Book Description

The theories and methods used to study world religions and cultures continue to be rooted in Western philosophies. The Bloomsbury Handbook to Indian Philosophical Theories of Religion challenges the reliance on Western approaches and shows how innovative ideas from the major Indian traditions can enrich understandings of religion and the social sciences. Divided into three core parts - Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism - each chapter takes a key Indic philosophical idea, like Jain Theory or Samkhya Philosophy, and applies it to areas including religion, anthropology and psychology. By drawing on non-western views, such as seeing reality as a world within one self and outside a flow with nothing permanent, this volume opens up new directions of study. Bringing together respected scholars in the field and featuring in-depth analysis and comprehensive bibliographies, it is the first research resource to illustrate how Asian traditions can contribute theoretically and methodologically to religion. For scholars in Asian philosophy, religious studies and the social sciences, The Bloomsbury Handbook to Indian Philosophical Theories of Religion provides new ways of understanding world religions and philosophies.