Beyond Religion: Imaging a New Humanity

Though evolved in response to the dynamics of Indian religio-politics, the author’s insights have global resonances. The work is informed by a keenness to sketch the truth about what is, as well as what ought to be, as an investment into safeguarding the health and sanity of humankind.

Endorsing Max Weber’s argument that religions begin to decay and contradict their spiritual core when priestly classes hijack them, the author argues for a liberation of human beings from their tutelage to religious middlemen.

Freedom is the temple in which spirituality and wholesome politics meet. Religious freedom becomes malignant when it is misconstrued as the license to violate spiritual values in pursuance of communal agendas. In times of religious decay, freedom for religion needs to be complemented with freedom from religion.

Human beings, however, cannot live in a vacuum. The book does not argue for relinquishing religions, but for transcending them.  Spirituality is the horizon beyond religion.  It is the shared dwelling-place of humanity.

Please click this link to go to a recording of the discussion between Prabhu Guptara, Dr Ram Puniyani, Dr Sunil Chandy, and Dr Valson Thampu, which launched the book on November the 24th, 2021.

An interview with Dr Thampu regarding the book is at https://thefederal.com/features/hindutva-is-not-a-hindu-phenomenon-prof-valson-thampu/

If you prefer audio, there is an interview at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/in-conversation-with-rev-valsan-thampu-about-his-new/id1583135981?i=1000547504032

On the other hand, here is an interview on a Vlog: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_a_nhyzKMY

And reviews of the book are available in the UK’s Ars Notoria magazine as well as in India’s Counterview magazine and Takshak magazine (please click on the magazine’s name to be taken to the respective review).

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ISBN: 978-1-913738-09-9
Publication Date in India (hardback): 24 November 2021
Beyond Religion in hardback is now available also in the U.K. and Europe.
However, please note that logistical/ freight delays due to the Russian-Ukrainian war, the Covid pandemic, and Brexit mean that copies of this hardback book will not be available till the Spring of 2023 in Canada and the U.S.A.

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About Author

For over three decades, Valson Thampu has been a voice of reason on issues of national importance in India, covering education, politics, religion and culture. Having contributed regularly to the national print media and, less frequently, to the electronic as well as social media, he is recognized as a bridge between Indian Christianity and other faiths in the nationally damaging ambience of the rise of strident Hindutva.

In view of his wider contributions, the Government of India appointed him to the first-ever National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions, mandated to safeguard the educational rights of the religious minorities in India, numbering over 200 million people. He was also nominated for two terms to the National Integration Council (of the Government of India) in the category ‘Distinguished Citizens’.

His long association with the late Swami Agnivesh, a Hindu reformer and spiritual thinker of distinction, their collaborative interventions in issues of national significance, and their spiritual seeking after the light of the divine beyond the cacophony of competitive religiosity, combined with his eclectic erudition, intrepidity of thought and classical bent of mind make this work a persuasive invitation to look beyond religious stereotypes and evolve a new spiritual vision for the post-COVID global village.

He commenced his life of public service as a member of the English faculty in St. Stephen’s College, Delhi,, and rose to be its Principal (2008 – 2016). During this time, his interests grew, blossomed and covered the Indian sub-continent, a process of growth in which he followed the footsteps of an illustrious predecessor, C. F. Andrews, who was a close associate of Mahatma Gandhi and Gurudev Tagore. His memoir covering those controversial years, On A Stormy Course, has been widely welcomed.

The author is inspired by his conviction that religions are the rainbow colours that imply, beyond them, the white radiance of the divine. God is the necessary point of coherence for life luxuriant with iridescent plenitude and inexhaustible diversity. The world will be sane when time is re-engaged with eternity, and the physical is attuned to the metaphysical. The present rupture in creation points to the need for a post-placental adventure of faith towards maturity in the understanding and practice of faith illumined with reason.

Beyond Religion enfolds an intimation of the springtime of a new humanity, instinct with the apprehensive yet irrepressible longing for an alternate spiritual vision. The time for that is surely at hand.