Comparative Theology: Deep Learning Across Religious Borders

Part I Starting Points 1

1 Religious Diversity and Comparative Theology 3

Diversity around Us 4

Diversity within Us 6

Comparative Theology as a Response to Twenty-first-Century Religious Diversity 8

Distinguishing Comparative Theology from Related Disciplines 9

Comparative Theology and the Academic Study of Religions 12

Comparative Theology and Interreligious Dialogue 13

Comparative Theology and the Theology of Religions 14

Comparative Theology Autobiographically Grounded 16

On the Limits of This Book 19

Looking Ahead 22

2 In Generations Past: Some Ancestors to Today's Comparative Theology 24

Comparative Theology and the Long History

of Christian Interreligious Reflection 24

Western Jesuit Scholars in India 27

Comparative Theology as a Discipline (1699– ) 30

A Moderate Criticism of Missionary Scholarship and the Older Comparative Theology 35

At the End of the Era 37

3 Comparative Theology Today 41

David Tracy 42

Keith Ward 43

Robert C. Neville 45

A Note on Raimon Panikkar 47

James Fredericks 49

New Directions 50

From Theory (Back) to Practice 52

Part II Doing Theology Comparatively 55

4 From Theory to Practice 57

The Practice of (Comparative) Religious Reading 57

Intelligent Reading 59

Commentary as a Religious Practice 60

Interreligious Commentary 63

Leaving Room for Other Readers and Their Readings 66

Necessarily Elite Choices 67

5 Getting Particular: A Christian Studies Hinduism 69

The Importance of Focus 69

(Self)Identifying This Particular Comparative Theologian 70

Making a Map, Marking the Field: Hinduism in Brief 70

Getting Particular: Mimamsa, Vedanta, and Srivaisnavism 74

Appreciating Similarities 75

Theistic Hinduism as a Useful and Comfortable Focus 77

Theology as a Hindu Discipline 78

Comparative Theology in Hinduism and Other Traditions 80

My Comparative Theology, Indebted to Hindu Theologies 83

6 "Learning to See": Comparative Practice and the Widening of Theological Vision 87

Plenary Address at the Catholic Theology Society of America, 2003 88

Near a Goddess 88

Devi's Beauty, Devi's Pleasure 90

Rediscovering Mary 93

Mary and Her Son Jesus, through Muslim Eyes 96

Sojourner Truth's Liberating God 99

All in Christ, but Still All 103

Vocation 105

After "Learning to See" 106

Part III The Fruits of Comparison 109

7 Theology After Comparison 111

Comparative Theology and the Larger Work of Theology 111

The Multiple Responsibilities of the Comparative Theologian 113

Some Theological Presuppositions Implicit in Comparative Theology 114

Comparative Theological Learning, in Particular 117

The Imago Dei and Our Destiny in Bliss 118

What "Narayana" Might Mean for the Christian 121

Encountering Goddesses 123

Comparative Theology and the Intensification of Devotion 125

Theology on a Smaller Scale 127

8 "God for Us" 128

"God for Us": An Essay 128

A Verse, a Clue 129

What Hindus Thought about the Verse 130

Living the Verse 132

The Verse and Its Wider Context 133

An Aside on How to See God and on How God Wills to Be Seen 135

Noticing One's First Citizenship: Reflection on Ignatian Insight and My Home Citizenship 139

What Ignatius Had to Say 140

Some Contemporary Views of the Intensification and Emptying of the Imagination in the Spiritual Exercises 143

Multiple Religious Belonging, Human but Also Divine 146

"God for Us" as Comparative Theology 151

9 Comparative Writer, Comparative Reader 154

The Comparative Theologian Transformed 155

The Comparative Theologian as Marginal Person 157

The Comparative Theologian's New Community 160

Tasks and Opportunities for the Reader 162

Beyond This Book 164

Notes 166

Select Bibliography 172

Index 177