In Jain Approaches to Plurality Melanie Barbato offers a new perspective on the Jain teaching of plurality (anekāntavāda) and how it allowed Jains to engage with other discourses from Indian inter-school philosophy to global interreligious dialogue. Jainism, one of the world’s oldest religions, has managed to both adapt and preserve its identity across time through its inherently dialogical outlook. Drawing on a wide range of textual sources and original research in India, Barbato analyses the encounters between Jains and non-Jains in the classical, colonial and global context. Jain Approaches to Plurality offers a comprehensive introduction to anekāntavāda as a non-Western resource for understanding plurality and engaging in dialogue.
“Building upon earlier work in this field without simply reduplicating it, Melanie Barbato’s work delves deeply into the question of the relevance of Jain approaches to religious and philosophical diversity to contemporary issues of inter-religious dialogue, and dialogues across worldviews more generally. (…) This work is a most welcome contribution to the conversation.”
— Jeffery D. Long, Professor of Religion and Asian Studies, Elizabethtown College. April 2017. Author of Jainism: An Introduction.
Melanie Barbato is a researcher at the Institute for Religious Studies and Intercultural Theology at WWU Münster. She holds a doctorate in Indology and Religious Studies from LMU Munich and a Master in Oriental Studies from the University of Oxford.
Acknowledgements
1 Introduction: Identity in Changing Times
The Historical Development of Anekāntavāda First Stage: Discourse within the Jain Community Second Stage: Indian Inter-school Discourse Third Stage: Colonial Discourse Fourth Stage: Global Discourse
The Structure of the Book
2 Who are the Jains? A Community between Indian Tradition and Global Modernity
The Fordmakers
Beliefs and Worship
Puṇya and Pāpa
The Historical Development of Jainism
Conclusion
3 Jains in Inner-indian Dialogue
The Schools of Indian Philosophy
The Historical Development of Jain Philosophy
The Classical Concept of Anekāntavāda
Plurality in Jain Ontology
Indian Ontologies An Ontology of Organic Plurality Origination, Destruction and Persistence Substance, Qualities and Modifications The Complex Union of Reality
Classical Applications
Universals Relations Cause and Effect The Nature of the Soul
Plurality in Jain Discursive Logic
Logic in India The Nyāya Inference Model The Aim of Indian Logic Jain Logic: Every Statement is Conditional Sevenfold Predication Yaśovijaya’s Interpretation of the Saptabhaṅgī Śankara’s Criticism of Jain Logic Jain Logic, Nyāya Logic, Western Logic
Plurality and Perfect Knowledge
Jain Soteriology The Stages of Knowledge Limited Knowledge: The View-points False Views and Absolutism What the Omniscient Know Plurality in the Light of Omniscience Kundakunda’s Two Viewpoints
Conclusion
4 Plurality in Modern Jain Dialogues
Tolerance and Interreligious Dialogue
The World’s Parliament of Religions in Chicago Indian Inclusivism The Limits of Jain Tolerance Gandhi and Shrimad Rajchandra Anekāntavāda as Intellectual Non-violence Anekāntavāda as Relativism Identity, Values and Doctrine
Jainism in Dialogue with Science
The Historical Context A Scientific Religion? Jainism as Scientific Theory
Jain Diplomacy
Jain Environmental Activism Acharya Sushil Kumar and Religious Diplomacy
Conclusion
5 Jain Dialogic Identity – Then and Now Anekāntavāda between Philosophy and Rhetorics
Four Understandings of anekāntavāda A Philosophical Understanding of anekāntavāda A Conservative Modern Understanding of anekāntavāda A Modernist Understanding of anekāntavāda A Lay Orthodox Understanding of anekāntavāda
Who Speaks for anekāntavāda?
Conclusion