Miracle as modern conundrum in South Asian religious traditions
By: edited by Corinne G. Dempsey and Selva J. Raj.
Contributors: Dempsey, Corinne G.; Raj, Selva J.
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Published: 2009
Place of publication: Albany, NY
Language: eng
Number of pages: 218
ISBN-13: 9780791476338
Subjects: Miracles; South Asia -- Religion
Description: "Claims of the miraculous are foundational to faith and skepticism, making and breaking religious careers and movements in their wake. Drawing on a variety of South Asian religious traditions - Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Christianity - this book revolves around the theme of conundrum, demonstrating how miracles offer divine proof, tenacious embarrassment, and, in many cases, both. The contributors explore not only how modern miracles are conundrums themselves, but also how they make conundrums out of assumed divides between scientific and supernatural realms, modernity and tradition, the West and the rest, and ethnographer and native."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction: Divine proof or tenacious embarrassment : the wonders of the modern miraculous / Corinne G. Dempsey; title: Miracles and modern ambivalence; title: The neo-vedanta miracle / Robin Rinehart; title: Allopathic miracles and medical itineration among Satnamis and Christians in late colonial Chhattisgarh / Chad Bauman; title: Kataragama and the Tsunami : the Adbhuta, Ascarya and Pratiharya / Sunil Goonasekara; title: Making and breaking shrine reputations; title: Showing miracles in Rajasthan : proof and grace / Ann Grodzins Gold; title: A miracle (or two) in Tiruchi / William P. Harman; title: The science of the miraculous at an upstate New York Hindu Temple / Corinne G. Dempsey; title: Managing the establishment : miracles and popular expression; title: An ethnographic encounter with the wondrous in a South Indian Catholic shrine / Selva J. Raj; title: The deep secret of karamat : miraculous acts, revelation and secrecy in a South Indian Sufi tradition / Joyce Burkhalter Flueckiger; title: Media of miracles, miracles of media : clairvoyants and commercials on South Asian TV networks in the diaspora / Neelima Shukla-Bhatt.