Interpreting Ramakrishna

“Interpreting Ramakrishna requires a significant and thoughtful work of religious and scholarly reflection. It is our best resource to understand Sri Ramakrishna.” Francis X. Clooney S.J. Parkman Professor of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School. ”This is a welcome contribution by Ramakrishna. It walks the rare middle ground between extremes of the critical insider and the unexamined assumptions made by the scholar. – —Anantanand Rambachan Professor, Religion Department at Saint Olaf College. This is a welcome contribution by Ramakrishna. It walks the rare middle ground between extremes of the uncritical outsider and the unexamined assumptions made by the scholar. Anantanand Rambachan Chair, Religion Department at Saint Olaf College
Ramakrishna, an Indian mystic (1836-1886), had a profound influence on Hinduism in India and Western interpretations. Ramakrishna played an important role in India’s revival of religion and in the rise of Hinduism within the West. He has been generally regarded as an example of interreligious harmony and individual striving. However, this view was shaken by Kali’s child, which made provocative statements about Ramakrishna’s “troubled past” and homoerotic tendencies. Is Ramakrishna a homoerotic tantrik and troubled mystic, whose secrets are kept secret from the public? This book is both a lively critique of Kali’s Child and an in-depth analysis of Ramakrishna scholarship throughout the past century. It identifies how Ramakrishna was viewed depending on the changing tenors of the times. It offers a thoughtful analysis of the problems inherent in translation and interpretation. This book presents a new model to interpret historical religious figures, which is consistent with rigorous scholarship but still retains its roots in indigenous paradigms.