Across families
Dvaita Vedanta and Eastern Orthodoxy
Different families with 12 axes in close agreement — the sort of pairing a quiz weighting only the divine axes would never surface. Mean distance across all seventeen axes: 0.19 (0 would be identical).
God, souls and matter are permanently distinct — an unusually sharp dualism inside Vedanta, and the closest Hindu school to a classical theistic picture. Liberation depends on divine grace, not on realising an identity that was there all along.
Shares the Catholic creedal core but reads salvation as theosis — genuine participation in the divine energies — rather than as a legal remedy. Correspondingly more immanent, more ascetic, and less interested in defining what it has not had to define.
Where they agree
A1 Divine reality
Both sit at a divine reality certainly exists — a gap of 0.00.
E4 Standing of nature
Both sit at between creation, given for use and animate and itself sacred — a gap of 0.02.
A2 Personhood
Both sit at a personal being one can address — a gap of 0.03.
C1 Survival of the self
Both sit at continues in some form — a gap of 0.03.
E3 Locus of belonging
Both sit at leaning a people, inherited — a gap of 0.05.
B1 Source of truth
Both sit at leaning revealed and fixed and revealed and fixed respectively — a gap of 0.06.
B3 Institutional authority
Both sit at clergy and tradition decide — a gap of 0.07.
D3 The body
Both sit at leaning to be disciplined — a gap of 0.08.
D2 Centrality of ritual
Both sit at essential and prescribed — a gap of 0.09.
A3 Plurality
Both sit at leaning strictly one — a gap of 0.10.
B2 Reading of sacred text
Both sit at leaning literal and binding — a gap of 0.12.
D1 Mechanism of the ultimate good
Both sit at leaning given as grace — a gap of 0.12.
Where they part company
C2 Shape of time
Dvaita Vedanta: cyclical return. Eastern Orthodoxy: one life, then judgment. A gap of 0.88 on an axis running from “one life, then judgment” to “cyclical return”.
E2 Origin of the cosmos
Dvaita Vedanta: beginningless or natural. Eastern Orthodoxy: an intentional act. A gap of 0.83 on an axis running from “an intentional act” to “beginningless or natural”.
All seventeen axes
| Axis | Dvaita Vedanta | Eastern Orthodoxy | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| A1 Divine reality | a divine reality certainly exists | a divine reality certainly exists | 0.00 |
| A2 Personhood | a personal being one can address | a personal being one can address | 0.03 |
| A3 Plurality | leaning strictly one | leaning strictly one | 0.10 |
| A4 Locus | leaning wholly beyond the world | between wholly beyond the world and fully present within it | 0.27 |
| B1 Source of truth | leaning revealed and fixed | revealed and fixed | 0.06 |
| B2 Reading of sacred text | leaning literal and binding | leaning literal and binding | 0.12 |
| B3 Institutional authority | clergy and tradition decide | clergy and tradition decide | 0.07 |
| C1 Survival of the self | continues in some form | continues in some form | 0.03 |
| C2 Shape of time | cyclical return | one life, then judgment | 0.88 |
| C3 The human condition | between fallen and in need of rescue and ignorant but fundamentally sound | leaning fallen and in need of rescue | 0.27 |
| D1 Mechanism of the ultimate good | leaning given as grace | leaning given as grace | 0.12 |
| D2 Centrality of ritual | essential and prescribed | essential and prescribed | 0.09 |
| D3 The body | leaning to be disciplined | leaning to be disciplined | 0.08 |
| E1 Exclusivity | leaning one true path | one true path | 0.16 |
| E2 Origin of the cosmos | beginningless or natural | an intentional act | 0.83 |
| E3 Locus of belonging | leaning a people, inherited | leaning a people, inherited | 0.05 |
| E4 Standing of nature | between creation, given for use and animate and itself sacred | between creation, given for use and animate and itself sacred | 0.02 |
Positions for Dvaita Vedanta rest principally on Madhva’s Anuvyakhyana and Dvaita commentarial tradition; for Eastern Orthodoxy, on Confession of Dositheus (1672) and the Philokalia. Per-cell sources are listed on each tradition’s own page.
The questionnaire places your answers on these same axes and ranks all 65 traditions by how closely they match. Take it.