Sacred Orality, Sacred Dialogue

12 Pages·2013·0.25 MB·English

by  Reid B. Locklin

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Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies
Volume 26 Article 10
2013
Sacred Orality, Sacred Dialogue: Walter J. Ong and
the Practice of Hindu-Christian Studies
Reid B. Locklin
St. Michael’s College, University of Toronto
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Recommended Citation
Locklin, Reid B. () "Sacred Orality, Sacred Dialogue: Walter J. Ong and the Practice of Hindu-Christian Studies,"Journal of Hindu-
Christian Studies: Vol. 26, Article 10.
Available at:http://dx.doi.org/10.7825/2164-6279.1549
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Locklin: Sacred Orality, Sacred Dialogue
SACRED ORALITY, SACRED DIALOGUE:
WALTER J. ONG AND THE PRACTICE OF HINDU-
CHRISTIAN STUDIES
Reid B. Locklin
St. Michael’s College, University of Toronto
THE genesis of this essay can be traced to two lay devotee. It was not, the presenter insisted,
specific events from my own personal history.1 like a book group, in which people read works
One summer, when I had just finished separately and then come together to discuss.
coursework in my doctoral program and was Instead, each study group would gather, one
looking forward to my thesis, I took a retreat at person would volunteer to read out loud, and
Arsha Vidya Gurukulam, a Hindu ashram in the then, in the process of reading, that person
Pocono Mountains region of eastern would become the guru. There was nothing
Pennsylvania. Before one of the discourses that supernatural here, she explained, but simply
constituted the retreat, a lay devotee of the the fact that, when the discourses on the Gita
Arsha Vidya movement stood to offer a were read aloud, it was “like the guru is present
testimonial to the Gita Home Study Program, there in the group.” Hence, the study group
published by the ashram press.2 The study could function efficaciously to transmit the
program itself is pretty simple: the text consists teaching of liberation, in a way that private
of sections of the popular Hindu scripture study, in the absence of a guru, never could.
Bhagavad-Gītā, along with discourses by Swami This anecdote is interesting to me—well
Dayananda Saraswati, the chief guru of the over a decade later—for a number of reasons.
ashram. Members of the movement form First of all, of course, it reveals something
groups of between 4-10 people for shared about the transformations of diaspora
study.3 Hinduism in the contemporary period, as
What was of greater interest to me was the middle class Hindus navigate the dual forces of
way that the study group was presented by the a radically democratized tradition of guru-
Reid B. Locklin holds an associate professorship in Christianity and the Intellectual Tradition, a joint
appointment at Saint Michael’s College and the Department for the Study of Religion, University of
Toronto. A graduate of Boston University and Boston College, he is the author of Spiritual but Not
Religious? (Liturgical Press, 2005), Liturgy of Liberation (Peeters, 2011) and other works in comparative
theology, Hindu-Christian studies, and spirituality. He was president of the Society for Hindu-
Christian Studies from 2009 to 2010, and he currently serves on the steering committee for the
Conference on the Study of the Religions of India and on the Board of Directors for the College
Theology Society. He can be reached at reid [email protected].
Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies 26 (2013):80-90
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Sacred Orality, Sacred Dialogue: Walter J. Ong nad the Practice of Hindu-Christian Studies 81
disciple relationships and the natural limits of I propose first to explore selected aspects of
such relationships outside of the elite, Ong’s description of the oral sensorium, with
Brahminical circles in which they originally special attention to its attraction for the
flourished.4 The guru is, in this situation, both analysis of a Hindu tradition like that
radically available to any person, regardless of represented at Arsha Vidya Gurukulam. Then,
gender, caste or ethnicity, and, partially as a in a second section, I will touch on two
consequence of this near-universal availability, attempts to bring orality into the study of
necessarily absent in the experience of most Hindu and Christian traditions: Harold
such disciples most of the time. The solution? Coward’s comparative study of scripture and
An opportunity to make that absent guru my own recent volume, Liturgy of Liberation. A
present while absent, through the repeated serious encounter with the theory of orality, I
practice of embodied speech. suggest, opens a useful area for study across
The reference to embodied speech suggests Hindu and Christian traditions, as well as
a second line of inquiry, and takes me to the challenging a number of assumptions around
second event at the source of this essay. Some language, culture and academic objectivity that
six years before I visited Arsha Vidya form a broad context for shared study.
