Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Avatars and Christ

  • Chapter
Incarnation in Hinduism and Christianity

Part of the book series: Library of Philosophy and Religion ((LPR))

  • 75 Accesses

Abstract

That Jesus Christ is a God-man is generally acknowledged. That he is the Incarnation of God is dogma in the Christian religion; that he is an Avatar is to view him through Hindu eyes. In the West there has emerged a gradual recognition of Jesus Christ as an Avatar, and it developed circuitously, partly through secret societies, mystery schools, esoteric groups, and non-Christian religions such as Islam. It has already been shown how in the 1870s, Ramakrishna embraced Jesus as an Avatar and placed him within the Hindu pantheon. Half a century later a Hindu convert to Christianity, V. Chakkarai, in his book Jesus the Avatar,2 stated that according to the Christian view Jesus Christ was ‘the Avatar of God’.3 And it has been shown in Chapter 3 how Christ replaced Krishna as a Western Avatar.

Jesus was the avatar to end all avatars. If we take his life message seriously, we need not rack our brains to figure out which of the current contenders is an avatar of the divine. All are, and none is; and the avatar we are seeking is already in the midst of us, in us and in those closest to us and farthest away.1

(Harvey Cox)

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Notes

  1. V. Chakkarai, Jesus the Avatar (Madras: Christian Literature Society for India, 1930).

    Google Scholar 

  2. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, Jesus in India (Rabwah, Pakistan: The Ahmadiyya Muslim Foreign Missions Department, 1962).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Miguel Serrano, The Serpent of Paradise (New York: Harper & Row, 1972).

    Google Scholar 

  4. Levi Dowling, The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus Christ (Santa Monica, Calif.: De Vorss & Co., 1972) pp. 13–14.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Clifford Owens (ed.), A Story of Jesus (Virginia Beach: ARE Press, 1963), p. 28, reading #5749–2.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Noel Langley, Edgar Cay ce on Reincarnation (New York: Warner Books, 1976) p. 158.

    Google Scholar 

  7. I.C. Sharma, Cay ce, Karma and Reincarnation (New York: Harper & Row, 1975) pp. 137, 138.

    Google Scholar 

  8. H. Spencer Lewis, The Mystical Life of Jesus (San Jose, Calif.: Supreme Grand Lodge of AMORC, 1929).

    Google Scholar 

  9. Ernst von der Planitz (ed.), Der Benan-Brief (Berlin, 1910).

    Google Scholar 

  10. George Hunt Williamson, Secret Places of the Lion (New York: Warner Destiny Book, 1958, 1977).

    Google Scholar 

  11. Adolf Deismann, Light from the Ancient East (Hodder & Stoughton, 1927) pp. 342ff.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Seneca, ‘The Pumpkinification of Claudius’, in Robert Graves, Claudius the God (New York: Smith & Haas, 1935) pp. 566–82.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Sigmund Mowinckel, He That Cometh, trans. G.W. Anderson (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1959) p. 67.

    Google Scholar 

  14. Martin Hengel, The Son of God (Philadelphia, Fortress Press, 1976) pp. 25–30.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Walter Nigg, The Heretics (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1962) pp. 32, 34.

    Google Scholar 

  16. Pheme Perkins, The Gnostic Dialogue (New York: Paulist Press, 1980) p. 209.

    Google Scholar 

  17. A.D. Nock in Zeph Stewart (ed.), Essays on Religion and the Ancient World, vol. I (Oxford University Press, 1972) p. 35.

    Google Scholar 

  18. Alan Dundes, The Hero Pattern and the Life of Jesus (Berkeley, Calif.: The Center for Hermeneutical Studies in Hellenistic and Modern Culture, Protocol of the 25th Colloquy, 1977) p. 10.

    Google Scholar 

  19. This image belongs to Norman Perrin, The New Testament: an Introduction (New York: Harcourt, Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1974) p. 23.

    Google Scholar 

  20. J.K. Mozley, The Doctrine of the Incarnation (London: Geoffrey Bles, 1949) pp. 53–4.

    Google Scholar 

  21. Amos Wilder, Early Christian Rhetoric (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1971) p. 121.

    Google Scholar 

  22. Jacques Guillet, S.J., The Consciousness of Jesus (New York: Newman Press, 1972) p. 7.

    Google Scholar 

  23. Raymond Brown, Jesus God and Man (Milwaukee: Bruce Publishing Co., 1967) p. 30.

    Google Scholar 

  24. Joseph A. Fitzmyer, S.J., 19th Annual Scripture Institute Address, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., 21–25 June 1982.

    Google Scholar 

  25. H.J. Schoeps, Paul: the Theology of the Apostle in the Light of Jewish History (1961) p. 150.

    Google Scholar 

  26. Martin Hengel, The Son of God (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1976) p. 15.

    Google Scholar 

  27. Martin Luther, Word and Sacrament, vol. III in Helmut Lehman (ed.), Luther’s Works, vol. 37 (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1961) p. 212.

    Google Scholar 

  28. John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, trans. Henry Beveridge (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdman, 1957) II, 14, 1.

    Google Scholar 

  29. Henry Bettenson, Documents of the Christian Church, 2nd edn (London: Oxford University Press, 1963) p. 64.

    Google Scholar 

  30. Loraine Boettner, Studies in Theology (Philadelphia: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1947) p. 197.

    Google Scholar 

  31. Augustus Strong, Systematic Theology (Westwood, N.J.: Reveil, 1907) p. 693.

    Google Scholar 

  32. Dr Quentin Quesnell, ‘Aquinas on Avatars’ paper delivered at New ERA Conference, Ft. Lauderdale, Fla 3 Jan. 1983, p. 8.

    Google Scholar 

  33. Sara Hall, Father Divine: Holy Husband (New York: Doubleday & Co., 1953) ch. 1, ‘John Doe, Alias God’, pp. 9–23.

    Google Scholar 

  34. Geoffrey Parrinder, Avatar and Incarnation (New York: Barnes & Noble, 1970) pp. 120–6.

    Google Scholar 

  35. Romain Rolland, The Life of Ramakrishna (Advaita Ashrama, Calcutta, 1965) pp. 272–3.

    Google Scholar 

  36. M.K. Gandhi, What Jesus Means to Me, compiled by R.K. Prabhu (Ahmadabad: Navajivan Publishing House, 1959) pp. 9–10.

    Google Scholar 

  37. John Moffitt, ‘Incarnation and Avatara: an Imaginary Conversation’, in Journal of Ecumenical Studies, vol. 14, Spring (1977) p. 273.

    Google Scholar 

  38. John A.T. Robinson, Honest to God (SCM Press, 1963) p. 74.

    Google Scholar 

  39. Aldous Huxley, Island (New York: Harper & Row, 1962) p. 199.

    Google Scholar 

  40. Heinrich Zimmer, Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization (Princeton University Press, 1946) p. 90.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  41. D.H. Lawrence, Apocalypse (Florence: G. Orioli, 1931) p. 223.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Gardner A. Sage Library, New Brunswick Theological Seminary, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA

    Daniel E. Bassuk (Theological Librarian)

Authors
  1. Daniel E. Bassuk
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Copyright information

© 1987 Daniel E. Bassuk

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Bassuk, D.E. (1987). Avatars and Christ. In: Incarnation in Hinduism and Christianity. Library of Philosophy and Religion. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-08642-9_6

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation