ABSTRACT

This chapter focuses on how the study of religion, religions, theology, and Hinduism and Christianity, in the contemporary academic context, may show a way forward for both Hindus and Christians. Flood is well aware of the current resistance to a narrow focus on the textuality of traditions and the doctrines of traditions, but he believes that good scholarship need not be driven by skepticism about traditions' own explanations of themselves. The contemporary academy, in all its diversity, is reshaping how Christians and Hindus study their own religion and the other and breaking up old ways of portraying self and other, potentially preparing a space that is both challenging and congenial to Hindu–Christian studies. Given that the historical and intellectual forces undercutting Christian intellectual hegemony will also tend to undercut any faith perspective, one cannot simply presume that the study of religions will favor Hindu views or automatically sustain an intellectual and spiritual community of Hindu and Christian scholars.