Comparative Theology

Sri Ramakrishna is widely known as a nineteenth-century Indian mystic who affirmed the harmony of all religions on the basis of his richly varied spiritual experiences and eclectic religious practices, both Hindu and non-Hindu. In Infinite Paths to Infinite Reality, Ayon Maharaj argues that Sri Ramakrishna was also a sophisticated philosopher of great contemporary relevance.

Through a careful study of Sri Ramakrishna's recorded oral teachings in the original Bengali, Maharaj reconstructs his philosophical positions and analyzes them from a cross-cultural perspective. Sri Ramakrishna's spiritual journey culminated in the exalted state of "vijñāna," his term for the "intimate knowledge" of God as the Infinite Reality that is both personal and impersonal, with and without form, immanent in the universe and beyond it. This expansive spiritual standpoint of vijñāna, Maharaj contends, opens up a new paradigm for addressing central issues in cross-cultural philosophy of religion, including divine infinitude, religious pluralism, mystical experience, and the problem of evil.

Sri Ramakrishna's vijñana-based religious pluralism—when grasped in all its subtlety—proves to have major philosophical advantages over dominant Western models. Moreover, his mystical testimony and teachings not only cut across long-standing debates about the nature of mystical experience but also bolster recent defenses of its epistemic value. Maharaj further demonstrates that Sri Ramakrishna's unique response to the problem of evil resonates strongly with Western "soul-making" theodicies and contemporary theories of skeptical theism. A pioneering interdisciplinary study of one of India's most important philosopher-mystics, Maharaj's book is essential reading for scholars and students in philosophy of religion, theology, religious studies, and Hindu studies.

The International Journal of Hindu Studies (Springer) published a Review Symposium on the book in 2020. Contributors include Michael S. Allen, Christopher Bartley, Francis X. Clooney, Jonathan B. Edelmann, Benedikt Paul Goecke, Jonathan C. Gold, Julius Lipner, Jeffery D. Long, Ethan Mills, Perry Schmidt-Leukel, Amiya P. Sen, Arvind Sharma, and Michael Williams.

The South Asian edition of this book (Rs. 850) is now available in India through Amazon.in and flipkart.com.

a) Problemeröffnung: "Eine Offenbarung, die wahrhaftig wäre…" Holbachs Einheit von Religions-und Offenbarungskritik Beginnen wir diese Vorlesung, deren Gegenstand so oft und vielfach diskutiert wurde, nicht mit einer längeren, mehr oder weniger eleganten Einleitung, sondern gleich mit einer fulminanten Problemeröffnung, wie sie vor etwa 250 Jahren im Rahmen der radikalen Aufklärung Paul Henri Thiry d'Holbach (1723-1789) formulierte, jedoch ohne in seiner Zeit von den Theologen eine überzeugende Antwort zu erhaltenwas er auch kaum erwartet haben dürfte. "Eine Offenbarung", schreibt Holbach in seiner Streitschrift Le Christianisme devoilé, "die wahrhaftig wäre, die von einem gerechten und gütigen Gott und für alle Menschen notwendig wäre, müßte klar genug sein, um auch vom ganzen Menschengeschlecht verstanden zu werden. Trifft dies aber für die Offenbarung zu, auf die sich der Judaismus und das Christentum gründen? Die Lehrsätze des Euklid sind für alle verständlich, die sie verstehen wollen; dieses Werk ruft keinerlei Streitigkeiten unter den Mathematikern hervor. Ist die Bibel auch so klar und verursachen die geoffenbarten Wahrheiten keine Streitigkeiten unter den Theologen, die sie verkünden? Durch

I argue that contemporary philosophers have unduly ignored Sri Ramakrishna’s pioneering views on religious pluralism. The Bengali mystic Sri Ramakrishna (1836-1886) taught the harmony of all religions on the basis of his own spiritual experiences and his diverse religious practices, both Hindu and non-Hindu. Part I reconstructs the main tenets of Sri Ramakrishna’s model of religious pluralism. Part II explores how Sri Ramakrishna addresses the problem of conflicting religious truth-claims. Part III addresses some of the major criticisms leveled against Sri Ramakrishna’s views on religious pluralism.

