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Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > General > Interfaith relations
Muthuraj Swamy provides a fresh perspective on the world religions
paradigm and 'interreligious dialogue'. By challenging the
assumption that 'world religions' operate as essential entities
separate from the lived experiences of practitioners, he shows that
interreligious dialogue is in turn problematic as it is built on
this very paradigm, and on the myth of religious conflict. Offering
a critique of the idea of 'dialogue' as it has been advanced by its
proponents such as religious leaders and theologians whose aims are
to promote inter-religious conversation and understanding, the
author argues that this approach is 'elitist' and that in reality,
people do not make sharp distinctions between religions, nor do
they separate political, economic, social and cultural beliefs and
practices from their religious traditions. Case studies from
villages in southern India explore how Hindu, Muslim and Christian
communities interact in numerous ways that break the neat
categories often used to describe each religion. Swamy argues that
those who promote dialogue are ostensibly attempting to overcome
the separate identities of religious practitioners through
understanding, but in fact, they re-enforce them by encouraging a
false sense of separation. The Problem with Interreligious
Dialogue: Plurality, Conflict and Elitism in Hindu-Christian-Muslim
Relations provides an innovative approach to a central issue
confronting Religious Studies, combining both theory and
ethnography.
What do Christian Churches say Islam is? What does the Church of
England say Islam is? And, in the end, what space is there for
genuine engagement with Islam? Richard Sudworth's unique study
takes as its cue the question of political theology and brings this
burgeoning area of debate into dialogue with Christian-Muslim
relations and Anglican ecclesiology. The vexed subject of
Christian-Muslim Relations provides the presenting arena to explore
what political theologies enable the Church of England to engage
with the diverse public square of the twenty-first century. Each
chapter concludes with an `Anecdotes from the Field' section,
setting themes from the chapter in the context of Richard
Sudworth's own ministry within a Muslim majority parish.
The Book of Tribulations is the earliest complete Muslim
apocalyptic text to survive, and as such has considerable value as
a primary text. It is unique in its importance for Islamic history:
focusing upon the central Syrian city of Hims, it gives us a
picture of the personalities of the city, the tribal conflicts
within, the tensions between the proto-Muslim community and the
majority Christian population, and above all details about the wars
with the Byzantines. Additionally, Nu`aym gives us a range of both
the Umayyad and the Abbasid official propaganda, which was couched
in apocalyptic and messianic terms.
This volume presents international perspectives on interreligious
dialogue, with a particular focus on how this can be found or
understood within biblical texts. The volume is in four parts
covering both the Old and New Testaments (and related Greco Roman
texts) as well as the history of reception and issues of
hermeneutics. Issues of the relationships between religious
cultures are assessed both in antiquity and modernity In Part 1
(Old Testament) contributions range from the discussion of the
bible and plurality of theologies in church life (Erhard
Gerstenberger) to the challenge of multi-culturalism (Cornelis Van
Dam). Part 2 (New Testament and Greco-Roman Texts) considers such
things as Pagan, Jewish and Christian historiography (Armin Baum)
and the different beliefs it is possible to discern in the Ephesian
community (Tor Vegge). Part 3 provides issues from the history of
reception - including the role of Jesus in Islam (Craig A. Evans).
The volume is completed by a hermeneutical reflection by Joze
Krasovec, which draws the threads of dialogue together and
questions how we can best examine the bible in a modern,
international, multicultural society.
A Guide to Religious Thought and Practices devotes a chapter to
each of the world religions, all but one of which are written by a
member of that faith community. Readers thus gain insiders views
into the theology, spirituality, and religious practice of each
faith. The introduction encourages respect and engagement with
those of other faiths. It emphasizes the cultural nature of
religion and its importance to society, and it notes the rise of
interest in the study of religious traditions in the face of
contemporary geopolitics. This book does not, however, attempt to
address these politics, leaving the reader to think about and
interpret the issues for themselves.The International Study Guides
(ISGs) are clear and accessible resources, contextual and
ecumenical in content and missional in direction. The contributors
are theological educators who come from different countries and
different religious backgrounds and bring practical emphasis
alongside contemporary scholarly reflection.
Evangelical. Sacramental. Pentecostal. Christian communities tend
to identify with one of these labels over the other two.
Evangelical churches emphasize the importance of Scripture and
preaching. Sacramental churches emphasize the importance of the
eucharistic table. And pentecostal churches emphasize the immediate
presence and power of the Holy Spirit. But must we choose between
them? Could the church be all three? Drawing on his reading of the
New Testament, the witness of Christian history, and years of
experience in Christian ministry and leadership, Gordon T. Smith
argues that the church not only can be all three, but in fact must
be all three in order to truly be the church. As the church
navigates the unique global challenges of pluralism, secularism,
and fundamentalism, the need for an integrated vision of the
community as evangelical, sacramental, and pentecostal becomes ever
more pressing. If Jesus and the apostles saw no tension between
these characteristics, why should we?
