Can the comparison of two theologians vastly separated in space and time help contemporary theologians to think better? 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.
In this study, Paul S. Chung charts the history of social scientific study of religion from the axial age to the present day, and thereby lays a foundation for a new model of constructive theology in the comparative study of religion, culture and society. Analysing the thought of Max Weber, Alfred Schutz, Pierre Bourdieu, Michel Foucault, Edmund Husserl, Max Horkheimer and others, Chung deals effectively with material interests, power relations and the history of race, gender and sexuality. The result is a synthesis that is at once innovative, critical, and applicable to current methodology in theology and the social sciences.
This volume illuminates why Friedrich Schleiermacher is hailed as the father of modern theology. Terrence Tice generates a dialogue between Schleiermacher, readers, and himself by examining one of Schleiermacher’s Christmas sermons and commenting on the relationship between God, the human condition, and Jesus as the Redeemer of humankind that is at the center of Schleiermacher’s work. Following this, the major themes of his thought and the reception of the theologian since his lifetime are traced out in detail.
Since the 1960s, theologians have been involved in efforts to guide Christians to reflection and action in light of planetary peril. The contributors to this volume illustrate how Friedrich Schleiermacher's theological work could fulfill that need. Schleiermacher's theology, they contend, finds its culmination in Christian social action and is remarkably conducive to ecological thinking in the modern world. Each chapter deals with a particular locus in Schleiermacher's systematic theology, focusing on its implications for sustainable living. In so doing, Schleiermacher and Sustainability offers a sophisticated account of Schleiermacher's thought that will upend many estimations of his value for current constructive theology and provide a potent resource for those seeking to integrate ecological living into the marrow of their daily existence.
Here freshly researched, unprecedented stories regarding modern American thought and religious life show how the scholar Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834) provides ongoing influence still. They describe his influence on universal rights, American religious life, theology, philosophy, history, psychology, interpretation of texts, community formation, and interpersonal dialogue. Schleiermacher is an Einstein-like innovator in all these areas and more. This work contrasts chiefly "evangelical liberal" figures with others (between circa 1835 and the 1920s). It also looks ahead to several careers extended well into the twentieth century and offers numerous characterizations of Schleiermacher's thought. In six tightly organized parts, fourteen expert historians chronologically discuss the following: (1) Methodist leaders (1766-1924); (2) Stuart, Bushnell, Nevin, and Hodge; (3) Restorationists, Transcendentalists, women leaders, Schaff, and Rauschenbusch; (4) Clarke, Mullins, Carus, and Bowne; (5) Dewey, Royce, Ames, Knudson, Brown, Fosdick, Cross, Jones, and Thurman--within contemporary contexts. Unexpectedly, John Dewey lies at the epicenter of the narrative, and Harry Emerson Fosdick and Howard Thurman bring it to its climax. Recently, evidence displays a broadening influence advancing rapidly. The sixth part of the book surveys modern historiography, Schleiermacher on history and comparative method and on psychology as a basic scientific and philosophical field. That section also provides a critical survey of histories of modern theology and offers concluding questions and answers. The three editors contribute twenty of the thirty-one chapters.
For generations, religion and music have been regarded as "universals," yet despite the fact that they have been frequently linked throughout history and topography, and despite the importance of music in the early stages of religious studies, their combined presence has not until now been considered a separate area of study and research. While there are well-developed fields of anthropology of religion, psychology of religion, and philosophy of religion, the widely recognized connections between religion and sound, chant, and music warrant comparable study. Drawing upon theories and methods in the study of both religion and music, referencing examples from world religious traditions, and addressing challenges posed by critics, this book envisions a unified field for religion and music: musicology of religion. Grounded in the scope and methods of phenomenology and comparative analysis, musicology of religion represents an innovative direction in interdisciplinary study, enriched by the social sciences, ethnomusicology, philosophy, theology, liturgical studies, and cognitive studies. As conceived, musicology of religion will spearhead new and creative paths in the study of religion.