This book breaks away from this clash between Islam and the West, by arguing that European Islam is possible. It analyses the contribution that European Islam has made to the formation of an innovative Islamic theology that is deeply ethicist and modern, and it clarifies how this constructed European Islamic theology is able to contribute to the various debates that are related to secular-liberal democracies of Western Europe. Part One introduces four major projects that defend the idea of European Islam from different disciplines and perspectives: politics, political theology, jurisprudence, and philosophy. Part Two uses the frameworks from three major philosophers and scholars, to approach the idea of European Islam in the context of secular-liberal societies: British scholar George Hourani, Moroccan philosopher Taha Abderrahmane, and the American philosopher John Rawls. The book shows that the ongoing efforts of European Muslim thinkers to revisit the concept of citizenship and political community can be seen as a new kind of political theology, in opposition to radical forms of Islamic thinking in some Muslim-majority countries.

Opening a new path for examining Islamic thought ‘in and of’ Europe, this book will appeal to students and scholars of Islamic Studies, Islam in the West and Political Theology.

It is the result of my own work and includes nothing which is the outcome of work done in collaboration except where specifically indicated in the text. Word Count excluding bibliography: 85869, not exceeding the word limit of 87000 set by the Degree Committee.

L’étude ici présentée est un extrait de la thèse doctorale intitulée : L’AMOUR  DE  DIEU  DANS  LES  LIMITES  DE  LA  SIMPLE  RAISON  –  FOI  ET  RAISON  DANS  LA  PENSÉE  D’IBN  TAYMIYYA  À  LA  LUMIÈRE  DE  LA  THÉOLOGIE  SPIRITUELLE  D’ÉLIE  DE  NISIBE – Avec édition et traduction de : La réponse valide à ceux qui ont altéré la religion du Messie – al-Ğawāb al-ṣaḥīḥ li-man baddala dīn al-Masīḥ  d’Ibn Taymiyya (extrait), Le Troisième Entretien d’Élie de Nisibe avec le vizir Abū al-Qāsim b. ʿAlī al-Maġribī : Etablissement de la preuve du monothéisme des Chrétiens d’après le Coran – Fī iqāmat al-dalīl ʿalā tawḥīd al-naṣārā min al-Qur’ān, Le livre de la démonstration de la vraie foi – Kitāb al-burhān ʿalā ṣaḥīḥ al-īmān d’Élie de Nisibe (extrait), Le cantique d’Élie de Nisibe – Tasbīḥat Mār Īliyyā.

Cette thèse a été soutenue publiquement à Paris, le 13 novembre 2010, auprès de l’Institut pontifical d’études arabes et d’islamologie (P.I.S.A.I.), en convention de cotutelle avec l’Ecole pratique des hautes études (E.P.H.E.), Ve section (Sciences religieuses), école doctorale « Sciences des religions et systèmes de pensée » (Etudes arabes, civilisations islamiques et orientales). La mention Summa cum Laude lui a été attribuée.

Suite à l’introduction générale de l’ensemble de la thèse, cette publication concerne uniquement la première partie du doctorat consacrée à la théologie spirituelle d’Élie de Nisibe, à l’exception des éditions critiques et des traductions du Livre de la démonstration de la vraie foi – Kitāb al-burhān ʿalā ṣaḥīḥ al-īmān d’Élie de Nisibe et du Cantique d’Élie de Nisibe – Tasbīḥat Mār Īliyyā (chapitre 2.2. et chapitre 2.3. de la thèse défendue). Elle se conclut par une bibliographie sélective et la table des matières de tout le travail de recherche effectué.

Parallels between the spiritual paths of Theravāda Buddhists and Discalced Carmelites have long been observed, although not satisfactorily explained. This study contributes to objectively clarifying the similarities and differences between the two paths; and to explain their phenomenological similarities and structural affinities.

