Majesty and Meekness: A Comparative Study of Contrast and Harmony in the Concept of God

by John B. Carman

Book Overview

This full-color storybook features two new Disney Princess stories plus over 50 stickers. Little girls ages 3-7 will love reading about the further adventures of Rapunzel from Disney Tangled and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0802806937
• ISBN13: 9780802806932
• Release Date: June 1994
• Publisher: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company
• Length: 463 Pages
• Weight: 1.41 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.9" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Same God in different religions?

I admire Carman's ability and sharpness to identify similarities between Christianism and other religions. I am also glad that he pointed out the differences as well. It is a very thorough book. The author has divided this book into five parts, and subdivided each part into several chapters. Part one is called "at the edge of theology." In chapter one Carman explains how he came to understand polarities in different religions and how he discovered similar polarities in the Christian religion or Christianity. Carman affirms that polarities do not contradict each other, but are necessary to explain the amplitude in range of a given divinity. In chapter two the author calls for a "deliberate effort to reestablish communication" between different religions; what he calls the "detour of scholarly understanding" (23). Carman recognizes that the road to establish new communications between communities of faith will be very difficult. He emphasizes the efforts made in this regard by the Norwegian W. Brede Kristensen from the University of Leiden and Gerardus van der Leeuw from the University of Groningen during the first half of the 20th century. While both agree on the importance of the scholar's own religious experience, they differ on how this experience should affect the scholar's research, teaching and writing. He also recognizes the German theologian Rudolf Otto as the one that introduced him to Ramanuja and awoke his interest in the comparative studies of religion. In part two of his book the author deals with polarities in Hindu theologies. Chapter three deals with the many different faces of Siva, the Supreme Lord in Hindu religion. One of these faces is represented in an image that shows Siva and the Goddess (Parvati?) combined in a single human figure, male on one side and female on the other. The author analyzes Tamil poems to discover the different polarities of Siva. Chapters four, five and six deal with the theology of the Srivaishnavas of South India. Carman analyzes the writings of Nammalvar, a very influential poet in the community, of the philosopher and theologian Ramanuja, and of Pillan, a commentator who tries to combine and explain the writings of the former two persons. In chapter seven the author proposes to compare the Buddhist teachings of Shinran with the doctrines of the Tengalai branch of Srivaishnava tradition and Protestant theology, especially with Martin Luther's teaching on grace and "faith alone." Chapter eight looks at the polarities in different Hindu deities, like Siva with his five faces, the goddess Kali, and Lord Vishnu. There are four polarities in Ramanuja's theology: god as support and god as supported, god as utterly pure and as a treasure-trove of auspicious attributes, god as supreme and nevertheless accessible, god as "the ruler who is pleased by good deeds and as the ruler who expects loving service from his servants and who creates opportunities for them to render service" (148). Part three of this book

In-depth comparison good

Harvard Professor Carman's book shows his background and large amounts of time spent in India. He sees the many faces of Christ and their reflections in other faiths, and he explains this all very well. The only possible drawback is that the book focuses on Christianity and Hinduism (with Buddhism, Islam, and Judaism as much smaller topics); however, as not very many books comparing just Christianity and Hinduism have been written, it fills that niche nicely!