Reassessing 'the Discovery of Hinduism': The Jesuit Discourse on Gentile Idolatry and the European Republic of Letters
- Book Title:
- Intercultural Encounter and the Jesuit Mission in South Asia (16th–18th Centuries)
- Book Editor:
- Format:
- Book Chapter
- Year:
- 2014
- Publisher:
- Asian Trading Corporation
- Place published:
- Bangalore
- Language:
- Abstract:
Recent scholarship has moved away from the historiographical tendency of reducing the concept of Hinduism to some kind of colonial construct arbitrarily invented by outside observers, in particular the British orientalists from the end of the eighteenth century. One important criticism emphasizes the existence of an early-modern European discourse on the religion of the “Gentiles” on India, which was thematically complex, and quite often independent from the imposition of any form of colonial rule. In this context, the contribution of Catholic missionaries, especially, the Jesuits, has often been emphasized. In fact their writings often proposed themes, such as the duality between the elite monotheism of the Brahmans and popular superstition, which continued to be relevant in the analysis of British orientalists. However, this should not lead us to simply assume long-term continuities in the European orientalist discourse. This article instead proposes a focus on the complexity of the early modern discourse on “Gentile religion” and some of the key changes that it experienced. Of particular importance are the conceptual assumptions that were challenged during the late seventeenth century, when Jesuit orientalism could no longer remain a strictly missionary discourse, and in fact became strategically important to the antiquarian and philosophical culture of the European Republic of Letters, as exemplified by the baroque synthesis of Athanasius Kircher, or the famous series of Lettres édifiantes et curieuses. Whilst Jesuits such as Jean Venant Bouchet sought to combine local missionary apologetics with the struggle against atheism and irreligion in Europe, their analysis was selectively appropriated by authors with opposite agendas, for example, Deists, such as Jean-Fréderic Bernard, or , later, Voltaire. In this conflict there was no simple correspondence between particular antiquarian hypotheses and confessional positions. Different kinds of intellectual strategies—we could even say, different uses scepticism—led to different kinds of libertinism, whose themes were to drive much of the Enlightenment debate on religion. Thus, the transformation of “gentilism” into “Hinduism” ran parallel to a wide-ranging debate on the intellectual assumptions of Christian apologetics.
- Who (Jesuits):
- What (Subjects):
- Where (Locations):
- When (Centuries):
- Worldcat URL:
- Publisher URL:
- Page Range:
- 113–155
- ISBN:
- 97881708669098170866901