Somewhat belatedly and perhaps datedly, as it was examined ten years ago, this thesis explores the effects of twentieth century controversies around the theology of nature and grace on Hans Urs von Balthasar and Karl Rahner’s theology of religions, and attempts to mediate between the two theologians’ seemingly contrary positions. It suggests that Balthasar’s theology lends itself better to the possibility of an “anonymous Christendom” than to Rahner’s idea of individual “anonymous Christians”, despite his rejection of the former and grudging acceptance of the latter.
Chapter 1 explores integralist responses to the Neo-scholastic extrinsicist model of nature and grace, arguing that Rahner’s notion of pure nature perpetuates the problems it proposes to solve. Chapter 2 considers Balthasar’s reconciliation of Karl Barth’s theology with de Lubac’s integralist model of nature and grace. Chapter 3 critically considers the implications of Balthasar’s aesthetic epistemology on his theology of religions. In chapter 4, we argue that imbalances in Balthasar’s theology can be righted by certain Rahnerian insights, leading in chapter 5 to the argument that the working of God’s grace outside the Church is necessary for the eschatological fulfilment of the Kingdom. The thesis finally suggests the possibility of an ‘anonymous Christendom’ outside the visible Church.
Chapter 6 tests the thesis of ‘anonymous Christendom’ against the examples first of a Hindu sati, and then of Buddhist maitri as presented in de Lubac’s Aspects du Bouddhisme, suggesting that each can, in de Lubac’s terms, form ‘building blocks’ in the Kingdom.

Recent years have seen a proliferation of proposals for multiple religious belonging. While Sri Lankan theologian Aloysius Pieris is often cited as an exemplar of this phenomenon, he himself grants it no separate space of analytical inquiry. This essay argues that Pieris is crucial to debates over hybrid identities not despite but precisely because of his silence on them. Where his theological assumptions diverge from those governing explicit elaborations of multiple religious belonging, insights emerge into how he and others marginal to the western academy unproblematically embrace and enact multiplicity.

This paper employs the hermeneutics of Hans-Georg Gadamer as a tool to underpin the methodology of Comparative Theology. Acknowledging limitations in Gadamer’s framework, it argues these can either be overcome or bypassed in this context. The paper initially sets out Gadamer’s own understanding of the relationship of his hermeneutics to theology and its reception within theology. It then outlines Francis Clooney’s Comparative Theology using others theologians as needed to supplement this, notably Paul Knitter and Michelle Voss Roberts. The third part shows how Comparative Theology’s methodologically can be grounded in principles coming from Gadamer’s hermeneutics which provide a philosophical rationale for the discipline, making particular use of the concept of translation. It makes reference to Marianne Moyaert’s deployment of Paul Ricoeur’s hermeneutical model for interreligious understanding. Various directions for further research are suggested at the end of the paper.

This dissertation is a qualitative study of reflection practices among Buddhist chaplains and chaplain interns using grounded theory methods. This study describes and interprets the existing reflexive practices of Buddhist chaplains to understand their methods and origins and to generate an interpretive theory about the nature and role of Dharma (Dhamma) reflection in spiritual care as practiced by Buddhists. This dissertation explores why there is no existing literature on this topic to date and why literature on Buddhist chaplaincy and spiritual care is
limited. It also explores the benefits and limitations of Christian literature and other religious traditions in relation to Buddhists and considers some issues related to comparative theology. I then summarize the constructivist grounded theory methods I used in this research. Grounded theory methods generated a theoretical framework for reflection among Buddhist chaplains known as the Three Prajñās Framework for Spiritual Reflection. The Framework is comprised of wisdom derived from three tasks–listening (śrutamayīprajñā), contemplating (cintāmayīprajñā), and practicing (bhāvanāmayīprajñā)–carried out through four overlapping stages–self, student, spiritual caregiver, and spiritual friend (kalyāṇamitra). The thesis is that Buddhist chaplains who have sufficient experience developing wisdom through these tasks–listening, contemplating, and practicing–in relation to their own spiritual/religious lives; who have been guided and accompanied as students in these tasks by mentors, teachers, and spiritual friends (kalyāṇamitra); and who can apply them to their own work as spiritual caregivers, are then better able to accompany and guide careseekers as spiritual friends (kalyāṇamitra) using this framework. The Framework accomplishes many of the outcomes of “facilitating theological reflection in the context of pastoral care” among Buddhist chaplains, yet is distinct from the Christian understanding of theological reflection. It is not a Buddhist substitute for theological reflection, but rather a method of learning and reflection fully explicated within a Dharmic worldview. Finally, this proposal explores the limitations and potential benefits of this work. This dissertation serves as a foundation for developing distinctly Buddhist methods for reflection in spiritual care and contributes to a growing field of literature analogous to pastoral theology for Christians.

