Archives: Lectures

Readings in Phenomenology: Session six (TT 16)

In the early twentieth century Phenomenology was considered a vibrant fresh approach to reality, with the power to revitalise human engagement with the world. Martin Heidegger’s rethinking of metaphysics became central to this project. Taking his cue from Nietzsche, Heidegger argued that Western philosophy since Plato had been dogged by an obsession with finding an indubitable foundation for knowledge, and has needed to achieve a radical reorientation of man’s relation to the world – something he tried to achieve in his own work.

In this term’s Readings in Phenomenology we will explore the theme of the critique of metaphysics in Nietzsche, and the Heidegger’s attempt to revive philosophy. We will begin by reading excerpts from Nietzsche’s Twilight of the Idols, and we will then move on to read Heidegger’s Letter on Humanism in which he attempts to move beyond metaphysics after Being and Time, and his poetic essay Building Dwelling Thinking in which he tries to evoke a more authentic and attentive way of ‘dwelling’ in the world.

The Vaisnava Appropriation of Vedic Fires in the Vaikhanasa Tradition: A New Ritual System for Image Worship (TT 16)

The Vaikhanasas are a small South Indian community of Vaisnava Brahmins who have traditionally engaged in conducting temple worship by following their distinctive ritual system. The name Vaikhanasa derives from Sage Vikhanas, who is attributed with the authorship of the Vaikhanasa Sutras and with the founding of the Vaikhanasa School. The Vaikhanasa regards itself as part of the Vaisnava tradition orthodoxy because of its close adherence to Vedic religion and its presence within the Taittiriya School of the Black Yajurveda. The Vaikhanasa ritual literature on domestic and temple worship both in text and practice reflect this tradition’s strong influences from the Srauta sacrificial cult and its fire rituals. This lecture will explore the ways in which the concept of Vedic fires is appropriated in the typical Vaisnava way by formulating a new ritual system for image worship (samurtarcana) in a temple setting within the Vaikhanasa School. We will examine the concepts of Triple Fires (tretagni) and Five Fires (pancagni) within the context of triple images (bimbatrayi) and fivefold images (pancabera). Also considered are the ways in which the Vedic ideas of fire sacrifice are rearticulated with new meanings and interpretations for the theistic, temple-based religion of Visnu as Venkatesvara.

Dr Prabhavati C. Reddy is an Adjunct Faculty member of Religious Studies at George Mason University in Virginia, USA. She is an interdisciplinary scholar with a Ph.D. in Sanskrit and Indian Studies from Harvard University, an M.A. in Asian Art History from the University of Texas-Austin, and an M.A and M.Phil. in Ancient History and Archaeology from Osmania University, Hyderabad, India. She has previously taught at George Washington University and was a two-year Andrew Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellow at Northwestern University where she taught in the Department of Religious Studies. She specializes in Hindu traditions and is interested in the historical development of sectarian traditions with reference to constructive theological frameworks and syncretism, religious authority and identity, and conflict and resolution in response to sociological and political processes. She is the author of Hindu Pilgrimage: Shifting Patterns of Worldview of Srisailam in South India (Routledge, 2014) and has published several articles on Indian art and Indian diaspora/Hindu temples in North America. She is currently working on two books entitled, The Tantra and Siddha Traditions at Srisailam: Kundalini and Hatha Yoga Practices in Medieval India and Vaisnava Rituals and Sacred Images. She has lectured at universities in both the U.S and India as well as has presented papers at professional conferences. 

Readings in Phenomenology: Session five (TT 16)

In the early twentieth century Phenomenology was considered a vibrant fresh approach to reality, with the power to revitalise human engagement with the world. Martin Heidegger’s rethinking of metaphysics became central to this project. Taking his cue from Nietzsche, Heidegger argued that Western philosophy since Plato had been dogged by an obsession with finding an indubitable foundation for knowledge, and has needed to achieve a radical reorientation of man’s relation to the world – something he tried to achieve in his own work.

In this term’s Readings in Phenomenology we will explore the theme of the critique of metaphysics in Nietzsche, and the Heidegger’s attempt to revive philosophy. We will begin by reading excerpts from Nietzsche’s Twilight of the Idols, and we will then move on to read Heidegger’s Letter on Humanism in which he attempts to move beyond metaphysics after Being and Time, and his poetic essay Building Dwelling Thinking in which he tries to evoke a more authentic and attentive way of ‘dwelling’ in the world.

Readings in Middle Bengali Texts: Session four

We will read sections from key devotional and theological Vaiṣṇava texts in Bengali from the early modern period and discuss their meaning. Some proficiency in Bengali is a requirement.

Transformation: Emerson, Gadamer, Sloterdijk (TT 16)

Many twentieth century thinkers have balanced on the fine line between secular atheism, and philosophies that affirm the intrinsic value and vital forces of human life. Indeed, thinkers associated with vitalism, pantheism, and humanism have often argued that humanity has within it the resource for self-transformation, development and creative Becoming. In this symposium we explore the ways in which Ralph Waldo Emerson, Hans-Georg Gadamer, and Peter Sloterdijk have built a ‘vertical’ drive into their visions of human life.

Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must write poetry: Language, poetics, and theology in the works of Kavikarṇapūra (TT 16)

In a tradition that exhorts constant praise of God’s divine play—like the Hindu devotional tradition inspired by Caitanya—there may seem little room for an apophatic theology. Yet to understand the works of Kavikarṇapūra (sixteenth century), one of the most prominent Sanskrit poets of the Caitanya Vaiṣṇava tradition, one has to read his poetry in the light of Vedāntic apophatic thought reaching back to the Upaniṣads. This lecture will examine the unique style of Kavikarṇapūra’s magnum opus, the Ānanda-vṛndāvana-campū, a lengthy retelling of the early life of Kṛṣṇa, through an analysis of his philosophy of language, his innovative poetics, and his theology, and will argue that, in Kavikarṇapūra’s mind, the way words can refer meaningfully to the indescribable reality of God is through the ineffable experience (anubhava) that poetry can generate.

Rembert Lutjeharms (DPhil, Oxford 2010) is the Librarian at the OCHS and a Tutor in Hinduism at the Faculty of Theology and Religion.

Matter and Religion Seminar (TT 16)

Matter is one of most familiar yet obscure concepts in the modern western account of the world: it is widely taken to explain the very nature of existence, and it has become a pillar of the secular-scientific worldview. Nevertheless the history of ‘matter’ reveals a complicated genealogy of classical concepts concerning atoms, energy, and substance, combined with theological debates about the mysterious status of the reality that surrounds us. Through three short papers and an open discussion, this seminar will explore the concepts and controversies that surround the notion of matter. Spanning western and Indian cultures, and touching on the disenchantment of the world, the disjunction of secular and sacred reality, we will seek to reconsider the pivotal position of materiality in our understanding of the world.