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Toward Universal Religion Voices of American and Indian Spirituality

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By Daniel Ross Chandler

Foreward by Donald Szantho Harrington

ISBN: 0-313-29484-4

ISBN-13: 978-0-313-29484-6

DOI:

280 pages

Greenwood Press

Publication: 2/28/1996

List Price: $131.95 (UK Sterling Price: £75.00)

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Media Type: Hardcover

Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4

Subjects:

Series Title: Contributions to the Study of Religion

Series Number: 43

Reviews:

The book's most obvious asset is that it is informative. This book can be recommended as both a store of information and a possible catalyst to further study. The writing is straightforward and clear. Upper-division undergraduate; graduate; faculty.
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Choice

Description: Using the 1893 and the 1993 World's Parliament of Religions as a focus for probing intercultural religious communication, this study describes more than a century's preoccupation with a provocative phenomenon called "universal religion." It presents 12 enduringly significant speakers whose rhetorical effectiveness, combined with their concepts of universal religion, forge an intercultural synthesis combining Eastern religions and Western thought. This volume will interest scholars and students of both religion and rhetoric as well as the general public. It provides a deeper appreciation of such well-known communicators as Emerson and Thoreau, as well as an introduction to the significant contributions of thinkers such as Roy, Sen, Besant, Vivekananda, Tagore, Radhakrishnan, Gandhi, Jenkins Lloyd Jones, John Haynes Holmes, and Preston Bradley. The 1893 Parliament of The World's Religions and the 1993 World's Parliament of Religions are described by contemporary historians as "watersheds in human history" and "turning points in humanity's spiritual progress." These parliaments are the two occasions when the world's religious leaders have gathered, and the events symbolize a growing preoccupation with an emerging "universal religion" evolving through interreligious communication. The 1893 Parliament is recognized for commencing interreligious dialogue and encouraging comparative religion; the 1993 Parliament is remembered for networking the worldwide religious and spiritual communities. This volume describes a little-known but highly important "minority movement" in which a comparatively few communicators in India and the United States have progessively synthesized Eastern religion and Western thought. The work examines these speakers and their speeches by placing this distinctive rhetorical discourse within their historical times and cultural contexts; specifying the concepts about "universal religion" proposed by each speaker; and indicating their contributions to an emerging and evolving religion that is universal.

Table of Contents:

Introduction
Raja Rammohun Roy: Universal Religion
Ralph Waldo Emerson: Indian Literary Traditions
Keshub Chunder Sen: Prophet of Things Unseen
Henry David Thoreau: Eastern Spirituality
Annie Besant: Universal Religion as a Common Center
Jenkin Lloyd Jones and Swami Vivekananda: Toward East-West Religious Synthesis
John Haynes Holmes and Mahatma Gandhi: Toward Universal Religion
Rabindranath Tagore: Universal Man, Universal Religion
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan: Religion of the Spirit
Preston Bradley: The Religion of Humanity
Epilogue
Selected Bibliography
Index

LC Card Number: 95-33968

LCC Class: BL390

Dewey Class: 291


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