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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.

Abstract not available. / Thesis(M.A.)--University of Durban-Westville, 1986.

Dissertation--Frankfurt am Main--Universität, 1998. / Numéro de "Theion", ISSN 0943-9587, 10. Bibliogr. p. 244-257.

Central to the formation and development of the Swaminarayan Sampraday over the past 200 years is the role played by a small group of poet-musicians who gathered around the founder, Swaminarayan (1781-1830) in Gujarat. In this dissertation, I analyze the musical compositions of two prominent poet-musicians, Nishkulanand (1766-1848) and Premanand (1784-1855), and the way in which the community has received both their songs and their own life stories. The purpose of this thesis is twofold: to show, through two paradigmatic examples, 1) how such a nexus of musical verse, performance, and word came into being, and 2) how this religious community formed around bodies of songs and the identities—in memory and history—of their creators and performers. I approach this study with a combination of textual studies, ethnographic and musicological analyses, and research in manuscript archives. My own experiences as a bhakti music and katha (didactic homily) exponent within the community also play a role.

This dissertation examines the attacks on "idolatry" by two prominent nineteenth-century Hindu reformers, Rammohun Roy and Dayananda Sarasvati. Their iconoclastic fervour in the context of Hindu India appears (at face-value) as an anomaly because image-worship is widely perceived as such a prominent feature of that religion. Is their image-rejection to be explained as a borrowing of an Islamic or Protestant attitude? Both men have been referred to as the "Luther of India," but is the label "Protestant" as also applied to their reformed Hinduism appropriate and what is suggested by this expression? The dissertation examines indigenous and foreign elements in the anti-idolatry polemics of both men and argues that explanation by diffusion from non-Indian sources is inadequate whereas explanation by independent invention is in need of nuancing. I explore the hypothesis that metaphysical arguments against images may be considered indigenous to India whereas moral arguments imply borrowing. I argue that although catalyzed by Western influence, nineteenth-century Hindu iconoclasm draws on Indian sources. The British presence in nineteenth-century India acts as the "stress" that triggers the particular diathesis (latent cultural predisposition) that manifests in the Hindu iconoclasm of these two reformers. The fact that the two men had very different backgrounds and degrees of integration with Islamic or British culture and yet both regarded image-worship as the central issue of reform suggests other grounds to explain their iconoclasm than borrowing or diffusion. I explore the formative events in their biographies that describe their individual disenchantment with images. Further, evidence is presented from their writings that indicates that a major concern for both men in the attack on "idolatry" was the disenchantment of religion and culture in the service of the development, unification, and modernization of Hindu India.

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This project focuses on two case studies as representative examples of Los Angeles’ progressive tolerance in the period of the 1920s: The Pentecostal mega-church of Aimee Semple-McPherson, and the Vedanta Ashram of Swami Paramananda. Both religious institutions opened in Los Angeles in 1923, just thirteen miles away from each other, and continued to thrive side-by-side throughout the twentieth century until present day. Each religious figure spoke to a part of the growing Los Angeles population: McPherson’s staunchly Christian, emotionally-driven, Hollywood-style ministry appealed to a large number of Los Angeles natives and newly-arrived immigrants, rocketing the emerging Pentecostal denomination into nationwide fame. Swami Paramananda’s message, conversely, offered a universalistic tolerance, appealing to those struggling to grasp America’s continued attachment to a strictly Christian message in a rapidly expanding world. Both institutions offer insight into the ability of remarkably varied religions to co-exist peacefully within a shared space. Beyond the exploration of these two figures and their religious groups, this project also approaches the broader topics of religious pluralism in 1920s Los Angeles, the impact of immigration and urbanization on the religious diversity of Southern California, and the shifting religious climate of post-WWI America generally. This paper engages urban sociological theory and postcolonial thought to analyze the effects of rapid population growth and the rural-urban shift on religious environments in 1920s Los Angeles. This analysis has implications for the present, as American cities continue to struggle with managing diversity of religious beliefs and expressions.

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)

As part of the Phenomenological Method used in this dissertation, the research work applied the hermeneutical concepts of bhakti, karma and moksha. Focus was on the role played by the guru, the sadhus and devotees of the Swaminarayan Movement and how they related t~ their religious, ethical and social obligations. Their responses to ethical scriptures were evaluated, especially with a view to determining the extent to which ethical injunctions permeates, enhances, uplifts and shapes the adherents spiritually ,morally and socially. Swaminarayan ethics was also placed within the context of Classical Hindu Texts and in particular, the work of Ramanuja and his Vishistadvaita philosophy. Further, it has been observed that the quest for the Ultimate Reality (Purushottam) is through their relationship with Akshar, Guru Pramukh Swami, the model of ethical excellence whose charisma binds the fibre of the Movement and his role serves both the ethical and transcendental plane of the Movement. / Religious Studies and Arabic / MA (Religious Studies)