Understanding Religious Pluralism

Perspectives from Religious Studies and Theology

Peter C. Phan, Jonathan Ray, Phan, Ray

• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN:
  9781620329436
  9781498227520
• eBook ISBN:
  9781630874896
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Church

Our contemporary world is fast becoming religiously diverse in a variety of ways. Thanks to globalization and migration, to mention only two current worldwide trends, people of diverse and sometimes mutually hostile faiths are now sharing neighborhoods and encountering one another's religious traditions on a daily basis. For scholars in religious studies and theology the issue to be examined is whether religious diversity is merely the result of historical development and social interaction, or whether it is inherent in the object of belief--part of the very structure of faith and our attempts to understand and express it. The essays in this volume range from explorations of the impact of religious diversity on religious studies to examples of interfaith encounter and dialogue, and current debates on Christian theology of religion. These essays examine not only the theoretical issues posed by religious pluralism to the study of religion and Christian theology but also concrete cases in which religious pluralism has been a bone of contention. Together, they open up new vistas for further conversation on the nature and development of religious pluralism.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Preface
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Following the Flows
• Chapter 2: Between the One and the Many in the Study of Religious Pluralism
• Chapter 3: Botánicas
• Chapter 4: The Buddha and the Dalai Lama on Religious Pluralism
• Chapter 5: The Prospects for Interreligious and Intercultural Understanding
• Chapter 6: Paul, Practical Pluralism, and the Invention of Religious Persecution In Roman Antiquity
• Chapter 7: Families of Religion,Then and Now
• Chapter 8: Judaism, Christianity, and Modernity
• Chapter 9: Lashon ha-Ra and Jewish Practical Pluralism
• Chapter 10: The Jewish Origins of an American Idea
• Chapter 11: Religious Pluralism in Islam
• Chapter 12: Response to Tom Michel
• Chapter 13: One Faith, Different Rites
• Chapter 14: Lateral and Hierarchical Religious Difference in the Qur’an
• Chapter 15: Outside de jure Religious Pluralism No Dialogue
• Chapter 16: The Shifting Significance of Theologies of Religious Pluralism
• Chapter 17: From Soteriology to Comparative Theology and Back
• Chapter 18: What Has Renaissance Polyphony to Offer Theological Method?
• Chapter 19: Karl Rahner’s “Anonymous Christianity” in Light of Pluralism and Contemporary Theology of Religions in Asia
• Chapter 20: Relativism, Universalism, and Pluralism in the Age of Globalization
• Contributors