Inspired by pragmatism, this book addresses religious plurality with the aim of bringing forth how it may be approached constructively by Christian theology. Accordingly, not doctrine, but practices are focussed in its analyses of interreligious topics. Henriksen argues that engagement with the diversity of religious traditions should be grounded in openness towards the other, and resistance against making others similar to oneself. Accordingly, the book presents a theological approach where interaction between religious practitioners is considered a benefit and a necessity for the positive future of religious traditions. It will be of interest to anyone who is interested in the understanding of religious pluralism from the point of view of Christian theology.

This volume is the first attempt to investigate explicitly how the multiplicity of religions and forms of spirituality interconnect with the pluralism of languages, including scientific codes, formal languages, and artistic expressions. In a journey “beyond Babel”, the volume explores how religious and linguistic pluralisms enter into polyphonic relations, how they co-evolve and grow together, and why they clash. This text provides the setting for a dialogue on a rich variety of religious languages and traditions, including Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, Jainism, and Christianity. The chapters explore how these traditions can venture into new interreligious paths, how sacred meanings translate into vernacular speeches, how religious identities and scientific notions interacts, what role emotional expressions play in interfaith encounters, and the impact of Artificial Intelligence on beliefs. The book is authored by esteemed senior scholars, established researchers, and exceptional junior doctorate holders whose expertise spans across religious studies, the history of science, philosophy, fine arts, theology, linguistics, computer science, and legal studies. This volume contributes to interfaith studies and teaching, to sociology and philosophy of religion, and to the history and anthropology of religion and the sacred arts. It is intended to reach students, researchers, instructors, and professionals alike.

Over the last decade, interreligious and interfaith studies have flourished in religion and theology departments, emphasizing the value of religious literacy for professional, vocational, and civic leadership. Everyday Wisdom offers an accessible introduction with an emphasis on lived religion, interreligious studies, and interfaith engagement and leadership. Hans Gustafson first explores the study of religion and interreligious studies, including the complexity and dynamism of religious identity, the global religious landscape, lived-religion approaches to the study of religion, and (inter)religious literacy. He then examines the relationship between the academic field of interreligious studies and the civic project of interfaith engagement. Focusing on interreligious studies, he explores various responses to religious diversity, while welcoming the role of secular and pluralist forces in religiously diverse societies. Gustafson introduces the dominant theological modes of approach to other religious traditions and to interreligious theological encounter, and examines the vital experience of human relationship across religious difference for inter- and intra-personal and purpose development, changemaking, and leadership. By holistically tying together several of the ultimate aims and common learning objectives of interreligious-studies courses, Gustafson proposes a framework, based on practical wisdom, for interreligious studies and interfaith leadership. Everyday Wisdom aims to be a core text in undergraduate and graduate courses in the fast-emerging field of interreligious and interfaith studies, as well as for the wider context of the study of religion and leadership.

Christian theology of religions remains a central component of the Christian response to global religious diversity. In the face of theological refusals to engage with issues of religious absolutism and new impressions from interreligious encounters, this book seeks to inject fresh energy into a debate that has stalled in recent years. The encounter between Christians and people of different religious persuasions raises questions of how to interpret Christian absolutism for a new and developing consciousness that values the experience of the religious other. This book argues that interreligious dialogue, interreligious ethical collaboration, and comparative studies all point to a pluralist future, where we are obliged to recognize the spiritual authenticity of the experience animating many religions. Building friendly relations between faith communities is to be applauded but it is insufficient in the face of the many challenges confronting the global human community. Whether we are speaking of cooperation in civil society, peace in the world, or the overarching ecological crisis encompassing the planet as a whole, the acceptance of the diversity of religions as a positive religious value will strengthen the sense of global responsibility that is needed.

This book is the first greater attempt to construct a dialogical theology from a Jewish point of view. It contributes to an emerging new theology that promotes the interrelatedness of religions in which encounter, openness, hospitality and permanent learning are central. The monograph is about the self and the other, inner and outer, own and strange; about borders and crossing borders, and about the sublime activities of passing and translating. Meir analyses and critically discusses the writings of great contemporary Jewish dialogical thinkers and argues that the values of interreligious theology are moored in their thoughts. In his view interreligious dialogue supposes attentive listening, humility, a critical attitude towards oneself and others, a good amount of self-relativism and humor. It is about proximity, dialogical reading, engagement and interconnectedness.

This volume contains fresh scholarly contributions to mark the birth centenary of John Hick, the internationally well-known philosopher of religion, whose works continue to have significant global relevance in today’s religiously diverse and conflict-ridden world. His writings have reset the parameters of religious pluralism. Up till now, Hick’s religious pluralism has been mainly seen in relation to the Western context where Christianity is the predominant religion. This volume includes both Western and non-Western engagement with his thinking in contexts such as Japan, China, Korea, Nigeria, and India, where Christianity is a minority religion with little political power. Its distinctiveness lies in widening the debate on religious pluralism by bringing Hick’s pluralistic hypothesis into a constructive cross-cultural and interreligious conversation with scholars of Hinduism, Jainism, Daoism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam and African traditional religions. In doing so, this collection examines how Hick’s philosophy of religious pluralism has been received, appropriated and appraised by these scholars. It has been appreciated and critiqued in equal measure, and continues to impact on current thinking on religious pluralism. This volume makes a significant contribution to the debate initiated by Hick.

A fascinating collection of essays by leading scholars in the field engage with the idea of religious pluralism mooted by John Hick to offer incisive insights on religious pluralism and related themes and to address practical aspects such as interreligious spirituality and worship in a multi-faith context.

What is the relationship between salvation, human liberation, and care for creation? To answer this question Daniel Castillo expands on the ideas presented in Gustavo Gutiérrez's classic work A Theology of Liberation and proposes a novel concept: green liberation theology. In this compelling and original work Castillo places Gutiérrez in dialogue with a diverse array of theological, ecological, and socio-scientific discourses, drawing upon the work of Jon Sobrino, Willie James Jennings, Walter Brueggemann, Ellen Davis, and others, paying special attention to Pope Francis'encyclical Laudato Si'.

In Theology of Religions Graham Adams maps and analyses the field of ‘theology of religions’ (ToR) and its various typologies, examining the assumptions in how religion is assessed. The purpose is to identify how contributions to ToR select and deselect material and trajectories, editing according to presuppositions and interests. Adams’ analysis consciously relies on Andrew Shanks’ Hegelian notion of ‘truth-as-openness’ (divine hospitality) as it illuminates three dynamics, or ‘scandals’, within ToR. The first, concerned with how a religion’s particularity or identity is constructed, is subdivided between ‘particularity transcended’ and ‘particularity re-centred’, along the lines of Jenny Daggers’ postcolonial insights. The second concerns the interactions when one religion engages an Other’s strangeness, and the third is concerned with how religions aim to transform socio-political systems that feign or obstruct universality, so as to effect ever greater solidarity. The text notes key trends, beyond Christianity and including deepening interdisciplinarity, and potential developments from a critical but constructive standpoint.