The article is intended to provide an adequate analytical description of the theology of the Eucharist as it is formulated and understood within three Protestant theological traditions: the Lutheran, the Anglican and the Russian Baptist. The fundamental presupposition of this research is that the hospitality between various Protestant churches is impossible without ample theological comprehension of the key similarities as well as dissimilarities in their interpretations of classic Christian doctrines. This paper attempts to produce such an investigation in the instance of the doctrine of the Eucharist. Here the three confessional theologies of the Eucharist are examined each in its turn according to the ‘dogmatic’ approach, that is a study of the official doctrinal documents of the three denominations, and the ‘key theologians’ approach, that is an inquiry into opinions of several thinkers determinative to the respective traditions. After short review of Biblical roots and pre-Reformation historical developments in the theological interpretation of the Eucharist, the author dedicates next sections of the article specifically to the exploration of Lutheran, Anglican and Russian Baptist ways of looking at the Lord’s Supper. Then the key differences and fundamental commonalities of the three Eucharistic traditions are highlighted and concluding statements about the need for re-appreciation of different aspects of the Eucharistic theology are made.

Must the God of monotheism necessarily be a “nice” God, as Richard Dawkins seems to imply? One problem with this formulation is that it takes for granted that God is a moral agent that can be judged, and found wanting, by the same sort of external standards that we apply in judging other human beings. Aquinas—though he has a lot to say about God, good, and evil—does not seriously engage the atheist argument from evil. Samkara was aware of the challenge of atheism, and he does offer a theodicy, but it is a preliminary one, not representing his final view. Abhinavagupta and his tradition, in terms of theological discourse, have scarcely anything to say on evil as it might problematize conceptions of God, for it seems to them not a problem, though the Śaiva mythic corpus speaks in its own way. For Hindus in Bali, the idea that God is good is taken to be simplistic.

The nature and field of comparative theology is mapped with particular attention to the tradition associated with Francis Clooney but noting the global and wider context of theology in a comparative mode. There are four main parts. Firstly, mapping the current field and exploring its methodological and theological aspects, with particular attention to global and intercultural theologies, comparative religion, and the theology of religions. Secondly, considering what the deconstruction of religion means for comparative theology and how the term " religion " may be deployed and understood after this. It also takes into consideration turns to lived and material religion. Thirdly, issues of power, representation, and the subaltern are considered, including the place of feminist and queer theory in comparative theology. Finally, an original and constructive discussion on philosophical hermeneutics, as well as the way certain hermeneutical lenses can bring issues into focus for the comparative theologian, is offered. The text notes key trends, develops original models of practice and method, and picks out and discusses critical issues and lacunae within the field.

Den Koran „europäisch“ zu lesen, meint nach Angelika Neuwirth, den Koran vor dem Hintergrund der Spätantike zu lesen, als eine Stimme jener Zeit, „die wir gewohnt sind als formative Epoche für das spätere Europa zu reklamieren“ (Angelika Neuwirth). Die vorliegende Arbeit versucht die im Koran dokumentierten Diskurse mit der altarabischen Kultur, die Teil der Spätantike ist, v.a. aber Auseinandersetzungen mit der rabbinisch-jüdischen und patristisch-christlichen Tradition aufzuzeigen. Damit zeichnet die vorliegende Arbeit die Entwicklung der koranischen Botschaft nach, der Angelika Neuwirth in ihrer bisher mehr als 40-jährigen Forschungsarbeit nachgegangen ist.
Darüber hinaus wurde nach Impulsen Ausschau gehalten, die sich aus der Forschungsarbeit Neuwirths für ein heutiges interreligiöses Gespräch ergeben. Dabei wird mehrfach aufgezeigt, inwiefern der Koran – liest man ihn vor dem spätantiken Hintergrund – für heutige EuropäerInnen von einem fremden zu einem vertrauten Text werden kann.

