Christ - Avatâra - Incarnation

Commonalities between Christianity and Hinduism

Love of God (bhakti) is a central—and perhaps the most visible—dimension of both Christianity and Hinduism. Growing out of an exclusive sacrificial cult conserved by priests (ancient Judaism, brahmanism), both religions have attempted to universalize our relationship to the divine transcendence through a framework of worship that facilitated the acculturation of diverse ethnic traditions within a larger socio-religious order. However, they have both retained the sacrificial core in the background, whether in the figure of the Son of God crucified on the Cross only to be resurrected in spirit (as still enacted in the sacrament of the Eucharist), or in the actual practice of immolation to the gods even where reduced to innocuous vegetal substitutes. Indeed, the Trinity in either religion cannot be fully understood except as an attempt to conserve the sacrificial dialectics within a universalizing bhakti open to all regardless of of class or ethnic origin. This confluence of differing understandings of Christianity (Gnostic, Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant) and Hinduism (brahmanical, bhakti, tantric, popular)—including the various rational 'points of view' (darshana) elaborated by theologians in both traditions—is intended to facilitate systematic comparison and to encourage cross-cultural dialogue. Our own focus on bhakti and aesthetics might hopefully provide a privileged space for a meaningful—even transformative—encounter because it scrutinizes the very nature, motivation, modes, constraints and purpose of 'philosophizing' as well as its roots in non-rational modes of apprehending the world. Many of these essays are reworkings of previous conversations from Abhinavagupta (and other related forums) and discussions are best pursued there.

Differences between Christianity and Hinduism

Whereas Rabbinic Judaism has long since tempered Judaism's proselytizing zeal, Christianity has not only conserved this ancient monotheism project of unifying the whole world under the banner of a single God, but pursues it now with all the weapons that modernity has placed at its disposal. This is apparent not only in the Pope's declaration, as a guest on Indian soil no less, of his desire to harvest the whole of Asia for Christianity; but also in the well-documented and highly politicized agenda of fundamentalist (especially American) Protestant missionaries in converting the masses in sensitive regions of the Indian Union. Though a millennium has gone by since the demise of Indian Buddhism, Hinduism for its part remains imbued with an otherworldly orientation ??? [to be completed]

Dialogue between Christianity and Hinduism