Friends Event: Literalism, Steam Engines and the Vedas: On the Interpretation of Hindu Sacred Texts
Birmingham Friends Event
Saturday, 12 May 2012 – 6:00pm to 8:00pm
Meeting House of the society of Friends
1 Hamlet Road, Hall Green,
Birmingham B28 9BG
Talk given by Dr Rembert Lutjeharms
How do we understand and apply the teachings of centuries-old texts today? How do we make their teaching, grounded in a social structure that no longer exists, relevant in our modern world? How do we interpret these ideas in the light of contemporary science? The interpretation of sacred texts has become not just the pursuit of scholars, theologians in the academies and religious institutions in recent decades, but has become the focus of public debate.
How do Hindu sacred texts relate to this discussion? What do Hindu sacred texts teach, and how do we understand what they convey? This talk will examine the nature of Hindu sacred texts, and explore the way Hindu theologians throughout the centuries have viewed these texts, how they thought they should be read and understood, and how their ideas are relevant for Hindu today.