Masterthesis MAS Spiritual Theology, Universität Salzburg, 2015

The unfortunate event of the historical intersection of European colonialism and the Christian mission has become problematic for Christian identity in India. While the stark reality of Indian religious plurality has to be adequately addressed, the existing theological responses to religious plurality – Exclusivism, Inclusivism, and Pluralism - are found to be lacking on either the parameter of establishing the plurality of religions that accounts for parity among religions or the parameter of preserving the particularity of individual religion.
The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate and extend the Postliberal/Post-pluralist theological method that employs Lindbeck’s cultural-linguistic theory as an alternative approach that will establish interfaith relations between Christianity and other Indian religions sans the imperialistic notion. The first chapter discusses the cultural-linguistic model which understands religions as resembling languages and semiotic systems, that shape and mold human experiences within the matrix of cultural and linguistic factors. Religions are conceived as “communal phenomena,” and attempts are made to understand the concrete expressions of an individual faith community in its liturgy, sacraments, rituals and other forms as decisive for shaping their religious experiences. Thus, Lindbeck successfully identifies religions as multiple instances of linguistic/semiotic systems that are characterized by their internal “forms of life.” Within Lindbeck’s methodology, in his attempt to uphold the particularity of Christianity, his conception of religions as “comprehensive interpretive schemes” that emphasizes the “untranslatability” of Christian higher truths into other religious’ idioms is found to be problematic.
The second chapter analyses Hans Frei’s narrative reading of the Scripture as an alternative conception to preserve the particularity of Christianity in the person of Christ, whose identity is established through the narrative, “history-like” depiction of the Gospel stories. This “unsubstitutable” identity of Jesus Christ becomes the “final primacy” criterion for all “particularistic” Christian faith articulations without denying the possibility of other religions’ particular claims.
Further, in the third chapter, Lindbeck’s concepts of “incommensurability,” “untranslatability” are reexamined based on Macintyre’s deflated significance of “incommensurability” and also Homi Bhabha’s conception of Hybridity and Third Space categories. Francis Clooney’s “Comparative Dialogue” was reflected upon as a methodical demonstration of initiating interreligious dialogue between the “incomparable” doctrinal/textual traditions, especially between the Uttara Mimamsa Sutras and Summa Theologiae. Such, beyond a post-pluralistic understanding of comparative dialogues that upholds both the plurality and particularity of all religious traditions can be a useful tool in the hands of the Indian Christian community to seek interreligious harmony and in the process regain their Indian identity.

Burgeoning efforts in “Abrahamic dialogue” reflect increasing interest in utilizing the common appeal to Abraham by Jews, Christians and Muslims in today’s pluralistic world. Abraham is frequently recruited as a key ally in efforts to bring about peace and mutual understanding among conflicted groups and nations, with various voices calling for some sort of coming together on a common platform. Yet when the respective scriptures on Abraham are included in the discussion, we are faced with differences that make common ground harder to find. From a Christian standpoint, the alleged high place that the Qur’an accords to the religious personalities of Abraham and others is granted only at the high cost of denying the biblical particularism, where Abraham’s role is central. Efforts in scriptural dialogue follow two different models: First, those that seek a common scriptural basis for understanding differences and resolving conflicts; and second, those that try to enlighten and/or persuade those whose scriptures both overlap and differ from our own. The further we advance into interfaith dialogue that is authentically “Abrahamic” in more than just name and common veneration, the more we will be forced to grapple with the Abrahamic texts of Genesis and the Qur’an.

Can the comparison of two theologians vastly separated in time and space help contemporary theologians to think better? This book argues that it can. Specifically, this book argues that the novel and burgeoning discipline of comparative theology is a powerful method for gaining critical insight into our inherited worldviews. More importantly, it argues that the critical insights gained through comparison can produce constructive theology or, in other words, revised and renewed worldviews. New comparisons produce new questions, new questions produce new answers, and new answers constitute new theology.

In order to demonstrate the power of this process, this book compares two preeminent theologians, Sri Ramanuja of the Hindu tradition and Friedrich Schleiermacher of the Christian tradition. Each argues that God sustains the universe at every moment of its existence, but they work out the divine sustenance in very different ways. By comparing their description of God’s continual preservation of the universe, this book asks original, unfamiliar questions of each. Then, it speculatively suggests possible answers to those questions, inviting Ramanuja and Schleiermacher to respond to the collegial challenges raised. This method demonstrates the incisive power of comparative theology to generate critical tension, as well as the creative power of comparative theology to resolve that very tension.

Fax: 09-264.9483 I want to see how he has walked the tight rope and what its results are. The sub-title of his book, deep learning across religious borders, suggests that inter-religious learning should not only be 'deep' but also that it is possible only at those borders where religions meet each other. We know for a fact that most Christian theologians have stayed at the centre while relating to other religions. Clooney promises to stay within the confines of Christianity, even as he touches its borders. In the process, he must also say what his solution to the translations problem is. Our expectations are raised very high. So are the stakes.

