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Infinite Paths to Infinite Reality

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Infinite Paths to Infinite Reality
Cover of 2018 edition
AuthorAyon Maharaj
LanguageEnglish
Genrephilosophy
PublisherOxford University Press
Publication date
2018 (US/UK), 2019 (India)
ISBN9780190868239
OCLC1079877496

Infinite Paths to Infinite Reality: Sri Ramakrishna & Cross-Cultural Philosophy of Religion is a book by Ayon Maharaj on Sri Ramakrishna and the philosophy of religion. The book was published in the US and UK in 2018 in hardcover. An Indian hardcover edition was published in 2019. The book has been reviewed in professional and popular journals.[1][2] The author, Ayon Maharaj, holds a doctorate in philosophy from the University of California, Berkeley, is a professor at Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda University, and is a monk-in-training.[3]

Topics covered

Infinite Paths contains four major parts, each containing two chapters, giving a total of eight chapters.[4]

In Infinite Paths, Maharaj argues that "Ramakrishna's spiritual standpoint of vijnana holds the key to understanding his nuanced position on religious diversity".[1]

Reception

Reviews have appeared in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews[1] and The Indian Express.[2]

In Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, Samta Pandya of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences described Infinite Paths "combin[ing] detailed exegesis with cross-cultural philosophical investigation".[1] and as having "a broad interdisciplinary appeal... a good reference for scholars of religious studies, Hindu studies, and comparative theology".[1]

In The Indian Express, Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Vice-Chancellor of Ashoka University, characterized Infinite Paths as "a pathbreaking work... philosophically astute, textually scrupulous, and [an] imaginatively subtle reconstruction of Ramakrishna Paramhansa's teachings".[2] Mehta views Infinite Paths as treating [Ramakrishna] as a "philosopher of unusual depth and consistency", and as defending

Ramakrishna against the charge of an indiscriminate eclecticism on the one hand, or a covert hierarchy on the other. [The book] meticulously reconstructs Ramakrishna’s thought around four pillars: the nature of God’s infinitude, the nature of religious pluralism, the epistemology of mystical experience and the problem of evil. In each of these four areas, Maharaj both advances an original interpretive thesis and brings Ramakrishna into a dialogue with comparative philosophy and religious practice.[2]

Editions

The original edition was published in hardcover by in 2018 by Oxford University Press. An Indian hardcover edition was published in 2019.

See also

References