Douglas Allen - Böcker

Douglas Allen argues that Gandhi offers to us the most profound and influential theory, philosophy, and engaged practices of ahimsa or nonviolence. Embracing Gandhi's insightful critiques of modernity, the book sees his approach as a creative and challenging catalyst to rethink our positions today. We live in a post-9/11 world that is defined by widespread physical, psychological, economic, political, cultural, religious, technological, and environmental violence and that is increasingly unsustainable. The author's central claim is Gandhi, when selectively appropriated and creatively reformulated and applied, is essential for formulating new positions that are more nonviolent and more sustainable. These provide resources and hope for dealing with our contemporary crises. The author analyzes what a Gandhi-informed, valuable but humanly limited swaraj technology looks like and what a Gandhi-informed, more egalitarian, interconnected, bottom-up, decentralized world of globalization looks like. The book focuses on key themes in Gandhi's thought, such as violence and nonviolence, Absolute Truth and relative truth, ethical and spiritual living. Challenging us to consider nonviolent, moral, and truthful transformative alternatives today, the author moves through essays on Gandhi in the age of technology; Gandhi after 9/11 and 26/11 terrorism; Gandhi's controversial views on the Bhagavad-Gita and Hind Swaraj; Gandhi and Vedanta; Gandhi on socialism; Gandhi and marginality, caste, class, race, and oppressed others.

One of the most dramatic and surprising developments of the last twenty years was the proliferation of aggressive political movements linked to religion. This book examines the interplay of religion and politics in predominantly Hindu India, Islamic Pakistan, and Buddhist Sri Lanka. This collection of studies by internationally known scholars challenges traditional stereotypes and interpretations of South Asian religion and politics and provides a multidisciplinary perspective on contemporary conflicts. While the focus of the work is on Pakistan, India, and Sri Lanka, the arguments advanced by the authors are useful for understanding recent developments in religion and politics around the world.An informative introduction overviews the link between religion and political conflict in South Asia and offers a framework and synopsis of the chapters that follow. These are grouped into three parts by nationality. The chapters on India examine recent elections and the growth of militant Hinduism, the impact of caste relations on socio-economic conditions, and the problems of Muslims as the largest religious minority in India. The chapters on Pakistan explore how political and economic changes led to the rise of Islamic fundamentalism; the historical relationship among gender, nationalism, and the Islamic state; and the evolution of a capitalist social system in an Islamic nation. The chapters on Sri Lanka explain the role of Buddhist myth in justifying political oppression, the conflict between the ideal of Buddhist pacifism and the reality of political violence, and the impact of race, class, and gender on political conflict. Political scientists, historians, and religion scholars will find this study a timely and valuable addition to their libraries.

Despite the plethora of works on the Vietnam War, this is the first book to present an accessible overview from both the Indochinese and antiwar perspectives. The authors trace the prewar history, war years, and postwar experiences of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos before turning to the U.S. experience, where they focus on government policies, the antiwar movement, veterans, and films and literature on Vietnam. Those who experienced the war era will find their memories vividly rekindled; those who wish to learn more about Indochina, the war, and its aftermath will find these issues provocatively discussed and analyzed.

This book traces the prewar history, war years, and postwar experiences of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos before turning to the U.S. experience. The discussion focuses on government policies, the antiwar movement, veterans, and films and literature on Vietnam.

This multidisciplinary study is the first book devoted entirely to the critical interpretation of the writings of Mircea Eliade on myth. One of the most popular and influential historians and theorists of myth, Eliade argued that all myth is religious. Douglas Allen critically interprets Eliade's theories of religion, myth, and symbolism and analyses many of the controversial issues in Eliade's treatment of myth including whether Eliade's approach deals adequately with the relationship between myth and history and how Eliade's anti-modern perspective makes sense of myth in modern culture. A valuable resource for scholars in religious studies, philosophy, anthropology, and history, this book enables readers not only to understand "archaic" and "traditional" religious phenomena, but also to make sense of repressed and sublimated myth dimensions in modern secular life.

