Comparing Faithfully

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Theological Education ◽  
Religious Tradition ◽  
Theological Reflection ◽  
Systematic Theology ◽  
Comparative Theology ◽  
Religious Thought ◽  
Christian Doctrine ◽  
Doctrine Of God ◽  
Spiritual But Not Religious ◽  
Theology Students

In recent decades, comparative theology has emerged as a method of thinking as an adherent to a particular religious tradition, through deep and focused conversation with another tradition. This discipline has the potential to enrich Christian systematic theology and, by extension, theological education, at its foundations. For this purpose, Comparing Faithfully: Insights for Systematic Theological Reflection reconsiders five central areas of Christian doctrinal reflection in light of focused interreligious readings, as a resource for pastors and theology students. The dialogical format of the book creates conversations about the doctrine of God, theodicy, humanity, Christology, and soteriology. The comparative essays span examples from Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, Muslim, Jain, and Confucian traditions, Aztec theology, and contemporary “spiritual but not religious” thought, to offer exciting new perspectives on Christian doctrine.

The Dance of Emptiness

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon Paul Sydnor
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Theology ◽  
Christian Doctrine ◽  
Doctrine Of God ◽  
Constructive Theology ◽  
Buddhist Doctrine ◽  
The Social ◽  
Church Life ◽  
Social Trinity

Jon Paul Sydnor’s essay, “The Dance of Emptiness,” compares two doctrines, Nagarjuna’s Buddhist doctrine of emptiness and Jürgen Moltmann’s Christian doctrine of the social Trinity. The essay is an attempt to produce constructive theology in relation to the doctrine of God that is relevant to individual and church life. The two doctrines are rich in the similarities that make comparison possible and the differences that make it fruitful. Emptiness and social Trinity gradually draw near to each other as the essay moves from discrete, mechanical comparison to a more concrete, organic mode of comparison. The conclusion reflects on the data gained through the comparison, the promise of comparative theology, and the importance of interdependence between the religions.

Islamic Images of Isa/Jesus in the Chester Beatty Manuscript Collection: Visual Art as Framework for Comparative Christology

2012 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 488-506
Author(s):  
Miriam Y. Perkins
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Visual Art ◽  
Textual Analysis ◽  
Religious Tradition ◽  
Visual Media ◽  
Theological Reflection ◽  
Comparative Theology ◽  
Sacred Texts ◽  
Textual Interpretation ◽  
Interpretive Process

Abstract Textual analysis has served as a paradigmatic approach to comparative theology for some time while analysis through artistic and visual media has received less attention. Most approaches to comparative theology rely on textual comparison of sacred texts. However, visual art is also a compelling way to engage in comparative theology and specifically comparative Christology. To demonstrate the power of visual art as a tool for comparative theology, I draw upon two recently published sixteenth-century Islamic images of Isa/Jesus from the Chester Beatty manuscript collection to illustrate how artwork can structure the work of comparative Christology by providing an entry point into Islam’s aesthetic tradition and relevant sacred texts. Paul Ricoeur’s theory of textual interpretation provides a theoretical framework, and I draw upon and extend his theory to describe the way visual art can initiate the interpretive process and move us through explanation toward understanding of another religious tradition, which in turn has the potential to transform theological reflection and generate theological insight.

On behalf of Pascal: A Reply to Le Poidevin

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 189
Author(s):  
Sebastian Gäb
Keyword(s):  
Christian Spirituality ◽  
Potential Candidate ◽  
Christian Doctrine ◽  
Real Possibility ◽  
Doctrine Of God ◽  
The Future ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
As If

When we were on the subway back from his lecture, I said to Robin: “I’m not sure there actually are any religious fictionalists.” We keep talking about them in papers and lectures, acting as if fictionalism in religion is a real possibility, but to be honest, I haven’t been able to spot one in the wild so far. The only potential candidate who comes to mind is Don Cupitt, who wrote things like: “I still pray and love God, even though I fully acknowledge that no God actually exists.”[1] Perhaps this is as fictionalist as it gets. But then again, Cupitt never explicitly declared himself a fictionalist (at least to my knowledge). Moreover, on other occasions he sounds more like an expressivist than a fictionalist, e.g. when he says: “The Christian doctrine of God just is Christian spirituality in coded form.”[2] So, if there are any actual fictionalists out there, please step forward.[1] Don Cupitt, After God: The Future of Religion (Basic Books, 1997), 85.[2] Don Cupitt, Taking leave of God (SCM Press, 1980), 14.

Masao Abe and Comparative Theology

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leo D. Lefebure
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Students ◽  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Religious Tradition ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Western Philosophy ◽  
Comparative Theology ◽  
Graduate Course ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Faith Tradition ◽  
Mahayana Buddhist

A leading form of comparative theology entails commitment to one religious tradition but ventures out to encounter another tradition, with the goal of generating fresh insights into familiar beliefs and practices reliant upon both the tradition of origin and the newly encountered faith tradition. This chapter, based on a graduate course at Georgetown University, examines how Zen Buddhist thinker Masao Abe engages in a dialogue with Western philosophy and Christian theology. Abe interpreted the meaning of the kenosis (emptying) of God in Jesus Christ in Christian theology in light of Mahayana Buddhist perspectives on Sunyata (emptying) and the logic of negation. The chapter includes responses to Abe from various Christian theologians, including Georgetown graduate students.

Article Review

1970 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 338-348
Author(s):  
N. H. G. Robinson
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Special Reference ◽  
Theological Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
Religious Thought ◽  
The World ◽  
Theological School ◽  
In Christ

The purpose of this paper is to take account of the contribution to religious thought of Professor Nels F. S. Ferré with special reference to two fairly recent books, Reason in Religion and The Living God of Nowhere and Nothing. For more than a quarter of a century Dr Ferré has occupied a prominent place in the field of theological education in the United States, first at Andover Newton Theological School and for the last few years at Parsons College; and by articles and books he has proved himself a most prolific writer. By and large, moreover, he has persistently evinced an evangelical concern to be faithful to the fulness of the Christian Gospel, so that if by chance, at this point or that, he is deemed to have fallen short, that has certainly happened, not by intention, but in spite of it, by the logical development of his presuppositions. In a much earlier book he offered his readers a choice, ‘either a staggering faith beyond our wildest imagination, centred in God, or else the darkness of description, explaining nothing’ and there is no doubt which alternative he himself preferred. ‘Feeding back modern man his own thoughts and feelings will not nourish him. He must be helped to see and to accept the truth that saves.’ ‘Unless “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself” in a historically factual way, without all cavil or equivocation, I know no Gospel for mankind.’

An introduction to the history of modern Persian Sufism, Part I: The Ni'matullāhī order: persecution, revival and schism

1998 ◽  
Vol 61 (3) ◽  
pp. 437-464 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leonard Lewisohn
Keyword(s):  
Religious Tradition ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Political ◽  
Religious Thought ◽  
Literature And Philosophy ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Modern Development ◽  
Mystical Tradition ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject

Following the political upheavals of 1978, the history and development of Shiite religious thought in modern-day Persia has been the subject of detailed scholarly studies, but the modern development of Sufism—the mystical tradition that lies at the heart of traditional Persian culture, literature and philosophy, which is, from the cultural and literary point of view at least, the most fascinating aspect of the Perso-Islamic religious tradition—remains almost completely uncharted. In contrast to the classical and medieval periods of Persian Sufism which have undergone much scholarly investigation in recent years, the study of the modern period of Iranian tasawwuf, though far better known and documented, has been seriously neglected by scholars.

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