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Christian Ashrams, Hindu Caves and Sacred Rivers: Christian-Hindu Monastic Dialogue in India 1950-1993. By Mario I. Aguilar. Philadelphia, Penn.: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2016. 200 pp. $58.18 (paper).
This monograph is an outcome of recent inquiries into Hindu and Buddhist traditions by Mario Aguilar, a prolific writer who is professor of religion and politics at Scotland's University of St. Andrews. From a historicaltheological perspective, the author presents the explorations of Jules Monchanin, Henri Le Saux, Bede Griffiths, Francis Mahieu, and Raimon Panikkar in postcolonial India. In these narratives, Aquilar places ashram and the contemplative life among the best of Christian-Hindu-Buddhist traditions, as he searches for new horizons in interreligious dialogue. His narratives also take these monks' local expressions of universal theologies and show how they relate to wider discussions.
This study is the first to present the intercultural encounters of these five European Catholic monks who attempted to synthesize the rational, experiential, mystical, and spiritual, in order to reveal a way forward on a common spiritual path and for the common good of humanity. Their explorations, which began well before Vatican II, were not limited to the conceptual/philosophical...