Ever since the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001, concerns about violence, terror, and terrorism have dominated our contemporary lifestyle. Is religion a part of the problem or the solution? Can philosophical reflection help us to understand terror, violence, and insecurity? Can comparative philosophy and religion help us to overcome ethnocentrism, dangerous stereotypes, and think about new approaches to violence and terror?The authors of these timely studies provide brilliant insight into violence and terror as formulated by Plato, Aristotle, the Buddha, Confucius, Af-Farabi, Nietzsche, Dewey, Ueshiba, Gandhi, and Abdul Ghaffar Khan. Their diverse voices consider the threat of violence from various standpoints, taking religious and philosophical discourse as the starting point of the approach. This is a hopeful volume that offers new creative insights for the future. These studies allow us to analyze the real problems of violence, terror, and insecurity in much broader and deeper ways, and they present new approaches that offer possibilities for greater nonviolence, security, and peace.

Ever since the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001, concerns about violence, terror, and terrorism have dominated our contemporary lifestyle. Is religion a part of the problem or the solution? Can philosophical reflection help us to understand terror, violence, and insecurity? Can comparative philosophy and religion help us to overcome ethnocentrism, dangerous stereotypes, and think about new approaches to violence and terror?The authors of these timely studies provide brilliant insight into violence and terror as formulated by Plato, Aristotle, the Buddha, Confucius, Af-Farabi, Nietzsche, Dewey, Ueshiba, Gandhi, and Abdul Ghaffar Khan. Their diverse voices consider the threat of violence from various standpoints, taking religious and philosophical discourse as the starting point of the approach. This is a hopeful volume that offers new creative insights for the future. These studies allow us to analyze the real problems of violence, terror, and insecurity in much broader and deeper ways, and they present new approaches that offer possibilities for greater nonviolence, security, and peace.

Often considered the most admired human being of the twentieth century, Mahatma Gandhi was and remains controversial. Among the leading Gandhi scholars in the world, the authors of the timely studies in this volume present numerous ways in which Gandhi's thought and action-oriented approach are significant, relevant, and urgently needed for addressing the major problems and concerns of the twenty-first century. Such problems and concerns include issues of violence and nonviolence, war and peace, religion and religious conflict and dialogue, terrorism, ethics, civil disobedience, injustice, modernism and postmodernism, forms of oppression and exploitation, and environmental destruction. These creative, diverse studies offer a radical critique of the dominant characteristics and priorities of modern Western civilization and the contemporary world. They offer positive alternatives by using Gandhi, in creative and innovative ways, to focus on nonviolence, peace with justice, tolerance and mutual respect, compassion and loving kindness, cooperative relations and the realization of our interconnectedness and unity, meaningful action-oriented engagement of dialogue, resistance, and working for new sustainable ways of being human and creating new societies. This volume is appropriate for the general reader and the Gandhi specialist. It will be of interest for readers in philosophy, religion, political science, history, cultural studies, peace studies, and many other fields. Throughout this book, readers will experience a strong sense of the philosophical and practical urgency and significance of Gandhi's thought and action for the contemporary world.

This multidisciplinary study is the first book devoted entirely to the critical interpretation of the writings of Mircea Eliade on myth. One of the most popular and influential historians and theorists of myth, Eliade argued that all myth is religious. Douglas Allen critically interprets Eliade's theories of religion, myth, and symbolism and analyses many of the controversial issues in Eliade's treatment of myth including whether Eliade's approach deals adequately with the relationship between myth and history and how Eliade's anti-modern perspective makes sense of myth in modern culture. A valuable resource for scholars in religious studies, philosophy, anthropology, and history, this book enables readers not only to understand "archaic" and "traditional" religious phenomena, but also to make sense of repressed and sublimated myth dimensions in modern secular life.