One of the main challenges to interreligious dialogue is in locating a proper balance between commitment to one's own religion while maintaining openness to the other. 1 "Can one combine openness and identity, dialogability and steadfastness in the interreligious dialogue?" 2 It is generally understood that the problem of the tensive relationship between identity and openness should be addressed from a theological perspective and that interreligious dialogue should be based on a correct theological evaluation of religious traditions. It is up to theological reflection to clarify why Christians must be open-or, conversely, should not be open-to those of other religions. It is theology that sets limits as to how far that openness extends and if there should be limits to one's openness when encountering the religious other. If Christians are to become more open, the questions of why this openness is appropriate (or not) and how this openness to the faith of another is related to one's own faith commitment, are answered, one by one, through theological reflection on, and interpretation of, religious diversity.

Published in: Robert W. Jensen and Eugene Korn editors, Swords into Plowshares:  Reflections on Religion and Violence (Essays from the Institute for Theological Inquiry).  Center for Jewish and Christian Understanding and Cooperation (Kindle Edition 2014).


ABSTRACT


 
Don Seeman, the author of the chapter

“Violence, Divine Honor and the State,” has published a number

of studies touching on the relationship between the idea of divine honor and religious violence in different Jewish intellectual settings and he has also written as an anthropologist on the relationship between honor and political violence in modern Israel. Here, for the first time, he offers a synthetic reading that attempts to account for the close relationship between the anthropological and theological registers and to account in a systematic way for differences in approach between Jewish thinkers as diverse as Maimonides, R. Moshe Hayyim Luzzatto, Rav Kook, Moses Mendelssohn and Emmanuel Levinas. He begins with a phenomenological critique of the way honor and shame have been treated in recent

social science literature. He argues that honor and shame are “bridge concepts” that are applied in

classical conceptions to human beings as well as to God and that they therefore help to condition theological as well as political or anthropological conceptions of ethics and violence. After brief analyses of key biblical and rabbinic texts, Seeman argues that Jewish approaches to divine honor and violence can be divided into three dominant paradigms: vernacular, mystical and philosophical. The vernacular paradigm treats divine honor in anthropomorphic terms that are indistinguishable from those used to explain human social relations and recourse to violence. The mystical or kabbalistic paradigm builds, in a sense, on this robust vernacular sensibility, but adds a distinctive and subtle metaphysics of divine presence. This is the context in which the utter rejection of the vernacular sensibility by philosophical Judaism

—

exemplified by Maimonides and by modern thinkers such as Moses Mendelssohn

—

takes on such importance. Seeman argues that the very shape of Jewish modernity has been conditioned by arguments over the nature of divine honor and by the political ramifications of those differences. The rejection of vernacular divine honor is a central theme of

Mendelssohn’s



Jerusalem

to which contemporary Jews are still implicitly or explicitly responding. We cannot understand the complex relationships between religion, violence and the state without a much better understanding of these dynamics.


"

In addition to serving as a historical record, the collection and publication of these essays serve several purposes: they show how Mennonite and Shi`ite scholars seek to make themselves understood to those of other traditions without assuming any expertise in the histories and theologies of those addressed.... So the essays may also be read as an invitation to explore the issues in dialogue with Mennonites and Shi`ah and to observe the similarities and differences displayed in their thinking, both in contrast to one another and within each group.

Comparative theology is a relatively novel theological approach that revolves
around a practice of comparative reading of authoritative religious documents.
The International Theological Commission’s Theology Today: Perspectives, Principles
and Criteria (2012) develops a systematic-theological elaboration of the specificity
of Catholic theology. Our author investigates the question whether and to what
extent Theology Today may endorse comparative theology as a genuine expression of
Catholic theology.

The Christian tradition’s core theological assertion is the embodiment of God in the person of Jesus Christ. Yet, even while asserting God’s incarnation in space and time, the tradition has usually denied embodiment unto the Godhead itself. Theologians have based this denial on Jewish iconoclasm, Greek idealism, and inferences from God’s omnipresence, transcendence, and infinity. This speculative essay will argue that Hindu Śrīvaiṣṇava theologian Rāmānuja successfully addresses these concerns. He argues for the embodiment of an omnipresent, transcendent, and infinite personal God. Rāmānuja largely derives his arguments from the Hindu scriptures. Nevertheless, their rational explication and internal coherence render divine embodiment a legitimate theological option for the Christian tradition, whose scriptures present both anthropomorphic and iconoclastic concepts of God. Since Godhead embodiment is ontologically coherent and rationally defensible, Christians must accept or reject it based on axiological grounds, by evaluating the felt consequences of the doctrine in Christian life. For embodied beings, any pastoral theology should commend embodiment within the Godhead.

