Richard De Smet archival material

De Smet material sent Daniel De Smet (Brugge - Belgium), February 2022 (inserted into Annotated Bibliography):

1. “Christianity and Sankaracarya.” St. Thomas Christian Encyclopedia of India. Copy of typescript, 68 pp. (more or less - there are more, actually, because of uneven numbering, and unnumbered pages containing footnotes).
2. “The Dynamics of Contemplation according to Shankaracarya.” Comunicazione per lo [sic] Congresso di Semiotica del Testo Mistico. Prof. Giuseppe de Gennaro, Università dell’Aquila, Telefax 0862/432113. On letterhead of Casa Scrittori, Via dei Penitenzieri, 20 – 00193 Roma. 11 pp typescript. 
3. “A Mirror for Provincials.” For Ignis. Dt. 28.10.90. Letterhead of Istititum Historicum Societatis Iesu / Istituto Storico della Compagnia di Gesù, Via dei Penitenzieri 20, 00193 Roma. Typescript of 3 pp. 
4. [Biodata.] typescript of 1 p. 
5. “Publications of Dr. Richard V. De Smet, Ph.D. S.J.” typescript of 3 pp.

De Smet, Discovery of the Person, video in Portuguese

 dear Scott,

good morning to you!

one of my young friends, currently engaged in a PhD on Person in De Smet, found this video. do you know anything about it? are you behind it? just curious. keep well.

Ivo

Scott Randall Paine, <srpaine@gmail.com> 27.10.2021:

Hi Ivo,

      Ultimately you are behind it, since you shared with me a PDF of Brahman & Person, which I recently shared with one of my philosophy students. He is also a translator, so made a provisional spoken Portuguese translation of parts of the book available on youtube. Maybe we can find a publisher who will pay him to translate and bring out the whole book here in Brazil. I'd love to see De Smet better known.

the video: 

A Descoberta da Pessoa - Richard De Smet, 16 sep 2021

https://youtu.be/-H0odw9B8rQ

George van Driem, University of Bern

27.06.2020

Dear Father Coelho,

I saw your blog instalment of 2010 and wondered whether you might still have a PDF file of the following document, which I believe you made available at that time, but the link has been broken in the intervening decade.

Joseph L. Saldanha. 1907. The Christian Puránna of Father Thomas Stephens of the Society of Jesus, A Work of the 17th Century, reproduced from manuscript copies and edited with a Biographical Note, an introduction, an English Synopsis of Contents and Vocabulary (4th edition). Bolar, Mangalore: Simon Alvares, Esq.

I wish you good healthy and safety in these perilous times.

Many thanks in advance,

Prof. Dr. George van Driem
University of Bern
george.vandriem@isw.unibe.ch

27.06.2020
Dear Dr George,

sorry, I saw this just now.
here you are, the pdf of the Saldanha version...
I would be happy to know more about your work and interest in the KP.
wishes,
Ivo


george.vandriem@isw.unibe.ch
27 Jan 2021, 14:41
to me
Dear Father Ivo,

Thank you so much.

As for my own research, all of my publications are downloadable from my university webpage (except for some of the books).

https://www.isw.unibe.ch/ueber_uns/personen/prof_dr_van_driem_george/index_ger.html

Many good wishes from snowy Bern,

George

Sankara's jivatman

Jins Joseph, 16.01.2021 Jins Joseph <jinsjosephsdb@gmail.com>	16 Jan 2021, 10:37 (5 days ago)
to me

Hi Father,

Greetings. Hope this mail finds you well.

I am Jins Joseph from Divyadaan. We had met last year when you were here. I am doing my MPh dissertation on Sankara's concept of jivatman. 

I am now confused about the post-mortem existence of jivatman. What is De Smet's interpretation? Does he interpret Sankara as accepting a post-mortem existence for jivatman or is he of the view that the jivatman merges into Brahman after death. (Some passages from Sankara seems to suggest merging -- See for example, Ch. Up. Bh. VI. 14. 2 and BSB IV. ii. 16.)

Is the non-dualistic interpretation compatible with the merging of soul in Brahman after death?

Is there any article of De Smet where he deals with the post-mortem existence of jivatman?

I am aware that you are a very busy person; however, any help you could render me would be much appreciated.

Thanking you  in advance and awaiting your reply,

Cl. Jins Joseph sdb

Divyadaan, Nashik.

Ivo, 21.01.2021

Dear Jins,

you are at the very heart of the troubled interpretations of Sankara! It is not an easy question to answer in a few words.

let me begin by expressing what De Smet thinks. 

For him, Sankara is not a world-denying illusionist. The vyavaharika world is not an illusion like the son of a barren woman. but it is not Real in the same way as Brahman-Atman is Real. it has a relative, non-svayambhu, dependent reality. 

part of that world is the jivatman. so the same applies to jivatman: a dependent reality, that does not "disappear" after death! 

Where would you find De Smet saying this?

see Understanding Sankara (US) pp. 291-92, and the whole article in general. 

keep in mind what DS says about Sankara: his aim was not to create a complete metaphysics; his aim was to help attain liberation. it is a practical, religious, mystical aim. (see US p. 10)

i remember studying one passage where Sankara is asked: what happens to the jivatman after one has realized Brahman? and he refuses to answer: "If you have become jivan-mukta, you will not ask." that is the mystical answer! 

