Tastes of the Divine : : Hindu and Christian Theologies of Emotion / / Michelle Voss Roberts.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Fordham University Press Complete eBook-Package 2014-2015
• VerfasserIn: Roberts, Michelle Voss,
• Place / Publishing House: New York, NY : : Fordham University Press, , [2014]; ©2014
• Year of Publication: 2014
• Language: English
• Series: Comparative Theology: Thinking Across Traditions ; 5
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (296 p.)

The intensity and meaningfulness of aesthetic experience have often been described in theological terms. By designating basic human emotions as rasa, a word that connotes taste, flavor, or essence, Indian aesthetic theory conceptualizes emotional states as something to be savored. At their core, emotions can be tastes of the divine. In this book, the methods of the emerging discipline of comparative theology enable the author’s appreciation of Hindu texts and practices to illuminate her Christian reflections on aesthetics and emotion.Three emotions vie for prominence in the religious sphere: peace, love, and fury. Whereas Indian theorists following Abhinavagupta claim that the aesthetic emotion of peace best approximates the goal of religious experience, devotees of Krishna and medieval Christian readings of the Song of Songs argue that love communicates most powerfully with divinity. In response to the transcendence emphasized in both approaches, the book turns to fury at injustice to attend to emotion’s foundations in the material realm. The implications of this constructive theology of emotion for Christian liturgy, pastoral care, and social engagement are manifold.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- ABBREVIATIONS -- SANSKRIT PRONUNCIATION GUIDE -- PREFACE -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- Introduction: RASA -- Part I: Peace -- 1. The Bliss of Peace -- 2. Suffering and Peace -- Part II: Love -- 3. The Rasa of Love In carnate -- 4. A Dilemma of Feeling -- 5. Love, Bodies, and Others -- Part III: Fury -- 6. Dalit Arts and the Failure of Aesthetics -- 7. Fury as a Religious Sentiment -- Part IV: Tastes of the Divine -- 8. Toward a Holistic Th eology of the Emotions -- 9. Wonder -- NOTES -- Glossary of Sanskrit Terms -- Bibliography -- Index