Veda and Torah: Transcending the Textuality of Scripture.

• Author: CLOONEY, FRANCIS X.
• Position: Review

Veda ad Torah: Transcending the Textuality of Scripture. By BARBARA HOLDREGE. Albany: STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS, 1996. Pp. xiii + 765. $19.95 (paper).

Veda and Torah is a large volume which takes on a very large project, the construction of a link between the Jewish and Hindu traditions, two complex sets of religious materials which are made more complex by Holdrege's further realization that, more properly, one must speak of "Hinduisms" and "Judaisms." Narrowing her focus to certain intellectual discourses still leaves her with a formidable task, a comparison of "brahmanical" and "rabbinic" traditions which have flourished in relation to the Veda and Torah as texts, systems, and modes of interpretation. Veda and Torah has been written to give rational grounding to Holdrege's initial intuition that the Jewish traditions have a great deal in common with the Veda and Vedic tradition of India. Yet as a theologically alert scholar, Holdrege is aware from the start that commonality could not be expressed by way of a specific theological position, due to apparent strong differences: Jewish monotheism vs. Vedic polytheism; personal and covenantal nature of the divine-human relation vs. the cosmic and (potentially at least) nondualist nature of the latter; and each of these polarities along with consequent differences emerging in the nature, practice, and valorization of religious activities and ideals. Trained too in the contemporary study of religion (at Harvard University) Holdrege is also alert to the difficult methodological problems facing comparativists--how to pin down comparisons specific enough to be manageable, particularly with reference to traditions with little historical connection--and the widespread skepticism among specialists who find little credibility or use in comparative studies. But Holdrege insists that the comparison is fruitful, the goal of the book is to show its plausibility. She carries through on the promise of the book's title by way of its sub-title, looking not only at the Rg Veda itself or the Torah, but beyond the texts to their living intellectual contexts, how scholars understood each text to be related to the world, community, and the individual learning it. The idea of pursuing a comparison of texts-in-context, very much in the tradition of Wilfred Cantwell Smith's work on scripture (though Smith is cited infrequently), is the key to this project.

The book is divided into three major sections...