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Did Rammohan Ray understand Western religion

Autoři: Fárek Martin

Rok: 2012

Druh publikace: článek v odborném periodiku

Název zdroje: Nomos: kwartalnik religioznawczy

Strana od-do: 64-86

Tituly:

Jazyk	Název	Abstrakt	Klíčová slova
cze	Jak rozuměl Rámmóhan Ráj západnímu náboženství?	Náboženství a činnost Rammohana Raye považovaly po mnoho desetiletí vědci za kontroverzními body. Na základě analýz S. N. Balagangadhary a Jokoba de Roovera, autor pracuje se základní hypotézou a to, jak rozuměl Rámmóhan Ráj západnímu náboženství.
eng	Did Rammohan Ray understand Western religion	Religious thought and activities of Rammohan Ray (1772-1833) have been the points of controversy among scholars for many decades. The influential man was basically Unitarian Christian according to some, or he strived for a renewal of ancient Indian tradition in the opinion of others, or is depicted as a person taking „a difficult middle path” between Western Christianity and domestic Hinduism. But are these interpretations explaining how did Rammohan Ray understand religious ideas of Westerners? Having followed the analyses of S. N. Balagangadhara and Jakob De Roover, I argue that this Bengali reformer did not understand Western religious ideas. Rammohan Ray evidently distorted the cluster of the fundamental Western ideas about religion. We can point to the examples of Rammohan’s strange understanding of „idolatry”, to his dealing with Christian doctrines, and to his ideas about worship. In short: Rammohan was advocating that it is better to do „evil” activities „in the name of God” than just act badly without belief. He actually said that unqualified people should go on with „idol worship“ because it will gradually purify them. Rammohan Ray also did not understand the importance of Christological debates in the Western religious thought. These distortions are not detrimental for the intercultural understanding, rather the opposite. It is here where we can track the influence of traditional Indian understanding: the distortions of Western understanding were done on the basis of deeply rooted domestic cluster of ideas. I argue that Rammohan's distortions of Western ideas about „worship“ and practices in general support Balagangadhara's theses: The culture of India can be characterised as a configuration of learning, where practices themselves dominate as the way how to go about the world. In the traditions of India, practices do not express the beliefs of people.	Rammohan; Ray; Western; religion