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Journal of the American Academy of Religion 2004 72(4):1003-1019; doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfh087
© 2004 by American Academy of Religion
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Essay

"A Beautiful Sunset... Mistaken for a Dawn": Some Reflections on Religious Studies, India Studies, and the Modern University

Gerald James Larson

University of California, Santa Barbara

Using an analytic scheme from traditional Indic cosmology, namely, the Adhidaivika (the cosmic realm), the Adhibhautika (the social realm), and the Adhyatmika (the personal realm), the essay argues that intellectual progress in scientific research, social theory, and philosophy of mind has been generally disappointing. Rather than thinking in terms of progress and advance, a more apt characterization of what has been happening to the human community is one of serious decline. The essay argues, furthermore, that we are only at the beginning of the intellectual development of the human species and now are in need of new conceptual frameworks in terms of cosmology (theology), social order, and self-understanding that may enable us to overcome the decline.


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