Gurukulam, I was sitting in a cold trailer on the
Pine Ridge Reserve in South Dakota, drinking The Oral Sensorium: Authority,
coffee with a Jesuit mission priest. He leaned Personal Presence, and Interiority
back, offered a smug grin, and asked: “What is In his landmark 1964 Terry lectures at Yale
the opposite of literacy?” Presumably, he University, published in 1967 as The Presence of
expected me to answer, “illiteracy.” As a the Word, Walter Ong makes a brief but telling
student of English composition from East reference to the “Hindu insistence that for true
Tennessee, however, I blinked, and gave what I wisdom it is essential that one learn not merely
thought was the much more obvious answer, from books but from the spoken word received
rooted in the work of the mid-twentieth- personally from a guru.”5 Later, in Orality and
century cultural theorist—and fellow Jesuit— Literacy, he again takes up Hindu tradition, this
Walter J. Ong: “orality.” My interlocutor nearly time focusing on common claims about
fell out of his chair. verbatim memorization of Vedic hymns.6 It
Only recently have I begun to try to has been well-recognized that the preferred
connect these two events, one an experience mode of transmission of the Vedas and many
with the transformation of oral patterns of other sacred texts in Brahminical tradition,
communication in the Hindu tradition of both before and after these texts were fixed in
Advaita Vedānta, and the second an experience writing, has been by means of oral
with the theory of orality advanced by Ong. memorization, and such memorization carries
Does the latter theory have something to say to many of the marks of oral memory noted by
the former, historical transformation of Hindu Ong: an emphasis on metrical formulae, for
tradition and indeed for the broader practice of example, copious cross-references to other,
Hindu-Christian studies? I have begun to think closely related textual traditions, and musical
that it might, and I am not alone. In this essay, constraints. Thus, in recitation of Sanskrit
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Locklin: Sacred Orality, Sacred Dialogue
82 Reid B. Locklin
texts, teachers insist not only on the correct repetition, it is by nature conservative and
words, but the correct rhythm and tone of their tends to place relatively low value on
recitation.7 Ong’s primary interest in originality.10 Since such knowledge also
discussing these Hindu traditions, we should depends upon social structures and personal
note, is to challenge the oft-repeated claim that relationships, it becomes what Ong calls a
such memorization is truly verbatim and the “tribal possession,” maintained not by contact
text thus reproduced invariable. Such claims, with the “objective world” as such, but with
though frequently insisted upon in oral traditional discourse about that world.11
cultures, are almost always contradicted to a Perhaps most importantly, the verbal word
greater or lesser extent in actual practice . . . carries an authority and reliability of its own
including, in Ong’s account, the practice of that eludes the printed word, at least in Ong’s
Vedic recitation.8 analysis. “One prefers what is verbally
What Ong does not discuss in these works— reported to what is seen,” he writes,
or anywhere, to the best of my knowledge—are “correlating the two relatively slightly.”
the specific features of orality that may help Quoting Ambrose of Milan, he underscores the
explain its persistence in what must be point: “Sight is often deceived, hearing serves
admitted to be one of oldest literate religious as guarantee.”12
cultures of the world. Based on my work with According to Ong, such authority stems
the non-dualist Hindu tradition of Advaita primarily from the commanding presence of
Vedānta in places like Arsha Vidya Gurukulam the word itself, a presence that belongs to
or the various centers of the worldwide embodied speech of its own nature, as a
Ramakrishna and Chinmaya Missions, at least performative event. Nevertheless, it is also
three such aspects commend themselves as true that personal presence and interpersonal
being of particular relevance: oral patterns of relations represent important aspects of oral
authority, the central importance of personal cultures, particularly in comparison to more
presence, and the close association between literate, visualist ones. At one level, an
sound and interiority. emphasis on personal presence follows rather
First, authority. Early in The Presence of the directly from the fact that presence, as such, is
Word, Ong notes a correlation between the oral simply what is required for oral
sensorium and authoritarianism, particularly in communication to take place: speaking, hearing
the rhetoric of those modern reformers who and dialogue depend upon some form of
have proclaimed the liberation, through print personal presence, no matter how it is
culture, of persons and indeed whole societies mediated. The interactions that characterize
previously held captive by churchmen or such dialogue are often agonistic, involving
school teachers.9 Though Ong categorically some level of mutual questioning or
rejects any such conspiracy theories of history, contestation, but they nevertheless bind
he does concede a kind of traditionalism and persons into groups and situate words and
authoritarianism associated with oral patterns understandings in contexts that are “person-
of communication. Since oral knowledge interactive.”13 More than this, personal
depends, by its very nature, on continual presence also shapes the way that persons
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Sacred Orality, Sacred Dialogue: Walter J. Ong nad the Practice of Hindu-Christian Studies 83
