God as Ground, Singularity, and Relation

2020 ◽  
pp. 213-248
Author(s):  
John J. Thatamanil
Keyword(s):  
Religious Diversity ◽  
Ultimate Reality ◽  
Comparative Theology ◽  
Constructive Theology ◽  
Divine Life ◽  
The Trinity

This chapter is the culmination of the book. What previous chapters called for—the integration of theology of religious diversity, comparative theology, and constructive theology—this chapter performs. It offers a new constructive theology of the trinity, a theology of the trinity that is worked out with the help of Hindus and Buddhists. Such a theology is simultaneously a way to think about religious neighbors, a way of learning from those neighbors, and a way to reimagine the divine life. Specifically, this chapter advocates an account of God/ultimate reality as ground, singularity, and relation. Although these features of the divine life can be discerned across traditions, this chapter argues that certain strands of particular traditions focus on one account of ultimacy at the relative expense of others. But this degree of focus is precisely what makes interreligious learning possible, necessary, and rewarding.

Circling the Elephant

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
John J. Thatamanil
Keyword(s):  
Religious Diversity ◽  
Ultimate Reality ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Comparative Theology ◽  
Constructive Theology ◽  
Religious Truth ◽  
The Past ◽  
Religion And Race

Christian theologians have, for some decades, affirmed that they have no monopoly on encounter with God or ultimate reality; other religions also have access to religious truth and transformation. If so, the time has come for Christians not just to learn about but also from their religious neighbors. Circling the Elephant affirms that the best way to move toward the mystery of divinity is to move toward the mystery of the neighbor. In this book, Thatamanil employs the ancient Indian allegory of the elephant and blindfolded men to argue for the integration of three, often-separated theological projects: theologies of religious diversity, comparative theology, and constructive theology. Circling the Elephant also offers an analysis of why we have fallen short in the past. Interreligious learning has been obstructed by problematic ideas about “religion” and “religions.” Thatamanil also notes troubling resonances between reified notions of “religion” and “race.” He contests these notions and offers a new theory of the religious that makes interreligious learning both possible and desirable. Christians have much to learn from their religious neighbors, even about such central features of Christian theology as Christ and Trinity. This book proposes a new theology of religious diversity, one that opens the door to true interreligious learning.

Religious Difference and Christian Theology

2020 ◽  
pp. 21-40
Author(s):  
John J. Thatamanil
Keyword(s):  
Religious Diversity ◽  
The Other ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Comparative Theology ◽  
Constructive Theology ◽  
Religious Difference ◽  
Religious Others

This chapter introduces and frames the argument for the entire book: Christian theology must understand religious diversity as promise rather than as problem. The chapter then proceeds to lay out conceptually what was articulated allegorically in the introduction, namely that theology of religious diversity, comparative theology, and constructive theology must be integrated. The chapter defines the scope and tasks of each of these three subfields within theology and puts them into conversation. The chapter argues that it is not enough to merely think about others; we must instead think with religious others and think through what is so learned. In sum, we ought not give an account of the other without being transformed by the other through interreligious learning.

Introduction: Revisiting an Old Tale

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
John J. Thatamanil
Keyword(s):  
Religious Diversity ◽  
The Other ◽  
Comparative Theology ◽  
Constructive Theology

This chapter introduces, reformulates, and defends the old Indian allegory of the blind men and the elephant to argue that, despite critiques, it remains a valuable tool for thinking about religious diversity. Appealing to John Hull, theologian of blindness, the book reformulates the ancient tale as one about blindfolded men and the elephant. After reformulating the tale, the author puts it to new uses. He argues that theology of religious diversity is the work of accounting for why there are so many different accounts of the elephant, comparative theology is the work of actually walking over to another side of the elephant, and constructive theology is the venture of actually redescribing the elephant in light of the other two tasks. This chapter argues that all three tasks must be done together.

Ground-of-Being Models of Ultimate Reality

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wesley J. Wildman
Keyword(s):  
Religious Diversity ◽  
Ultimate Reality ◽  
Scientific Study ◽  
Natural Solution

Ground-of-being models regard ultimate reality as holy or sacred (unlike subordinate-deity models) and reject the idea that ultimate reality is an aware, agential being (unlike agential-being models). Ground-of-being models are radically anti-anthropomorphic, resisting the Intentionality Attribution, Narrative Comprehensibility, and Rational Practicality dimensions of anthropomorphism simultaneously. They are strongly amenable to the scientific study of religion and to apophatic metaphysical frameworks, within which ultimate reality surpasses the complete cognitive grasp of any possible creature. They offer a compelling and natural solution to the problem of religious diversity. They are and have always been relatively less popular than agential-being and subordinate-deity ultimacy models but it is not impossible to imagine a civilizational transformation after which ground-of-being models would become the dominant religious outlook. Variations, strengths, and weaknesses of the ground-of-being class of ultimacy models are discussed.

The Concept of Subordination in Barth's Special Ethics

1979 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 345-357 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. J. McKelway
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Sexual Relationship ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Life Itself ◽  
Divine Life ◽  
Doctrine Of Creation ◽  
The Many ◽  
The Trinity

Of the many difficult formulations in Karl Barth's ‘Special Ethics’, none seems less amenable to acceptable interpretation than his conception of the relation of male and female. I do not refer to Barth's insistence that Man, created as male and female, maintain both the unity and distinction required for true co-humanity. I refer, rather, to his puzzling (even if textually supported) assertion that this co-humanity is ordered by God in such a way that the woman is ‘sub-ordinate’ to the man without inferiority or disadvantage. Putting aside the exegetical issues involved, I will try to show that Barth's redefinition of the concept of sub-ordination gains coherence when understood as an ‘ordering’ of human life by a revealed order of creation, which in turn is an expression of the divine life itself. I will argue that the analogy Barth draws between the order of the Trinity and sexual relationship is authorized by his doctrine of creation, by his view of Christ as the analogia relationis, and by what I believe to be his application of the doctrine of perichoresis to anthropology. And finally, I want to suggest that, while some of Barth's language may have to be set aside, the arguments described here inform the presuppositions and method of an ethic more relevant for moral discrimination than has commonly been supposed.

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.

Engaging Radical Alterity

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis Komjathy
Keyword(s):  
Religious Diversity ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
Interreligious Dialogue ◽  
Comparative Theology ◽  
Pedagogical Approach ◽  
Essential Characteristic ◽  
Theology Of Religions ◽  
Radical Alterity ◽  
Approach To Teaching ◽  
Theological Training

As someone located in Daoist Studies and Religious Studies without formal theological training, I have developed my own pedagogical approach to teaching Comparative Theology and the theologies of religious diversity. I begin with a discussion of the relative appropriateness and problematic nature of the terms “Theology” and “Comparative Theology” for studying non-Christian and even nontheistic traditions. I then move on to present a quasi-normative polytheistic or pluralistic theology of religions and discuss Religious Studies classrooms as dialogic spaces and interreligious encounters. I emphasize that the postcolonial and postmodern study of religion assumes theology is an essential characteristic, which also reveals mutually exclusive, equally convincing accounts of “reality.” Comparative Theology and interreligious dialogue provide helpful methodologies for addressing the challenges of radical alterity. We may endeavor to “think through” alternative perspectives and, in the process, defamiliarize the familiar and familiarize the unfamiliar.

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