Book Review: \u3ci\u3eConstructing Indian Christianities: Culture, Conversion, and Caste\u3c/i\u3e

Book review of Constructing Indian Christianities: Culture, Conversion, and Caste. Edited by Chad M. Bauman and Richard Fox Young. Abington, UK: Routledge, 2014, xxiii + 264 pages

Free CR distributions

There are only some exceptional CR dimensions and codimensions such that the geometries enjoy a discrete classification of the pointwise types of the homogeneous models. The cases of CR dimensions $n$ and codimensions $n^2$ are among the very few possibilities of the so called parabolic geometries. Indeed, the homogeneous model turns out to be \PSU(n+1,n)/P with a suitable parabolic subgroup $P$. We study the geometric properties of such real $(2n+n^2)$-dimensional submanifolds in $\mathbb C^{n+n^2}$ for all $n>1$. In particular we show that the fundamental invariant is of torsion type, we provide its explicit computation, and we discuss an analogy to the Fefferman construction of a circle bundle in the hypersurface type CR geometry

A Bibliographic Essay on Hindu and Christian Dalit Religiosity

In his now classic novel Untouchable, Mulk Raj Anand portrays the life of a sweeper named Bakha. Bakha works cleaning latrines at the Cantonment, imitates the British tommies in his attire, and negotiates the differing spaces in which is Untouchability is defined. After an incident during which Bakha inadvertently touches a caste Hindu in the street, Bakha wanders through town. During his wanderings, he first meets a Christian missionary who speaks almost incomprehensibly about Jesus. Bakha then listens to a speech by Mahatma Gandhi and while he finds the Mahatma\u27s vision compelling, his mind turns to reflecting upon how flush toilets might be the real answer to his plight. As Anand portrays him, Bakha the sweeper is neither Hindu nor can he somehow become a Christian, for as an Untouchable he remains trapped in a wholly other spacial domain

Interviews in Global Catholic Studies: Kenneth Parker

Mathew N. Schmalz, Professor of Religious Studies at the College of the Holy Cross and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Global Catholicism, interviews Kenneth Parker, Ryan Endowed Chair for Newman Studies, Professor of Catholic Studies and Historical Theology, and the inaugural Chair of the Department of Catholic Studies at Duquesne University

Meet the Mormons: From the Margins to the Mainstream

A reflection on the relationship between Catholicism and Mormonism, specifically focusing on the Sunstone symposium

Images of the Body in the Life and Death of a North Indian Catholic Catechist

A discussion of a Dalit (Untouchable) Catholic catechist and communist activist in India. The article focuses on the use of bhajans by Kabir to articulate a Dalit Christian vision of redemption and salvation. The article also focuses upon Dalit resistances and social activism

Thinking with Nostra Aetate: From the New Pluralism to Comparative Theology

A consideration of the Vatican II document Nostra Aetate specifically in relation to comparative theology and theologies of religious pluralism. The article discusses two noted Catholic theologians: Paul Griffiths and Francis X. Clooney. The article also considers Pope Francis and the implications of his washing the feet of non-Christians. The article was published in Asian Horizons, a peer reviewed journal published by Dharmaram Vidya Kshetram in Bangalore, Indi

The Faith and Rationality of Dalit Christian Experience

A reflection on the John Paul II’s encyclical Fides et Ratio in connection to Dalit (Untouchable) Catholic and Christian experience in India. The article focuses on the spirituality of a Dalit Christian woman and relates it to the debate between historicity and ahistoricity in the appreciation of faith, rationality, and spirituality. The article was published in Asian Horizons, a peer reviewed journal published by Dharmaram Vidya Kshetram in Bangalore, Indi

Introducing Catholics & Cultures: Ethnography, Encyclopedia, Cyborg

In introducing the Catholics & Cultures site and the articles in this special issue, this essay initially locates the overall Catholic & Cultures project within the traditions of ethnography and encyclopedia. Drawing extensively on the work of J. Z. Smith, this essay reflects upon the theoretical implications of emphasizing the diversity of Catholicism in and through a web-based platform that facilitates comparative study and pedagogy. This essay then more specifically considers the web-based aspects of Catholics & Cultures by identifying a nascent cyborgian aesthetic in the site and considering how the site might eventually engage post-modern themes and concerns