Comparative Theology – Deep Learning Across Religious Borders

Preface and Acknowledgments xi
<p>Part I Starting Points 1</p>
<p>1 Religious Diversity and Comparative Theology 3</p>
<p>Diversity around Us 4</p>
<p>Diversity within Us 6</p>
<p>Comparative Theology as a Response to Twenty–first–Century Religious Diversity 8</p>
<p>Distinguishing Comparative Theology from Related Disciplines 9</p>
<p>Comparative Theology and the Academic Study of Religions 12</p>
<p>Comparative Theology and Interreligious Dialogue 13</p>
<p>Comparative Theology and the Theology of Religions 14</p>
<p>Comparative Theology Autobiographically Grounded 16</p>
<p>On the Limits of This Book 19</p>
<p>Looking Ahead 22</p>
<p>2 In Generations Past: Some Ancestors to Today′s Comparative Theology 24</p>
<p>Comparative Theology and the Long History</p>
<p>of Christian Interreligious Reflection 24</p>
<p>Western Jesuit Scholars in India 27</p>
<p>Comparative Theology as a Discipline (1699 ) 30</p>
<p>A Moderate Criticism of Missionary Scholarship and the Older Comparative Theology 35</p>
<p>At the End of the Era 37</p>
<p>3 Comparative Theology Today 41</p>
<p>David Tracy 42</p>
<p>Keith Ward 43</p>
<p>Robert C. Neville 45</p>
<p>A Note on Raimon Panikkar 47</p>
<p>James Fredericks 49</p>
<p>New Directions 50</p>
<p>From Theory (Back) to Practice 52</p>
<p>Part II Doing Theology Comparatively 55</p>
<p>4 From Theory to Practice 57</p>
<p>The Practice of (Comparative) Religious Reading 57</p>
<p>Intelligent Reading 59</p>
<p>Commentary as a Religious Practice 60</p>
<p>Interreligious Commentary 63</p>
<p>Leaving Room for Other Readers and Their Readings 66</p>
<p>Necessarily Elite Choices 67</p>
<p>5 Getting Particular: A Christian Studies Hinduism 69</p>
<p>The Importance of Focus 69</p>
<p>(Self)Identifying This Particular Comparative Theologian 70</p>
<p>Making a Map, Marking the Field: Hinduism in Brief 70</p>
<p>Getting Particular: Mimamsa, Vedanta, and Srivaisnavism 74</p>
<p>Appreciating Similarities 75</p>
<p>Theistic Hinduism as a Useful and Comfortable Focus 77</p>
<p>Theology as a Hindu Discipline 78</p>
<p>Comparative Theology in Hinduism and Other Traditions 80</p>
<p>My Comparative Theology, Indebted to Hindu Theologies 83</p>
<p>6 "Learning to See": Comparative Practice and the Widening of Theological Vision 87</p>
<p>Plenary Address at the Catholic Theology Society of America, 2003 88</p>
<p>Near a Goddess 88</p>
<p>Devi′s Beauty, Devi′s Pleasure 90</p>
<p>Rediscovering Mary 93</p>
<p>Mary and Her Son Jesus, through Muslim Eyes 96</p>
<p>Sojourner Truth′s Liberating God 99</p>
<p>All in Christ, but Still All 103</p>
<p>Vocation 105</p>
<p>After "Learning to See" 106</p>
<p>Part III The Fruits of Comparison 109</p>
<p>7 Theology After Comparison 111</p>
<p>Comparative Theology and the Larger Work of Theology 111</p>
<p>The Multiple Responsibilities of the Comparative Theologian 113</p>
<p>Some Theological Presuppositions Implicit in Comparative Theology 114</p>
<p>Comparative Theological Learning, in Particular 117</p>
<p>The Imago Dei and Our Destiny in Bliss 118</p>
<p>What "Narayana" Might Mean for the Christian 121</p>
<p>Encountering Goddesses 123</p>
<p>Comparative Theology and the Intensification of Devotion 125</p>
<p>Theology on a Smaller Scale 127</p>
<p>8 "God for Us" 128</p>
<p>"God for Us": An Essay 128</p>
<p>A Verse, a Clue 129</p>
<p>What Hindus Thought about the Verse 130</p>
<p>Living the Verse 132</p>
<p>The Verse and Its Wider Context 133</p>
<p>An Aside on How to See God and on How God Wills to Be Seen 135</p>
<p>Noticing One′s First Citizenship: Reflection on Ignatian Insight and My Home Citizenship 139</p>
<p>What Ignatius Had to Say 140</p>
<p>Some Contemporary Views of the Intensification and Emptying of the Imagination in the Spiritual Exercises 143</p>
<p>Multiple Religious Belonging, Human but Also Divine 146</p>
<p>"God for Us" as Comparative Theology 151</p>
<p>9 Comparative Writer, Comparative Reader 154</p>
<p>The Comparative Theologian Transformed 155</p>
<p>The Comparative Theologian as Marginal Person 157</p>
<p>The Comparative Theologian′s New Community 160</p>
<p>Tasks and Opportunities for the Reader 162</p>
<p>Beyond This Book 164</p>
<p>Notes 166</p>
<p>Select Bibliography 172</p>
<p>Index 177</p>