Two Traditional Indian Models for Interreligious Dialogue: Monistic Accommodationism and Flexible Fundamentalism

In the yogavasistha, a syncretic Hindu text of the tenth or twelfth century, an attempt is made to harmonize C-x the absolute truth as articulated in a number of competing systems, including various forms of Buddhism, Vedanta, and Samkhya. This approach, which I call monistic accommodationism, stems from a Buddhist-influenced, highly idealized form of Advaita Vedanta.

From its beginnings, Jainism has been concerned with understanding, respecting, and countering competing religious views. Although acknowledging various forms of Hinduism and Buddhism as offering partial truths, Jainism exhibits what I call flexible fundamentalism, holding firm to its central teachings of jiva, karma, and kevala while exploring other systems. In this paper, these two approaches will be compared and contrasted with select modern, Western approaches to interreligious dialogue.