relate to the nonhuman world and the universe particular object; sound renders space a vast
of ideas, insofar as the acquisition of knowledge interior, a living reality, continuously inhabited
is normed as an achievement of empathy, by voices, music and noises of various kinds.16
participation and personal identification with Sight isolates and dissects, while sound
that which is known.14 Ong scholar Thomas J. incorporates and unifies.17 Whereas sight
Farrell characterizes this as an “alternative reaches only to the surfaces of things, sound
approach to knowledge through voice and penetrates them without violation, such as
sound. This alternative approach considers when one taps on a box to find out if it is full or
knowledge in terms of dialogue, as emerging rings “a coin to learn whether it is silver or
from dialogue.”15 lead.”18 It also binds interiors to one another,
The two points I have highlighted so far— as sounds echo and resonate with one
authority and personal presence—resonate well another.19 Most importantly, the interiors thus
with my experiences of Advaita tradition, as penetrated and bound together include the
this tradition has been reinvented and existential “interiors” of human selves, insofar
sustained in its new global context. The as sound originates from within the human
“residual” or “secondary” orality revealed in body, penetrates it, and envelopes it from every
retreats, discourses and initiatives like the side.20 “You can immerse yourself in hearing,
Bhagavad Gita Study Program does not, in my in sound,” Ong observes. “There is no way to
judgment, represent merely a nostalgic hold- immerse yourself similarly in sight.”21
over from a real or imagined past; instead, it The resonance between Ong’s account and
may be seen as shaping patterns of authority, patterns of discourse in the Hindu tradition of
deploying discursive structures to solidify Advaita is, perhaps, most well illustrated with
group identity in a pluralistic context, and thus reference to the celebrated conversation
offering a deeply traditional, counter-cultural between the sage Yājñavalkya and King Janaka
orientation to knowledge itself. That is, it in the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad (BU 4.3).22 In this
styles such knowledge less in terms of account, the king asks, “Yājñavalkya, what is
objectification, commodification and the source of light for a person here?” The sun,
consumption, and more in terms of the replies the sage, for “it is by the light of the sun
conformation of disciple to teacher and that a person sits down, goes about, does his
personal identification of both disciple and work, and returns” (4.3.2) The king presses the
teacher with the higher, divine reality of ātman. question: what about when the sun has set?
This last point about personal identification Then the moon is the source of light, and thus
with ātman leads to another aspect of Ong’s of life (4.3.3). When the moon has set? Then
analysis that may resonate distinctively well the fire (4.3.4). When the fire has died out?
with this teaching tradition: that is, the close The sage answers,
correlation he draws between sound and The voice is . . . his source of light. It is by
interiority. The interiority of sound, for Ong, the light of the voice that a person sits
draws together several dimensions of the down, goes about, does his work, and
experience of hearing. Sight renders space an returns. Therefore, your Majesty, when
empty medium between the eye and a someone cannot make out even his own
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Locklin: Sacred Orality, Sacred Dialogue
84 Reid B. Locklin
hand [with his eyes], he goes straightaway affinities with Ong’s theory, not least in
towards the spot from where he hears a Griffiths’ desire to encourage what he styles a
voice (4.3.5). “severer listening” to our sacred texts as an
And what about when the voice is stilled? alternative to more consumerist reading
Then the light for a person, and the source of strategies typical of the modern academy.25
her life, is the ātman (4.3.6). A discourse on this Griffiths nevertheless styles such “listening” in
ātman follows at some length, culminating in primarily visualist terms as reading, re-reading
the declaration, “this is the immense and and rote memorization. The work of Francis X.
unborn self, unageing, undying, immortal, free Clooney well illustrates a further turn toward
from fear—the brahman. Brahman surely is free the literate, as he leans strongly on the post-
from fear, and a person who knows this modern literary theories of a Jacques Derrida or
undoubtedly becomes that brahman that is free a Charles Altieri to interpret Hindu and
from fear” (4.4.25). Christian traditions which, though certainly
This account is a good example of what committed to written form, equally certainly
Jacqueline G. Suthren Hirst calls a “method of trace their origins and continuing re-
interiorization,” paradigmatic not only for the appropriation to cultures that retain a strong
Upaniṣads, but also for later Advaita teaching.23 oral character.26 It can hardly be doubted that
In this particular narrative, as we have seen, much is gained by studies such as these. But is
such interiorization no doubt employs visual something also lost? Or, perhaps better, can a
imagery and begins solidly in the world of re-appropriation of the distinctive thought-
sight. But the path to the true, interior self of forms and practices of primary oral cultures
all beings—that is, the path to liberation— open new avenues and alternative points of
necessarily proceeds by means of the voice and view?
