back. I tried reading the Rig Veda. I didn't get far.
I loved the Bhagavad-gita.
What you’re describing here reminds me a lot of how I understand the relationship between Neoplatonism and Greco-Roman religion in late antiquity. Like sure the hierophantic philosophers were monotheists, sorta (inasmuch as the platonic unity is a deity) but that’s not how the guy sacrificing to Zeus or Venus or Isis or Baal understood things at all.
That's a perfect analogy
There's an argument that there is no such thing as "Hinduism". That is, the term was coined by outsiders to describe the religious practices they observed in the subcontinent, but there is no single unified tradition. Sure, there are ideas that people more or less agree on such as the concept of Karma, but there's nothing like the canonical texts of other religions. Instead, there is a huge amount of variance in practice, and there is no formal religious institution or set of doctrines that everyone agrees on.
I've asked Indians about this, and they tend to split about 50/50 on this. Some say yes, there really is a coherent religion called "Hinduism", while others agree that the practices are so varied that it doesn't make sense to bundle them all together as one "religion".
Hinduism is an extremely useful term that describes something! But it's hard to say exactly what :)
This is definitely something that came up in the world religions class in grade 10 at my fancy school in India, and no one was quite sure what it meant
Well, what do you think? Do you think there is a single coherent religious tradition that encompasses everything that we call "Hinduism", or do you think that there are many different traditions that seem to have some common features? The claim isn't that there are no spiritual practices in India; instead, it's that there is no unified doctrine the way there is with Judaism, Christianity, or Islam.
How you define coherence in a religious context influences your answer to that question. A religion that insists that there are a multitude of paths — possibly infinite — that can take a soul to the ultimate reality will naturally appear incoherent to someone whose idea of coherence is a single, well-defined path. Practitioners — regardless of their chosen path — find it coherent, and that is sufficient.