Religious Truth And Identity In An Age Of Plurality

This book deals with the intellectual aspects of having diverse religious expressions in proximity and the socio-political consequences. It provides a multi-disciplinary perspective on this complex subject, cross-fertilizing work on religious plurality with truth-claims from theologians as well as philosophers from the continental and analytic traditions. The book includes three major parts. Part 1 explores the ideas around religious diversity and truth; Part 2 draws out the epistemic import of religious diversity; and Part 3 concludes the volume by examining the practical and social aspects of religious diversity. Bringing a transdisciplinary perspective to a topic that remains at the forefront of conversation around the religious life of the world, this book will be of great interest to scholars of Religious Studies, Theology and the Philosophy of Religion.

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.

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 is the second of three essays in fundamental theology--along with Questioning Back (1985) and Conventional and Absolute Truth (2015)--which attempt to reassess the status of Christian doctrinal language within the contemporary "regime of truth." Reflecting on the reality of religious pluralism as the governing horizon of theology today, it proposes that the very notion of religious truth needs to be rethought. In a dialogue with Derrida it argues that the effects of dissemination and differance have indeed unsettled any project of pinning down truth in a definitive, substantial way, while at the same time it defends the objectivity of concretely situated truth-judgments as more than merely an effect of the play of language. The Buddhist conceptions of emptiness, conventional truth, and skillful means--further explored in Philosophie occidentale et concepts bouddhistes (2011)--allow a positive religious significance to be found in this mutation in the status of Christian truth.

This book's chapters assess the nature of conversion and present data on specific convertion types, experiences, and theories including such topics as heroes, semiotics, new towns, pilgrimages, the New Age, relations among Catholics, Afro-Brazilians, and Protestants in Brazil, re-conversionist movements, Soka Gakkai, and the LDS church.

This provocative collection of papers from an international array of theologians explores the Christian doctrine of the Trinity in the context of twentieth-century cultural and religious pluralism. How should Christians think about their faith in relation to other faiths and in relation to culture in general? Can the Trinity fit into a global religion? These essays -- originally presented at the Fifth Edinburgh Dogmatic Conference -- show how a full-orbed Trinitarian doctrine, with a proper emphasis on both the One and the Three, provides the necessary resources for successfully addressing the problems and the possibilities of contemporary pluralism. Gary Badcock Richard Bauckham Henri Blocher Gerald Bray Colin Gunton Trevor Hart Lesslie Newbigin Roland Poupin Kevin J. Vanhoozer Stephen Williams