the world of sound, which persist even when One scholar who has explored this question
the ostensibly objective, externalized world of in some depth is Harold Coward, founder of this
visual experience has gone completely dark. Society and former director of the Centre for
Studies in Religion and Society at the
Orality, Dialogue and the Practice of University of Victoria. Coward’s career has
Hindu-Christian Studies spanned some 35 years, beginning with his first
Once one begins to appreciate the book on the Indian grammarian Bhartṛhari in
fundamentally oral character of Advaita and 1976, and spans diverse topics of inquiry,
many other Hindu traditions, the visualist and including the philosophy of language, Hindu-
literate character of much work in Christian study and dialogue, the
interreligious theology and Hindu-Christian interpretation of religious pluralism, and a
studies in particular becomes very striking. wide range of edited, interdisciplinary projects
Though it deals with Indian Buddhism rather in social ethics, science and religion, and
than Hinduism, for example, Paul J. Griffiths’ ecology.27
Religious Reading: The Place of Reading in the Across much of this work, Coward is
Practice of Religion represents a good case in preoccupied with distinctively Hindu
point.24 This work reveals a number of philosophies and theologies of sacred sound.
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Sacred Orality, Sacred Dialogue: Walter J. Ong nad the Practice of Hindu-Christian Studies 85
He reports discovering the power of orality in as uniquely efficacious means of final
his early studies with T.R.V. Murti, first at liberation.32 “For Vyākaraṇa,” they write, “. . .
McMaster University and then continuing at spoken language is the medium through which
Banaras Hindu University.28 Coward recalls Śabda Brahman is manifested, and the Vedas
Murti’s fury when, after delivering a number of are the criterion expression of that
lectures from memory, without notes, Coward manifestation.”33 Through grammatical
had the temerity to ask him to recommend a analysis, one purifies one’s speech from
book for further reading. Such a book existed: corruptions, suppresses the sequencing of
Murti himself had written it! So why did he thoughts and sounds in temporal order and, in
scold his student instead of suggesting his own so doing, frees language itself from the various
book? “Because,” Coward writes, “[Murti] was conventional uses to which it is habitually
committed to the traditional Sanskrit position subjected by the embodied ego.34 When
on the superiority of the oral over the language has been set free from ego and
written. . . . Books and the written tradition attachment, the inner vision of the spiritual
were clearly secondary—for those who were seeker also follows in due course.35 In the more
too stupid to learn from oral teaching, and to popular work Mantra: Hearing the Divine in India
remember!”29 For Coward, Murti embodied the and America, Coward and his co-author David J.
traditional Sanskrit pattern of guru-śiṣya Goa generalize the grammarians’ account of
relationships, not only in his oral lecture style, liberation to comprehend a broader,
but also in his insistence that, to understand a distinctively Hindu theology of sacred sound:
written text such as the Yoga Sūtras, one had to Hearing and saying the mantra is an act of
work through it line-by-line, reciting the sūtra worship that ‘tunes’ one to the basic sound
out loud, discussing it in the context of the or vibration of the universe. By continual
teachings of major philosophical rivals, and hearing and chanting, one purifies and
testing one’s understanding orally, and transforms one’s life until it vibrates in
repeatedly, until the teacher could verify that harmony with the divine, which is itself
the sūtra had been properly understood.30 pure sound.36
This initial experience of oral instruction Echoing Ong’s sense of the interiority of
was reinforced by further studies in the sphoṭa sound and its intrinsic authority, Coward
theory of meaning advanced by Bhartṛhari and attributes to the spoken word a unique,
in the recitation of mantras in the Yoga of transforming presence unavailable to the
Patañjali, both of which helped Coward reflect written word.
