Hindu-Christian study earns Professor top honour

A Lancaster University Professor has been commended for his book which brings Indian and Western religious and philosophical ideas together. The Society for Hindu-Christian Studies announced Professor Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad as the author of the Best Book in Hindu-Christian Studies (2011-2015). The book, entitled 'Divine Self, Human Self: The Philosophy of Being in Two Gita Commentaries'(Bloomsbury), focuses on the 2000-year-old Bhagavad-Gita (The Divine Song), a central text in Hindu traditions. The text has attracted many commentaries which express a range of philosophical-theological positions. Two of the most significant commentaries are by Śaṅkara (8th Century) and by Rāmānuja (11th Century), influential thinkers who continue to play a large role in Hindu religious thought to this day. "Their commentaries offer rich resources for alternative Hindu understanding of divine reality, the human self, metaphysical being, the relationship between God and human, and the moral psychology of action and devotion," says Professor Ram-Prasad. "The book approaches their commentaries through the study of a range of critical ideas found in the commentaries." While reading the Sanskrit commentaries carefully, Professor Ram-Prasad develops reconstructions of each philosophical-theological system, drawing relevant and constructive comparisons with contemporary Christian theology and Western philosophy.