Many scholars believe that Friedrich Schleiermacher relegates the doctrine of the Trinity to an appendix at the end of his magnum opus, The Christian Faith (1830/31); his alleged disregard for the Trinity is the supposed death knell for serious consideration of his work within the history of Christian thought. This volume argues that Schleiermacher not only calls for the doctrine's revitalization, but also makes it the centrepiece of Protestant Christianity. Following Schleiermacher's own thought experiment, Poe presents his doctrine of God in reverse order of its original presentation. Her examination centres on the Trinity, treating it as the keystone of the entire work, while analysing the divine attributes: love and wisdom, justice and holiness, eternity, omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence. When viewed from the standpoint of the conclusion, the Trinitarian shape of Schleiermacher's theology comes to the fore. What emerges is a middle way between merely economic Trinitarianism and a full-fledged development of immanent Trinitarianism, examining divine personhood and the union of the divine with humanity. The central thesis of this work runs boldly counter to the prevailing academic account of Schleiermacher's doctrine of the Trinity, and offers an innovative and constructive reading. Readers will be privy to a fresh look at Schleiermacher's doctrine of God and its importance for contemporary theology.
In Good Company answers a question that has confounded Christian theologians: What is the nature of the body that will enjoy resurrection at the end of time? In this exciting work of comparative theology, Bede Benjamin Bidlack derives a theory of the body from the French Jesuit, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, by putting him in dialogue with the Song Dynasty Daoist Xiao Yingsou. In addition to its contribution to comparative theology, In Good Company offers the first translation of the preface of Xiao’s commentary on the Duren jing in a Western language, as well as a careful explication of the provocative mountain diagram therein. Bidlack presents an original contribution for both scholars of Christian theology and Chinese religion. “An excellent example of comparative theology, Bede Bidlack’s In Good Company demonstrates how certain lacunae in one tradition may be addressed by drawing on resources from another religion. Having identified a neglect of the body in the work of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, and in much of the Christian tradition of divinization, Bidlack discusses the work of Daoist scholar Xiao Yingsou as a possible source of inspiration and theological imagination.” – Catherine Cornille, Newton College Alumnae Chair, Professor of Comparative Theology, Boston College “In Good Company takes comparative theology to a new level: it not only places Daoism front and center, but also opens Christian spirituality to a wider dimension. Concerned with the two core themes of the body and personal divinization (or resurrection), the book centers on the work of two influential thinkers in their traditions: Teilhard de Chardin and Xiao Yingsou. Although 800 years apart, their visions of the body as the means to ultimate fulfillment, in close relation to divinity and the cosmos as a whole, powerfully enhance each other, as do their understanding of the intricate process of personal divinization. The book is challenging in its outlook, unsettling in its destabilization of terms, and brilliant in its interweaving of the two traditions. A must for anyone concerned with the new global environment of religious pluralism and the ongoing process of interreligious dialogue.” – Livia Kohn, Professor Emerita of Religion & East Asian Studies, Boston University
To what extent can non-Christian religious traditions utilize Plantinga’s epistemology? And, if there are believers from differing religious traditions that can rightfully utilize Plantinga’s religious epistemology, does this somehow prevent a Plantingian’s creedal-specific religious belief from being warranted? In order to answer these questions, Baldwin and McNabb first provide an introduction to Plantinga’s religious epistemology. Second, they explore the prospects and problems that members of non-Christian religions face when they attempt to utilize Plantingian religious epistemology. Finally, they sketch out possible approaches to holding that a Plantingian’s creedal-specific religious belief can be warranted, even given believers from other religious traditions who can also rightfully make full use of Plantinga’s religious epistemology.
In this pioneering work of comparative metaphysics, Patrick Laude delves into Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Islamic, and Jewish concepts of Reality and Appearance to offer a uniquely lucid exploration of metaphysical representations of reality, relativity, appearance, and illusion. Laude includes discussions of the Absolute and the Relative in Hindu Advaita Vedānta, Kashmiri Śaivism, Sufi wahdat al-wujūd, and Madhyamaka Buddhism; the metaphysics of salvation in Buddhist and Christian traditions; and the metaphysics of evil and the distinction between Reality and Appearance in the Jewish Kabbalah, Śaivism, Christian mysticism, and the Sufi school of Ibn al-'Arabī. The book explores how a discerning and subtle apprehension of the relationship between Reality and Appearance may help contemporary readers and seekers respond to the acute predicaments of contemporary religious and spiritual consciousness.
