Vedanta and Christian Faith

by Bede Griffiths

The essays in this book represent the best of the modern East-West religious dialogue. Each of the authors speaks from the profound personal experience, not only of his native Spiritual tradition, but as one who has deeply imbibed the religious life of an entirely different culture.
Bede Griffiths and Swami Abhishiktananda (Pere Henri Le Saux), both European Catholic priests, spent most of their lives in India, while Swami Paramananda, a close disciple of Swami Vivekananda, followed his Master to the West. All three write with the passion of men who have committed their lives to discovering the Truth beyond the creeds of their own faith and who feel impelled to likewise draw others out of religious provincialism and prejudice to glimpse what Bede Griffiths calls the ultimate mystery of being.

Paperback

First published June 1, 1995

About the author

Bede Griffiths (1906-1993), born Alan Richard Griffiths and also known as Swami Dayananda (Bliss of Compassion), was a British-born Benedictine monk who lived in ashrams in South India. He was born at Walton-on-Thames, England and studied literature at Magdalen College, Oxford under professor and Christian apologist C. S. Lewis, who became a lifelong friend. Griffiths recounts the story of his conversion in 1931 to Roman Catholicism while a student at Oxford in his autobiography The Golden String.

Although he remained a Catholic monk he adopted the trappings of Hindu monastic life and entered into dialogue with Hinduism.

Griffiths was a proponent of integral thought, which attempts to harmonize scientific and spiritual world views. In a 1983 interview he stated,

"We're now being challenged to create a theology which would use the findings of modern science and eastern mysticism which, as you know, coincide so much, and to evolve from that a new theology which would be much more adequate."

Reviews

[Michael Michailidis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Refreshing

If the Devil is in the details then the “one-ness” idea that sprang from the 1960s expected a literal invitation to the Devil himself by missing all of the details of those Hindu doctrines it professed to have understood so deeply. This book is in fact about those very details.

[Roger Carter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Left me speechless

This book is astonishing. I think I have been looking for this exposition all my life. That’s all I can say.