This essay identifies salient points of affinity and divergence in the monistic metaphysics and skeptical methodologies of the German idealist Hegel and the Indian Advaitin Śrī Harṣa. Remarkably, both Śrī Harṣa’s Khaṇḍanakhaṇḍakhādya (c. 1170) and Hegel’s Phänomenologie des Geistes (1807) attempt to defend a monistic standpoint exclusively by means of a sustained critique of non-monistic philosophical positions. I will argue, however, that Śrī Harṣa and Hegel diverge sharply in their specific views on the powers and limits of philosophy and on the precise nature of monistic reality. In stark contrast to Hegel, Śrī Harṣa rejects the very possibility of a philosophical justification of monism, since he claims that the non-dual reality of Brahman lies beyond reason. Moreover, while Hegel drives a wedge between thought and empirical praxis, Śrī Harṣa insists that how we think and reason depends on the nature of our mind, which is itself conditioned by how we live.

Globalised Western hegemony has resulted in the obscurest parts of the world having a contrived front to present to Western visitors and investigators. In European languages, many of these fronts are known as world religions. These European-reified inventions can significantly contribute to people's self-identity vis-à-vis the West. This article suggests that Westerners engaging with communities in relation to their 'religions' easily end up engaging their own reflections, boxing their own shadows. The existence of such reflections of the West is what it is here suggested undermined the enthused 19 th-century comparative theology project. Although created by those deeply influenced by Christianity, world religions are generally idolatrous. Formal dialogue with such Western inventions, apart from confusing the West, can further solidify what was originally reified, and cause efforts at Christian evangelism to falter and flounder. Engaging Christian mission in indigenous languages and without large amounts of outside resources results in responding to people's actual ways of life rather than communicating 'through Europe' to reified world religions. Thus by avoiding contrived contexts, mission effectiveness can be streamlined.

This essay proposes that Buddhism and Christianity can be brought into a complementary, mutually enriching relationship through exploring the theme of "desire." Both traditions in different ways depict a human condition distorted by ego-logical selfenclosure and suggest that the path to liberation involves a reorientation of consciousness that has direct moral implications. In such a reorientation, desire-as a basic mode of orientation toward others-becomes fundamentally transformed and opened outward into a state of dynamic attunement, reconfigured as a posture of self-releasing love and compassion. Unpacking this in more detail will help shed light on important areas where Buddhism and Christianity have much to say to one another.

Abstract: This paper disputes that a strong contrast can be drawn between the Old Comparative Theology and the New Comparative Theology, looking particularly at the arguments of Hugh Nicholson as well as drawing on Francis Clooney. It disputes a simplistic and monolithic dismissal of the Old Comparative Theology as guilty of
‘Orientalism’, and seeks to show that in figures like Rowland Williams, as well as F. D. Maurice that the discipline was important in breaking down boundaries between traditions. Building on this, an argument is made that the New Comparative Theology should be seen as part of a lineage of progression and understanding that links it with the Old Comparative Theology and the Theology of Religions, and that any attempt to see these as different, or contrasting, discourses is based upon a distorted or partial historical understanding. In this
the work of Tomoko Masuzawa is also assessed, and issues surrounding the terms
‘religion’ and ‘world religion’ are discussed. It is also suggested that the weight of history
may be a factor as to why the New Comparative

While many attempts at theodicy explain evil as unavoidable, even for an omnipotent being, except at the cost of a greater good, another approach to theodicy is based on the idea that at least some moral standards do not apply to both God and human beings, and, hence, that God is no less morally perfect if he allows the existence of avoidable evil. This thesis is associated with Ash'arite theology, which also promotes a divine command theory of morality. In this paper it is shown that these two aspects of Ash'arite theology are independent, that is, that divine non-culpability for avoidable evil does not imply a divine command theory of morality. It is hoped that this paper may be considered as an endorsement of the mutual respect between Shi'i and Sunni theologians and as a contribution to intra-Muslim comparative theology.

