Miracle as Modern Conundrum in South Asian Religious Traditions

Product Description

Looks at perceptions of the miraculous in a variety of contemporary South Asian religious traditions--Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity.

From the Back Cover

Claims of the miraculous are foundational to faith and skepticism, making and breaking religious careers and movements in their wake. Drawing on a variety of South Asian religious traditions--Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Christianity--this book revolves around the theme of conundrum, demonstrating how miracles offer divine proof, tenacious embarrassment, and, in many cases, both. The contributors explore not only how modern miracles are conundrums themselves but also how they make conundrums out of assumed divides between scientific and supernatural realms, modernity and tradition, the West and the rest, and ethnographer and native. "This topic and the various ancillary questions raised by the contributors lie at the heart of understanding religiosity. This is an excellent, even courageous, compilation, and the sheer magnitude of so many different types of miraculous stories presented within a sensitive and astute framework makes this an outstanding contribution to the study of religion." -- Constantina Rhodes Bailly, author of Shaiva Devotional Songs of Kashmir: A Translation and Study of Utpaladeva's Shivastotravali
Contributors include Chad M. Bauman, Corinne G. Dempsey, Joyce Burkhalter Flueckiger, Ann Grodzins Gold, Sunil Goonasekera, William P. Harman, Selva J. Raj, Robin Rinehart, and Neelima Shukla-Bhatt.

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