more deeply on the function of language, For Coward, this discovery of the
especially spoken language, to reveal the transformative power of the spoken word had
divine.31 In their major work on the consequences not only for his studies of
grammarians, Coward and K. Kunjunni Raja Hinduism, but also his comparative work. This
identify the oral character of Indian traditions is perhaps most clearly articulated in his 1988
as one of the primary reasons behind such study Sacred Word and Sacred Text—which, when
religious thinkers’ strong emphasis upon the released in a revised edition under the title
word (śabda) and its proper analysis (vyākaraṇa) Scripture in the World Religions, carried an
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Locklin: Sacred Orality, Sacred Dialogue
86 Reid B. Locklin
endorsement from no less an authority than Upadeśasāhasrī or Thousand Teachings of Ādi
Walter J. Ong. In this work, Coward surveys the Śaṅkarācārya, Liturgy of Liberation explores
scriptural traditions of Judaism, Christianity, Śaṅkara’s strong claim that liberating
Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism and Buddhism, knowledge arises only through saṃvāda, or
attentive in each case both to the primacy of spoken dialogue. Such dialogue includes
the oral in the communication and reception of individual, meditative recitation, of course, but
scripture and to the creative interplay of oral it also involves philosophical debate, skilful
and written expression, once these scriptures deployment of a well-traveled fund of
are committed to writing. On Coward’s scriptural sentences, explanatory illustrations
hearing, Hinduism alone has consistently de- and poetic tropes, and even spirited polemic
valued the written text in favor of oral with the rhetorical exponents of rival schools. 42
tradition; hence, Hinduism serves as a catalyst At one level, then, the tradition aims for
for rediscovering the sacred orality of other sublime isolation and identification with ātman,
scriptures and other traditions.37 It is the with that divine reality at the core of each and
spoken word, Coward insists, that possesses every conscious being; at another, more
authentic creative power, and the spoken word performative level, the tradition cultivates
that can flexibly adapt to encounter its hearers such self-knowledge through a complex
– in Judaism and Christianity no less than in tapestry of oral practices and constant
Hinduism.38 “The recitation and preaching of engagement with both rhetorical and actual
the word,” he writes, “evokes the truth of the others—including that highest, metaphysical
Divine, which transcends all words.”39 When, “other” that is the prospective disciple’s own
on the other hand, scripture “is learned and divine ātman.43 In and out of a sustained hearing
nourished only through written and read of this text, I contend, it becomes possible to
materials without an underlying oral reimagine both Christ and the Christian life as a
foundation . . . then the written scripture will divine saṃvāda, in which the presence of God
be empty of spiritual power.”40 Writing has its can be discerned not merely in sound itself, but
place, in Coward’s view, insofar as it facilitates in the difficult, sacred work of interpersonal
preservation of the scriptures, as well as their dialogue, intense contestation and continual
scholarly analysis. But only oral performance reconciliation.44
holds the key to authentic religious These two attempts to bring orality into
transformation. comparative studies of Hinduism and
Coward notes, again echoing Ong, that one Christianity have at least one feature in
element that renders the spoken word so common: both focus primarily on how
effective for spiritual transformation is the recognition of the fundamentally oral
context of personal presence and personal character of these Hindu traditions may help us
relationship that it invariably requires.41 The encounter both these and other traditions in a
personal-interactive character of oral new way. For Coward, this involves a
performance became the main focus of my own rediscovery of the oral roots of all scripture and
recent volume, Liturgy of Liberation. As a a recovery of their transformative power for
Christian theological commentary on the persons of all faiths; for me, it entails
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Sacred Orality, Sacred Dialogue: Walter J. Ong nad the Practice of Hindu-Christian Studies 87
something closer to a renewed Christian Hindu traditions of interpretation—
mystagogical practice, modeled upon the including, of course, even such great lights
dynamics witnessed in this very particular, as Bhartṛhari, Patañjali, and Ādi
eighth-century Hindu text. In neither case, Śaṅkarācārya.
perhaps, do we find sustained reflection on • Second, Ong invites us to reconsider the
what a more thorough retrieval of oral culture objectivity of our notions of objectivity.
and the oral-aural sensorium might mean for When confronted with apparent
the scholarly practice of Hindu-Christian contradictions between a doctrinal
studies itself. statement from one tradition, for example,
and a philosophical argument from
Conclusion: A Deeper Notion of another, we might consider whether some
Objectivity of the fixity we attribute to one or the
Thus far, this essay has traced major other artifact stems not from their
features of Walter J. Ong’s theory of orality and “objective” truth, as such, but from our
two attempts to retrieve his insights and to own visualist orientations. Ong helpfully
reimagine the scholarly practice of Hindu- draws our attention the spontaneous free
Christian studies. To conclude, I would like play of speech and the intrinsically open-
briefly to suggest two possible further ended character of authentic dialogue.46
consequences for the discipline suggested by More than this, he notes that, in oral-aural
Ong’s work: cultures, objectivity consists not in the
purported fixity of one’s object, but in one’s
• First, one obvious but still important own personal orientation to impartiality,
consequence of Ong’s analysis is the fairness and a willingness to give each
reminder that texts and traditions bear the person her due, including friend and
indelible mark of the cultures in which they enemy alike.47 Such fairness and
were produced. Importantly for his own impartiality does not militate against
scholarly project, this includes not merely personal commitment. Quite to the
differences of language and geography, but contrary: these intellectual virtues
also assumptions about reality and presume such commitments, along with a
knowledge governed by the dominant willingness to contend fiercely for them.