ABSTRACT: Space, time, cosmos, and architecture are interconnected with the realm of the sacred. At present the modern world and its architecture of newness, speed, information, and consumerism appears to be losing its sense of sacredness or the experience of sacred time. While this may be the case, I would argue that the experiential space of time – its depth and plasticity – can be regained through design principles such as the proper orientation, alignment, and replication of the cosmic order in architectural form, space, and details. The objective of this study aims to help the discipline address the ‘terror of time’ by (re)gaining an existential understanding of key architectural design principles that restore sacred, cyclical time to human experience. Based on the comparative framework and methods of an earlier study published in Harvard’s Journal of Comparative Theology, the scope of this paper continues its focus on architectural works found within Mormonism, Judaism, and Christianity by asking the following questions: 1) How is the cyclical pattern of sacred time experienced mythically through the narrative of sacred history? 2) How is sacred time conveyed astronomically through the revolutions of the cosmos? 3) How is cyclical time encountered spatially in the architecture of the temple? and 4) What parallels exist in the mapping of cosmos and sacred history onto the spatial frame of temple architecture throughout the religious traditions? The paper concludes by demonstrating the relationships that exist between religions on architectural, spatial, ritual, astronomical, and mythicohistorical levels. Since the cyclical and chiastic pattern of sacred time is present in temple, cosmos, and history, our understanding is improved of how the plan of salvation may be read as 'one eternal round'.

Die Theologie der Religionen wird oft mit dem Vorwurf konfrontiert, sie sei abstrakt, allgemein und viel zu theoretisch, sie beschäftige sich nicht mit den konkreten Problemen vor Ort und sei deshalb auch schon längst überflüssig geworden. Ich will hier vom Gegenteil überzeugen und zeigen, dass eine Theologie der Religionen höchste Relevanz besitzt für die Lösung sehr konkreter Probleme.

Several varieties of moral constructivism are defined. Epistemological moral constructivism is the thesis that moral knowledge or justification is acquired ‎ through the use of and reflection on the practical point of view or the procedures designed to elucidate the practical point of view. Semantic moral constructivism is the view that moral truths and meanings are ‎ grounded in these conditions or procedures. Finally, metaphysical moral constructivism holds that the natures and existences of moral facts and properties are grounded in features of the practical standpoint or the procedures that manifest that standpoint. Since the practical point of view is understood differently in different traditions of moral philosophy, one finds Aristotelian, Humean, Kantian, Hegelian, Nietzschean, and other forms of moral constructivism. The moral philosophy of Mulla Sadra is one that combines features of the Islamic-peripatetic (mashā'ī) and Islamic mystical ('irfānī) traditions. Both of these traditions contain important constructivist elements: the former with roots in Aristotelian accounts of practical reasoning, and the latter with roots in the ethos of self-cultivation prominent in Islamic sources and further developed by the mystics. Examples of both are presented and discussed in the course of a review of the constructivist elements of Mulla Sadra's essay, Three Roots.

In the last year of the second millennium, the Jubilee Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church adopted several important documents, one of which—The Basic Principles of the Russian Orthodox Church’s Attitude towards Heterodoxy,  hereinafter The Basic Principles—will be analysed in this essay. In this document, which appeared only a decade after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the reviving Russian Church expressed her conciliar view on a rather burning and painful issue – the attitude to heterodoxy.
The essay unfolds in three steps. The first section briefly identifies the history and presuppositions for the development of The Basic Principles, followed by a general overview of the document itself. Complementing this, sections two and three give full articulation to the twin key discussions – The Boundaries of the Church and The Barriers to Russian Ecumenism. Obviously, these themes are related, as the ecumenical behaviour of a church, to a great extent, depends on how much latitude is allowed in the identity of the Church.

This research outlines the concept of resurrection from the ancient Hebrew Torah to Rabbinic Judaism and Christianity according to authoritative and linguistically accurate scriptures accompanied by English translations. Although some contemporary scholars are of the opinion that resurrection is vaguely portrayed in the Hebrew Torah, our research into the ancient texts offers quotes and provides proofs to the contrary. With the passing time, the concept of the resurrection grew even stronger and became one of the most important doctrines of Judaism, enjoined as one of the thirteen articles of faith by Maimonides in the Mishnah. Imitative of the Jewish concept of God reaching out to save Israelites from gehenna, Jesus" crucifixion and death for the sins of the world, resurrection on the third day, descend into the hells and subsequent rise into heavens became the essential foundation of Christianity, with Christ's resurrection as the impetus for the resurrection of those who believe in him. According to this Pauline theology, Christian faith is based upon the resurrection of Jesus and the hope for a life after death.