With historical-critical analysis and dialogical even-handedness, the essays of this book re-assess the life and legacy of Swami Vivekananda, forged at a time of colonial suppression, from the vantage point of socially-engaged religion at a time of global dislocations and international inequities. Due to the complexity of Vivekananda as a historical figure on the cusp of late modernity with its vast transformations, few works offer a contemporary, multi-vocal, nuanced, academic examination of his liberative vision and legacy in the way that this volume does. It brings together North American, European, British, and Indian scholars associated with a broad array of humanistic disciplines towards critical-constructive, contextually-sensitive reflections on one of the most important thinkers and theologians of the modern era.

While the Bhagavad G t is an acknowledged treasure of world spiritual literature, few people know a parallel text, the vara G t . This lesser-known work is also dedicated to a god, but in this case it is iva, rather than K a, who is depicted as the omniscient creator of the world. Andrew J. Nicholson s "Lord iva s Song" makes this text available in English in an accessible new translation. A work of both poetry and philosophy, the vara G t builds on the insights of Patanjali s Yoga S tra and foreshadows later developments in tantric yoga. It deals with the pluralistic religious environment of early medieval India through an exploration of the relationship between the gods iva and Vi u. The work condemns sectarianism and violence and provides a strategy for accommodating conflicting religious claims in its own day and in our own."