Africa continues to be a region with strong commitments to
religious freedom and religious pluralism. These, however, are
rarely mere facts on the ground – they are legal, political,
social, and theological projects that require considerable effort
to realise. This volume – compiling the proceedings of the third
annual conference of the African Consortium for Law and Religion
Studies – focuses on various issues which vastly effect the
understanding of religious pluralism in Africa. These include,
amongst others, religious freedom as a human right, the importance
of managing religious pluralism, and the permissibility of
religious practice and observance in South African public schools.
This book is open access and available on
www.bloomsburycollections.com. It is funded by the Religious
Matters in an Entangled World program, Utrecht University, the
Netherlands. Public manifestations of Islam remain fiercely
contested across the Global West. Studies to date have focused on
the visual presence of Islam - the construction of mosques or the
veiling of Muslim women. Amplifying Islam in the European
Soundscape is the first book to add a sonic dimension to analyses
of the politics of Islamic aesthetics in Europe. Sound does not
respect public/private boundaries, and people experience sound
viscerally. As such, the public amplification of the azan, the call
to prayer, offers a unique opportunity to understand what is at
stake in debates over religious toleration and secularism. The
Netherlands were among the first European countries to allow the
amplification of the azan in the 1980s, and Pooyan Tamimi Arab
explores this as a case study embedded in a broader history of
Dutch religious pluralism. The book offers a pointed critique of
social theories that regard secularism as all-encompassing. While
cultural forms of secularism exclude Muslim rights to public
worship, Amplifying Islam in the European Soundscape argues that
political and constitutional secularism also enables Muslim demands
for amplifying calls to prayer. It traces how these exclusions and
inclusions are effected through proposals for mosques, media
debates, law and policy, but also in negotiations on the ground
between residents, municipalities and mosques.
Contemporary Muslim-Christian Encounters: Developments, Diversity
and Dialogues addresses the key issues in the present day global
encounter between Christians and Muslims. Divided into two parts,
the first examines theoretical issues and concerns which affect
dialogue between the two traditions. The second part highlights
case studies from around the world. Chapters come from established
scholars including Reuven Firestone, Douglas Pratt and Clinton
Bennett, emerging scholars, as well as practitioner perspectives.
Highlighting the diversity within the field of "Christian-Muslim"
encounter, case studies cover examples from the US and globally,
and include dialogue in the US post 9/11, Nigerian Muslims and
Christians, and Christian responses to Islamophobia in the UK.
Covering unique areas and those not explored in detail elsewhere,
Contemporary Muslim-Christian Encounters: Developments, Diversity
and Dialogues will be of interest to advanced students,
researchers, and interfaith professionals.
What constitutes the unity of the church over time and across
cultures? Can our account of the church's apostolic faith embrace
the cultural diversity of world Christianity? The ecumenical
movement that began in the twentieth century posed the problem of
the church's apostolicity in profound new ways. In the attempt to
find unity in the midst of the Protestant-Catholic schism,
participants in this movement defined the church as a distinct
culture-complete with its own structures, rituals, architecture and
music. Apostolicity became a matter of cultivating the church's own
(Western) culture. At the same time it became disconnected from
mission, and more importantly, from the diverse reality of world
Christianity. In this pioneering study, John Flett assesses the
state of the conversation about the apostolic nature of the church.
He contends that the pursuit of ecumenical unity has come at the
expense of dealing responsibly with crosscultural difference. By
looking out to the church beyond the West and back to the New
Testament, Flett presents a bold account of an apostolicity that
embraces plurality. Missiological Engagements charts
interdisciplinary and innovative trajectories in the history,
theology, and practice of Christian mission, featuring
contributions by leading thinkers from both the Euro-American West
and the majority world whose missiological scholarship bridges
church, academy, and society.
Shared ritual practices, multi-faith celebrations, and
interreligious prayers are becoming increasingly common in the USA
and Europe as more people experience religious diversity first
hand. While ritual participation can be seen as a powerful
expression of interreligious solidarity, it also carries with it
challenges of a particularly sensitive nature. Though celebrating
and worshiping together can enhance interreligious relations,
cross-riting may also lead some believers to question whether it is
appropriate to engage in the rituals of another faith community.
Some believers may consider cross-ritual participation as
inappropriate transgressive behaviour. Bringing together leading
international contributors and voices from a number of religious
traditions, Ritual Participation and Interreligious Dialogue delves
into the complexities and intricacies of the phenomenon. They ask:
what are the promises and perils of celebrating and praying
together? What are the limits of ritual participation? How can we
make sense of feelings of discomfort when entering the sacred space
of another faith community? The first book to focus on the lived
dimensions of interreligious dialogue through ritual participation
rather than textual or doctrinal issues, this innovative volume
opens an entirely new perspective.
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