God at Play - (Comparative Theology: Thinking Across Traditions) by Daniel Soars

Book Synopsis

The first comparative treatment of the topic of līlā in Hindu and Christian traditions, this volume explores what it means to consider divine and human action under the categories of play, wit, drama, grace, and compassion

God at Play presents a theological exploration of the multifaceted motif of līlā across diverse Hindu and Christian landscapes and its wide-ranging connections to divine and human creativity. Given its ubiquity in Hindu theologies and life-forms, līlā offers a rich comparative framework for exploring certain ways of understanding divine and human action as expressed in Hindu and Christian sacred texts, philosophical theology, and ritual practices.

Though līlā is often interpreted simply as "play," the essays in this volume reflect a far richer semantic and conceptual field, ranging from spontaneity and gratuitousness, through joy and humor, to mercy and compassion. By focusing on the different contexts in which līlā is found in Hindu traditions and resisting any uniform translation of the term, the contributors to this volume avoid the risk of using predominantly western or Christian categories to understand the Hindu other. The volume thus explores how līlā functions in a variety of distinctive philosophical, theological, and devotional ways across Hindu traditions, and listens for echoes in Christian understandings of the gratuitousness of the created order in relation to God.

God at Play is a genuine experiment in deep learning across traditions. Each chapter reflects on what is learned by taking līlā as the category of comparison and invites the reader to think about what these conversations add, confirm, or change in relation to earlier twentieth-century scholarship on play--not least, in terms of what difference it might make to understand human life as an imitation and a participation in the divine life of a playful deity.

Review Quotes

The new millennium has witnessed the maturing of Hindu-Christian studies in depth and breadth. Gone are the days when one felt compelled to add necessary primers to every part of the endeavor, assuming the reader's naïveté or incredulity at every turn of what might seem an idiosyncratic pairing. In this collection, Daniel Soars skillfully assembles distinguished scholars to examine līlā, or divine play, from multiple vantages. God at Play: Līlā in Hindu and Christian Traditions is emblematic of what scholarly Hindu-Christian studies can be: constructive, erudite, serious, revelatory, and, yes, even playful. The volume stands, then, as a milestone in the development of the field in its theological mode, and we are all the richer for it.---Kerry San Chirico, author of Between Hindu and Christian: Khrist Bhaktas, Catholics, and the Negotiation of Devotion in Banaras

This is a crucial work for those interested in plumbing the depths of creative activity, both human and divine, in the multifaceted traditions of Christianity and Hinduism. The scholarship here is wide-ranging and insightful, and it will ensure that līlā in Hindu theology can no longer be translated simply as "play" without further qualification. Daniel Soars is to be commended for conveying so important a contribution for a closer understanding of two world faiths.---Julius Lipner, Professor Emeritus of Hinduism and the Comparative Study of Religion, University of Cambridge, and Emeritus Fellow of the British Academy.

About the Author

Michelle Voss (Afterword By)
Michelle Voss is Professor of Theology at Emmanuel College in the Toronto School of Theology. She is a scholar of comparative theology, with a particular focus on Christian and Hindu contexts, and has also written widely about aesthetics, gender, and embodiment. Recent works include Body Parts: A Theological Anthropology, and The Handbook of Hindu-Christian Relations, which she edited with Chad Bauman.

Daniel Soars (Edited By)
Daniel Soars teaches in the divinity department at Eton College and is book reviews editor for the Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies. Recent publications include a co-edited volume entitled Hindu-Christian Dual Belonging and a monograph entitled The World and God Are Not-Two: A Hindu-Christian Conversation. He has published articles on Neoplatonism, the doctrine of creation ex nihilo and divine ideas, the Calcutta School of Indology, and Meister Eckhart.