MARC Record from harvard_bibliographic_metadata

LEADER: 02573nam a2200289Ii 4500
001 000210583-7
005 20090712072746.0
008 801211c1980 cau 00000 eng d
010 $a 75040664
020 $a0520040988 (pbk.)
035 0 $aocm07025890
040 $aTXV$cTXV$dm.c.$dHLS
050 4 $aBJ1401$b.D66 1980
090 $aBJ1401$b.O35 1980
100 1 $aDoniger, Wendy.
245 14 $aThe origins of evil in Hindu mythology /$cWendy Doniger O'Flaherty.
260 0 $aBerkeley :$bUniversity of California Press,$c1980, c1976.
300 $axi, 411 p. ;$c25 cm.
500 $a"CAL 456."
500 $aIncludes index.
504 $aBibliography: p. 381-396.
505 0 $aIntroduction: the problem of evil -- Time, fate, and the fall of man -- The necessity of evil -- God's demons and men -- The paradox of the good demon : the clash between relative and absolute ethics -- the paradox of the evil God: the transfer of sin -- The corruption of demons and men: the false avatar -- The birth of death -- Crowds in heaven -- God is a heretic -- the split child: good and evil within man -- Conclusion: the many paths of theodicy.
520 $aIn this pertinent and valuable study O'Flaherty answers the crucial questions such as, what solutions did the Hindus offer to the problems of evil? How did these arise and develop historically? And, how if at all can these various solutions be subsumed under a unified world view? The problem of evil, in particular the question of theodicy, has long been overlooked or misunderstood by Indologists, who have maintained that there is no problem of evil in Indian thought, or that it was "solved" by the doctrine of transmigration and karma. Writers on Indian philosophy have touched upon the problem but no one has treated the extensive mythology of evil in Vedic and Puranic texts, which offer the full range of Indian approaches to the problem. The intense emotional weight of the question of evil drove Hindus to generate literally hundreds of diverse and often contradictory alternative answers, presupposing but quickly transcending the logical yet unsatisfying "answer" offered by the doctrine of karma. The very bulk of these texts indicates the importance of the subject in Indian thought, and the failure to take into consideration some of the rather idiosyncratic Indian attitudes to this most basic problem has led to widespread misunderstanding of Indian religious thought in general.
650 0 $aGood and evil$xReligious aspects$xHinduism.
650 0 $aMythology.
988 $a20020608
906 $0OCLC