Religion for a Secular Age

Taylor & Francis

Religion for a Secular Age provides a transnational history of modern Ved\u0101nta through a comparative study of two of its most important exponents, Friedrich Max Muller (1823\u20131900) and Swami Vivekananda (1863\u20131902). This book explains why Ved\u0101nta's appeal spanned the ostensibly very different contexts of colonial India and Victorian Britain and America, and how this ancient form of thought was translated by Muller and Vivekananda into a modern form of philosophy or religion. These religiously-committed men attempted to reconcile religion with modernity by appealing to Advaita (literally, 'non-dualistic') Ved\u0101nta's monistic interpretation of reality. The 'scientific' study of religion allegedly demonstrated the evolutionary superiority of Ved\u0101nta and the possibility of religion's survival in 'the light of modern science'. They believed Ved\u0101nta could also provide the religious basis for moral engagement in this world, even as the hold of orthodox Christ.