sensorium. In his Presence of the Word, for But they also offer a severe challenge to
example, Ong suggests a number of ways any ostensibly detached or impersonal
that a recognition of oral patterns might approach to such knowing and
re-contextualize the controversies of the commitment—which, to the oral-aural
Protestant and Catholic Reformations and, knower, may appear positively
thus, advance the cause of Christian “irresponsible.”48 So too in the context of
ecumenism.45 Similarly, a rediscovery of Hindu-Christian and indeed all
orality might help re-contextualize the interreligious study and dialogue, our
condemnations and polemics typical of commitment to authentic objectivity may
many Christian scriptural texts and many be best expressed neither by dogmatic
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Locklin: Sacred Orality, Sacred Dialogue
88 Reid B. Locklin

insistence on the truth of our home
Notes
traditions nor by cultivated neutrality, but
1 This article is a revised version of a paper I
by more relational virtues of fairness,
originally presented at an international
impartiality and the widest possible
symposium entitled, “McLuhan: Social Media
accountability for our claims.49
Between Faith and Culture,” on 21 September
In the penultimate chapter of his Presence of
2012. I am grateful to the organizers of that
the Word, Walter J. Ong offers a profound
conference for the opportunity to formulate
reflection on “The Word and the Quest for
these ideas in a formal way; I also offer thanks
Peace.” This chapter follows several narrative
for the very helpful questions and comments
threads and well reveals the complex interplay
provided by participants at the conference, as
between orality and literacy in the
well as by two anonymous reviewers for this
contemporary world. In it, Ong may be read to
journal.
suggest that only a combination of both
2 A description of these groups is available at
sensoria is truly adequate for the wider human
“Bhagavad Gita Study Group,” Arsha Vidya
cause of peace, as literacy cools oral hostilities
Gurukulam, <http://www.arshavidya.org/Gita-
and orality unfixes the firm certitudes of
Home-Study-Program.html>, accessed 21
literacy.
February 2013.
Right at the outset of the chapter, however,
3 The roots of this program can be traced to the
Ong begins with a beautiful, paradoxical
earlier development of study groups in the
reflection on the intrinsic orientation of even
Chinmaya Mission, in which Swami Dayananda
the most polemic speech toward peace:
received his renunciant status and formation as
The word moves toward peace because the
an ācārya. See, for example, Swami
word mediates between person and person.
Chinmayananda, A Manual of Self-Unfoldment
No matter how much it gets caught up in
(Mumbai: Central Chinmaya Mission Trust,
currents of hostility, the word can never be
1975, 1976), 180-91.
turned into a totally warlike instrument.
4 Among the growing literature on this topic,
So long as two persons keep talking, despite
see C.J. Fuller and John Harriss, “Globalizing
themselves, they are not totally hostile . . .
Hinduism: A ‘Traditional’ Guru and Modern
Hostile talk is hate in the midst of love
Businessmen in Chennai,” in J. Assayag and C.
manqué, or perhaps of wounded love.50
Fuller (eds.), Globalizing India: Perspectives from
This, I think represents a sound imperative for
Below, (London: Anthem Press, 2005), 211-36.
all theologians, scholars and committed
http://dx.doi.org/2027/mdp.39015063241486;
persons working at the boundaries of religious
and especially Maya Warrier, Hindu Selves in a
traditions: keep talking, even if the talk is
Modern World: Guru Faith in the Mata
difficult, even if we are met by dismissal or
Amritanandamayi Mission (London:
hatred. For it is only in the dialogue between
RoutledgeCurzon, 2005).
and among persons—no matter how
http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780203462065.
contested—that true peace can be sought and,
5 Walter J. Ong, S.J., The Presence of the Word:
perhaps, even found.
Some Prolegomena for a Cultural and Religious

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