My suggestion: better to see the larger picture than to concentrate too narrowly on certain texts.

the larger picture: how to interpret Sankara: mayavadin or nondualist? 

I very much tend to accept DS' way of understanding Sankara's nondualism. you will find my reasons in the introduction to US, and perhaps in the life of De Smet published some time back in Divyadaan. 

all the best Jins! it's a great topic! 

Ivo

A possible book on De Smet

An outline

1. The Calcutta School
2. De Smet: Life 
3. Brahman and Person
4. Sankara
5. Retrieving Good Work

purvapaksins

reception

impact on theology, and potential impact

dialogue 

Andrew Barrette, postdoctoral researcher on Maréchal and Scheuer

Andrew Barrette <barretbs@bc.edu>	Tue, 1 Oct, 19:44
to me

Dear Fr. Coehlo,

Greetings from Boston. I hope all is well with you and that my message isn’t too much of an intrusion.

I am a postdoctoral researcher at Boston College in the Lonergan Institute and the Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies. I am currently working on Jesuits in Belgium at the turn to the 20^th century, focusing especially on Joseph Maréchal and Pierre Scheuer. But my project also opens to their students, among which I take Richard De Smet as a great example. 

I know well— both from reading your public work and hearing from your friends here in the Lonergan community—that you have done much in this area already. So, I am reaching out to you to see if collaboration is possible. Perhaps we could work together in gathering and editing some of Fr. De Smet’s work?

I am willing, of course, to do the lions-share in this task, as you have many other responsibilities. But your guidance would be most helpful.

Indeed, if you think that such a project is a good idea but you nevertheless cannot collaborate, perhaps I might at least send your word of encouragement and endorsement of it to the Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies.

And all the best from the Lonergan folks here at Boston College!

Sincerely, 

Andrew Barrette

Daniel Soars, PhD student working on Sara Grant

Dear Dr Coelho,

I have been meaning to write to you for a while - mainly because I spend 
considerable amounts of time immersed in your books on Richard De Smet, 
so I wanted to thank you for them (and also partly because Brad 
Malkovsky recommended that I made contact with you)!

I am getting towards the end of my doctoral thesis on the concept of 
non-duality in Christian theology and Advaita Vedanta, which I have been 
exploring for the last three and a bit years in Cambridge, under the 
tutelage of Ankur Barua and Douglas Hedley. Specifically, I have been 
focussing on the work of Sara Grant, which is why De Smet has been so 
important, and her arguments for convergence between Samkara and 
Aquinas.

If you would be interested (and have the time) to see any of what I have 
written, I would be more than happy to share and would value any 
comments you might have. If not, though, my thanks as a junior scholar 
to you and the fruit of your work on De Smet, from which I have 
benefitted greatly.

All best wishes,
Daniel

17.05.2022: The dissertation has been completed and may be viewed at: 

https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/1810/303491/Dissertation%20complete.pdf
D.J. Soars, <djs85@cam.ac.uk>
5 July 2019

Beyond the Dualism of Creature and Creator A Hindu-Christian Theological Inquiry into the Distinctive Relation between the World and God. Cambridge University. 2019.

The World and God Are Not-Two: A Hindu–Christian Conversation (Comparative Theology: Thinking Across Traditions, 10). Fordham University Press, 2023.

Editorial Reviews

Review

This is the most precise and comprehensive treatment available on non-duality in Hindu-Christian perspective. Soars offers the strongest case that has ever been made for the deep and surprising convergence of the writings of Shankara and Thomas Aquinas on the mystery of creation, which is the mystery of non-duality. The book thus represents a milestone in Hindu-Christian philosophical-theological engagement and will be useful for any person interested in pondering the mystery of their own existence before God.---Bradley Malkovsky, University of Notre Dame, former editor of the Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Daniel Soars’s The World and God Are Not-Two is a compelling and carefully rendered comparative theological study of distinction, and of distinctions between creator and creation in Christian and Hindu worldviews. . . This erudite and captivating study is required reading for scholars of Hindu-Christian studies and comparative theologians more generally. Systematic theologians are also sure to benefit from Soars’s invitation to think comparatively. ― Horizons: The Journal of the College Theology Society

In directing our attention to the orchards we have unjustly neglected, this book deserves a wide readership. ― Modern Theology

The author of this volume is an impressively thorough researcher, leaving no stone unturned in piecing together insights from thinkers both ancient and modern. . . Soars brings to his study an expert command of languages, both classical and contemporary, as well as the capacity for refined and astonishingly rigorous analytic thinking. He is, moreover, a clear and engaging writer who knows when to pause, for the reader’s sake, to summarize challenging ideas and distinctions. The book therefore has the ability to speak to both the trained scholar as well as to those readers not deeply conversant with Hindu and Christian philosophy and theology. ― Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

About the Author

Daniel Soars teaches in the Divinity Department at Eton College and is book reviews editor for the Journal of Hindu–Christian Studies.