{"id":2937,"date":"2011-07-25T13:32:08","date_gmt":"2011-07-25T17:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/?p=2937"},"modified":"2015-03-06T23:01:27","modified_gmt":"2015-03-07T04:01:27","slug":"god-the-baby-rama-avatar-of-vishnu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/god-the-baby-rama-avatar-of-vishnu\/","title":{"rendered":"God the baby – Rama \/ Ram, avatar of Vishnu"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Last Christmas season I posted<\/a> in a slightly Grinch-like<\/strong> way about catholic Incarnation theories, and about some Christians’ lack of critical thinking about them.<\/p>\n

There’s an interesting human impulse<\/strong> observable here. The best analogy I can think of right now is posters like the one to the left. The ladies love them.<\/p>\n

Why? There’s the sex appeal of the dude. And the cute baby. Everyone likes a cute baby.<\/p>\n

But there’s something else, something affecting about a big, strong, tough manly man, stooping to gently cradle a teeny, vulnerable baby. He’s made himself so vulnerable<\/em>. Of course, that adds to the “sexy” part. My point is, the affecting nature of the man’s condescension is a distinct element of the appeal.<\/p>\n

Now imagine that God, big strong God<\/strong>, becomes an ignorant, weak, dependent little baby. There’s a similar, recognizable emotional tug there. What an amazing idea! Of course, it may be amazing in part because it’s contradictory. But I’ll not argue that here.<\/p>\n

Instead, a bit of cross-cultural comparison<\/strong>. Christians aren’t the only ones who go in for the idea of a god who comes down from his mighty position, to be a cute, puny little baby.<\/p>\n

The Ramayana<\/a><\/em><\/strong> is an epic poem, and a sort of scripture in Hinduism. Parts of it go back perhaps<\/em> to the 400s BCE, though it comes in many versions, some of which are from the high middle ages. The clip below is from a wildly popular Indian television series from 1986 called Ramayan<\/a><\/em>. If you’re interested in Hinduism, I recommend it, but it’s a real time\u00a0commitment\u00a0to watch the whole thing. I’ve edited some bits of \u00a0it, to include the more theological parts, and to get it down to youtube length. It’s here, Ram<\/strong> or Rama, is supposed to be an avatar of the god Vishnu.<\/p>\n

My point is not<\/em> that Christians copied the idea of incarnation from Hindu avatar theories. I don’t think that is true, nor can I rule out some amount of Christian influence is some latter day avatar theorizing. My main point<\/strong> is the common human reaction to the image of a baby god. Also like Christians, the characters wonder whether or not this is contradictory. See how they dismiss<\/strong> the worry, or rather, how a major Hindu god does.<\/p>\n

For the record, I do not claim, but I do deny that the Trimurti<\/em> has anything to do with Christian Trinity theories. I’m aware of no evidence of causal influence either way. Perhaps in a future post I’ll explore what these facts about Hinduism may have to do with Christian theology.<\/p>\n

Below is a play-by-play commentary<\/strong>, so you know who is who, and what is going on. \u00a0Enjoy!<\/p>\n

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