ABSTRACT

This chapter explores some important scholarship on Hindu–Christian relations in aesthetic theory, creative practices, the arts, and visual culture with an eye to encourage more creativity across religious boundaries and with an eye to inspire greater unity of the values of beauty and justice that are shared by both traditions. It places these studies in historical context, both globally and in India, especially in conversation with the social-political work of Sri Aurobindo. The impacts of British colonialism and modern and post-modern contexts are introduced. Further, selections of current scholarship in theological aesthetics, creativity in dance, drama, and the visual arts, and the use of visual culture are summarized and described in light of this fraught history. It concludes by observing some emerging creative trends in art that move across Hindu–Christian borders and in scholarship in light of what might be called a spirituality and creativity of “the third space.”