God at Play (Ebook) von Daniel Soars

Introduction: God at Play: Līlā in Hindu and Christian Traditions | 1
Daniel Soars

Part I: Līlā as Divine Will and Divine Creativity

1 Play in East and West | 21
Douglas Hedley

2 Creating without a “Why”: Divine Play as Metaphor
for Creation in John Scottus Eriugena, Thomas Aquinas, and Meister Eckhart | 43
Bernard McGinn

3 God’s Willand the Creative Act:
Origen on Divine Volition and the Intelligibility of the Cosmos | 63
Daniel J. Tolan

Part II: Grace, Compassion, and Suffering: Some Pastoral Connotations of Līlā

4 Creation, Vision, Bliss: Līlā as Grace according to Rāmānuja, with
Reference Also to Thomas Aquinas and Gregory Palamas | 89
Francis X. Clooney, SJ

5 Līlā and Divine Mercy in the Hundred Verses to Compassion of Vedānta Deśika | 109
Sucharita Adluri

6 What Does It Mean for the Goddess to Play?
Līlā (or Its Absence) in the Śākta Traditions | 135
Rachel Fell McDermott

Part III: Some Aesthetic and Dramatic Dimensions of Līlā

7 “You have made me endless, such is thy pleasure”:
The Līlā of Love in the Metaphysical Poetry of Rabindranath Tagore | 153
Ankur Barua

8 The Metaphysics of Emotion: Divine Play in Caitanya Vaiṣṇava Philosophy | 178
Jessica Frazier

9 The Making of the Sacred City: Līlā as God’s Violence in a Tamil Śaiva Talapurāṇam | 197
Srilata Raman

Part IV: Human Playfulness as Imitation of Divine Līlā

10 Looking to the Leader: The Divine Dance in Neoplatonism | 221
Stephen R.L. Clark

11 Serio Ludere! Divine Lessons from Tricksters and Holy Fools | 244
Peter Tyler

12 The Serious Subject of Play: Play in Dance and Music | 264
Dominic White, OP

Afterword: Divine Līlā and Human Play | 289
Michelle Voss

Contributors | 299

Index | 303