Theology After Vedanta: An Experiment in Comparative Theology.

• Author: Hirst, Jacqueline Suthren
• Position: Review

By FRANCIS X. CLOONEY, S.J. Towards a Comparative Philosophy of Religions, ed. Frank Reynolds and David Tracy. Albany: STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS, 1993. Pp. xviii + 265.

Theology after Vedanta presents an ambitious yet carefully circumscribed foundation for rereading and rewriting a form of Roman Catholic theology at the end of the twentieth century in the light of an attentive reading of key Advaita Vedanta texts. At the outset, the author warns that, although indologists and theologians may want to read different parts of the book selectively, it is best read as a whole. I bear this in mind in this review, even though, for the readership of this journal, I shall focus on the indological material.

The book is structured with care. After a first chapter which explores possible senses for "comparative theology" and introduces Advaita as a commentarial tradition, the "texture," "truth" and readership of the Advaita Vedanta "Text" (I conserve the capitalization on purpose) are investigated, respectively, in chapters two to four. This trio forms the basis for "Theology after Advaita Vedanta: The Text, The Truth and The Theologian," as chapter five is called. In line with its basic thesis that reading and rereading is at the heart of the Advaitin enterprise and should become so for the comparative theologian, the book constantly forces the reader to reread and reconsider what goes before, through its structure, its repeated return to texts examined earlier, the comparison of texts in parallel columns, the gradual refinement of vocabulary (from Brahman referred to first as "post-textual," then as "extratextual," then as both) and a progressive use of capitalization (from "texts" to "Text"; from "truth" to "truth of comparison" to "Truth of comparison"). I found this embedding of its pedagogical standpoint refreshing and rewarding, not least in the chapters which, though "inscribed" with the comparative project (a perhaps overused term in the book), concentrate on Advaita.

A "credible Indological study" (p. 7)

Without doubt, this is a valuable contribution to studies of Samkara's Brahmasutrabhasya and its commentaries, by a scholar whose knowledge of the Purvamimamsa tradition enables him to read (Advaita) Vedanta in its important light. I select four of the book's key points which follow from this.

i) The distinction between the Advaita as Uttaramimamsa and as Vedanta philosophy (p. 74). As I have also argued,(1) there are good grounds for studying Samkara as a theologian primarily interested in scriptural texts as the medium for liberation, rather than purely as a philosopher whose conceptual analysis can be abstracted from its exegetical context. Theology after Vedanta makes a strong case for understanding Advaita in relation to the "Mimamsa practice of reading" which it extends to "a new set of texts," namely, the upanisads (p. 25). In an investigation of the scheme of the Brahmasutrabhasya in terms of sutras...