Thesis advisor: Catherine Cornille / This dissertation offers a comparative theological reflection on Dalit Christian theology--a contextual, liberation theology rooted in the Dalit communities' experiences of caste-based oppression--and Swami Vivekananda--the late 19th c. Neo-Vedantin and founder of the Ramkrishna Math and Mission. It seeks to provide a model of Dalit liberative service that attends to the theology's objectives--identity affirmation and a liberative social vision--works to foster liberative partnerships beyond the Dalit Christian community, and responds to the critical, but constructive assessment of Dalit theology offered by its present generation of theologians. As a work in comparative theology, it does so through a close, reflective reading of Swami Vivekananda, his Practical Vedanta, and his own reworking of seva (devotional service). The intent is not to present Vivekananda as a corrective, but rather to see newly and understand differently the dimensions of liberative service that are made manifest by seeing and understanding how seva performs in Vivekananda's thought and how it there leads to spiritual and social liberation. These dimensions include recovering by uncovering the imago Dei in Dalit theology, re-presenting liberative service as representing the Kingdom of God, and service understood as doubly and mutually liberating. While Chapter Five presents the fruits of this comparative theological reflection on Dalit Christian theology and Swami Vivekananda, the preceding four chapters provide the necessary foundation for this engagement. The first and second chapters address the historical and theological development of Dalit Christian theology presenting its origins in the Modern Maharashtran Dalit Movement and the Indian Christian context, respectively. The third and fourth examine Vivekananda's development of Practical Vedanta and seva. Together they provide the content from which and through which this comparative theological reflection occurs. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2014. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.

No Abstract Included / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

This dissertation is a missiological evaluation of the challenges presented to Christian faith by reincarnation. Owing to the far-reaching theological implications of reincarnation, I have made use of an analytical grid to structure the research. It consists of seven sections, namely God, anthropology, ethics, hamartiology, soteriology, theodicy and history. This grid has been used to examine reincarnation as espoused in the Bhagavad-Gita (chapter 2) , as propounded by the well-known Hindu Swamis Vivekananda and Prabhupada (chapter 3) , and in the responses of four Christian theologians (Geddes MacGregor, John Hick, Vishal Mangalwadi and Edmond Robillard) to reincarnation (chapter 4) . There are many individuals within Western society who are attracted to reincarnation. My concern is to evaluate whether the Christian church can incorporate reincarnation in its religious worldview. In chapter 5, I give an evaluation of this question from a Reformed theological perspective. / Hierdie verhandeling is 'n missiologiese beoordeling van die uitdagings wat die leerstelling van reinkarnasie aan die Christelike geloof hied. As gevolg van die verreikende implikasies van reinkarnasie, gebruik ek 'n analitiese raamwerk om vorm te gee aan die· ondersoek. Hierdie raamwerk bestaan uit sewe onderafdelings, naamlik die beskouings oor God, mens, etiek, sonde, verlossing, teodisee en geskiedenis. Hierdie raamwerk word gebruik om die leerstelling van n!inkarnasie te ondersoek soos wat dit aan die orde kom in die Bhagavad-Gita (hoofstuk 2), in die geskrifte van die twee bekende Swamis Vivekananda en Prabhupada (hoofstuk 3) , en in die reaksies van vier Christenteoloe (Geddes MacGregor, John Hick, Vishal Mangalwadi en Edmond Robillard) op reinkarnasie (hoofstuk 4). Daar is heelwat mense in die Westerse samelewing wat aangetrokke is tot reinkarnasie. My vraagstelling is om te evalueer of die Christelike kerk re'inkarnasie in sy godsdienstige wereldbeeld kan opneem. In hoqfstuk 5, gee ek 'n beoordeling van hierdie vraag uit 'n Gereformeerde teologiese gesigspunt. / Christian,Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M.Th. (Missiology)

This dissertation is a missiological evaluation of the challenges presented to Christian faith by reincarnation. Owing to the far-reaching theological implications of reincarnation, I have made use of an analytical grid to structure the research. It consists of seven sections, namely God, anthropology, ethics, hamartiology, soteriology, theodicy and history. This grid has been used to examine reincarnation as espoused in the Bhagavad-Gita (chapter 2) , as propounded by the well-known Hindu Swamis Vivekananda and Prabhupada (chapter 3) , and in the responses of four Christian theologians (Geddes MacGregor, John Hick, Vishal Mangalwadi and Edmond Robillard) to reincarnation (chapter 4) . There are many individuals within Western society who are attracted to reincarnation. My concern is to evaluate whether the Christian church can incorporate reincarnation in its religious worldview. In chapter 5, I give an evaluation of this question from a Reformed theological perspective. / Hierdie verhandeling is 'n missiologiese beoordeling van die uitdagings wat die leerstelling van reinkarnasie aan die Christelike geloof hied. As gevolg van die verreikende implikasies van reinkarnasie, gebruik ek 'n analitiese raamwerk om vorm te gee aan die· ondersoek. Hierdie raamwerk bestaan uit sewe onderafdelings, naamlik die beskouings oor God, mens, etiek, sonde, verlossing, teodisee en geskiedenis. Hierdie raamwerk word gebruik om die leerstelling van n!inkarnasie te ondersoek soos wat dit aan die orde kom in die Bhagavad-Gita (hoofstuk 2), in die geskrifte van die twee bekende Swamis Vivekananda en Prabhupada (hoofstuk 3) , en in die reaksies van vier Christenteoloe (Geddes MacGregor, John Hick, Vishal Mangalwadi en Edmond Robillard) op reinkarnasie (hoofstuk 4). Daar is heelwat mense in die Westerse samelewing wat aangetrokke is tot reinkarnasie. My vraagstelling is om te evalueer of die Christelike kerk re'inkarnasie in sy godsdienstige wereldbeeld kan opneem. In hoqfstuk 5, gee ek 'n beoordeling van hierdie vraag uit 'n Gereformeerde teologiese gesigspunt. / Christian,Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M.Th. (Missiology)

This thesis investigates the use of metaphorical language in The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda. Vivekananda is one of the most influential modern-day Hindu scholars, and his interpretation of the ancient Hindu scriptural lore is very significant. Vivekananda’s influence was part of the motivation for choosing his Complete Works as the empirical domain for the current study. Vivekananda’s Complete Works were mined using AntConc, for water-related terms which seemed to have a predilection for metaphoricity. Which terms to search for specifically was determined after a manual reading of a sample from the Complete Works. The data was then tagged, using a convention inspired by the well-known MIPVU procedure for metaphor identification. Thereafter, a representative sample of the data was chosen, and the metaphors were mapped and analysed thematically. This study had as its main aim to investigate whether Hindu religious discourse uses metaphors to explain abstract religious concepts, and if so, whether this happens in the same way as in Judaeo-Christian traditions. Furthermore, following Jäkel (2002), a set of sub-hypotheses pertaining to ubiquity, domains, models, unidirectionality, invariance, necessity, creativity and focussing is assessed. Key findings in this study include a general confirmation of the above-mentioned hypotheses, with the exception of ‘invariance’, which proved to be somewhat contentious. The data allowed for the postulation of underlying conceptual metaphors, which differed somewhat from the metaphors used in traditional Judaeo-Christian philosophy. / Linguistics and Modern Languages / D. Litt. et Phil. (Linguistics)