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Books > Religion & Spirituality > General > Interfaith relations
The call to contemplative Christianity is not an easy one. Those
who answer it set themselves to a sometimes arduous task of
self-reformation through rigorous study and practice, learned
through the teachings of monks and nuns and the writings of ancient
Christian mystics, often in isolation from family and friends.
Those who are dedicated can spend hours every day in meditation,
prayer, liturgy, and study. Why do they come? Indeed, how do they
find their way to the door at all? Based on nearly four years of
research among semi-cloistered Christian monastics and a dispersed
network of non-monastic Christian contemplatives around the United
States, The Monk's Cell shows how religious practitioners in both
settings combined social action and intentional living with
intellectual study and intensive contemplative practices in an
effort to modify their ways of knowing, sensing, and experiencing
the world. Organized by the metaphor of a seeker journeying towards
the inner chambers of a monastic chapel, The Monk's Cell uses
innovative "intersubjective fieldwork" methods to study these
opaque interiorized, often silent communities, in order to show how
practices like solitude, chant, contemplation, attention, and a
paradoxical capacity to combine ritual with intentional "unknowing"
develop and hone a powerful sense of communion with the world.
This volume focuses on the various phenomena of religious
encounters in a transcultural society where religion or religious
traditions play a significant role in a multi-cultural concept.
Religious Encounters in Transcultural Society is divided into three
parts: Islamic encounters with regional religions, East Asian
religious encounters, and alternative religious encounters. This
book evokes the fact that religious encounters exist in every
transcultural society even though they often remain hidden behind
socio-cultural issues. The situation can be changed, but one
culture cannot harmoniously and always contain two or
multi-beliefs. The issue of religious encounters mostly arises in
the transnational process of religious globalization.
Breaking new ground in Christian - Jewish dialogue Deep Calls to
Deep uses a new paradigm, one which is marked by "experiential
theology": a theology that addresses and emerges out of day to day
lived experience of practising Christians and Jews. The product of
a unique four year dialogue process - designed, orchestrated and
led by Rabbi Tony Bayfield - the book brings together a diverse
array of important Christian and Jewish scholars to engage in
conversation. Themes discussed include Modern Western culture; how
Christians and Jews should live in a modern Western democracy; how
Christians and Jews cope with their past; the legacy of our shared
Scriptures; the question of religious absolutism; the meaning of
respect; Christian particularism; and the land of Israel
Often Christian interfaith engagement has been viewed through the
lense of theology of religions where the primary questions are
often about the salvific destiny of people of other faiths. 'Faith,
Hope and Love' offers an alternative approach asking how do
Christian interfaith practitioners live out their discipleship in a
multi-faith world? And what, theologically, is being expressed in
their activity? Demonstrating a new and innovative approach to
interfaith engagement, this book argues for theological reflection
on the multi faith reality of our society to focus on the practice
of Christian interfaith engagement, drawing on the methodology of
practical theology to explore the impact of encounter on Christian
self-understanding. It suggests that other faith traditions are no
longer a theological problem to be solved or people to be `saved'
but a potential `means of grace' in which the Christian disciple
learns more about God and grows in their relationship with Christ.
Part 1 Towards a Practical Theology of Interfaith Engagement 1.
Faith, Hope and Love - Pedagogy for Interfaith Engagement 2. Beyond
New Contestations - A Practical Theological Challenge to
Particularists and Pluralists 3. Interfaith Engagement,
Non-Violence and the Way of Salvation Part 2 Challenging
Islamophobia, Affirming Multiculturalism 4. Challenging
Islamophobia - A Practical Theological Reflection 5. Rejoicing in
the Truth - A Practical Theological Affirmation of Multiculturalism
Profound reflection on lament and hope arising out of Africa's
immense suffering. There is no more urgent theological task than to
provide an account of hope in Africa, given its endless cycles of
violence, war, poverty, and displacement. So claims Emmanuel
Katongole, a recognised, innovative theological voice from Africa.
In the midst of suffering, Katongole says, hope takes the form of
"arguing" and "wrestling" with God. Such lament is not merely a cry
of pain-it is a way of mourning, protesting, and appealing to God.
As he unpacks the rich theological and social dimensions of the
practice of lament in Africa, Katongole tells the stories of
courageous Christian activists working for change in East Africa
and invites readers to enter into lament along with them.
In 2005, the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation
Movement (SPLM) signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that
ended the longest civil war in African history. Stein Erik Horjen
argues that although this second civil war was not a religious one,
religion still played an important role in the conflict. Ensuring
freedom of religion was a high priority for the SPLM and for the
Sudanese churches, which were instrumental in preparing the ground
for the 2005 agreement in the same way they had been in
facilitating the Addis Ababa Peace Agreement in 1972. Focusing on
the pivotal role of the Sudanese churches through a grassroots
peace process called People to People, Horjen examines the
churches' work in ensuring the success of the peace talks between
the SPLM and the government sealed by the 2005 Peace Agreement.
Taking up the role as the voice of the voiceless, the Sudanese
churches challenged and criticized the military and political
leaders in regards to abuses of power. In Reconciliation in the
Sudans, Horjen details the tremendous suffering of the people
during recurrent conflicts in Sudan and South Sudan. Understanding
the history will allow the reader contextual insight into the
latest conflict that erupted in South Sudan in 2013. The failure of
including mechanisms for reconciliation in the CPA can be
considered a main reason for this latest war.
The essays collected here, prepared by a think tank of the Elijah
Interfaith Academy, explore the challenges associated with sharing
wisdom-learning, teachings, messages for good living-between
members of different faith traditions. In a globalized age, when
food, music, and dress are shared freely, how should religions go
about sharing their wisdom? The essays, representing six faith
traditions (Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist),
explore what wisdom means in each of these traditions, why it
should be shared-internally and externally-and how it should be
shared. A primary concern is the form of appropriate sharing, so
that the wisdom of the specific tradition maintains its integrity
in the process of sharing. Authors reflect on specific wisdoms
their tradition has or should share, as well as what it has to
receive from other faiths. Special emphasis is placed on the themes
of love and forgiveness and how these illustrate the principles of
common sharing. Love and humility emerge as strong motivators for
sharing wisdom and for doing so in a way that respects the
tradition from which the wisdom comes as well as the recipient.
This book offers a theory that can enrich ongoing encounters
between members of faith traditions by suggesting a tradition-based
practice of sharing the wisdom of traditions, while preserving the
integrity of the teaching and respecting the identity of the one
with whom wisdom is shared.
Today the world is confronted with many religious wars and the
migrations of millions of persons due to these conflicts. There is
a need for informed dialog as to the roots of the conflicts and
ways of addressing these in ways that speak to peoples' minds and
hearts. This is what this book attempts to do from the viewpoint of
major religious and ethical thinkers. The book relies on Bernard
Lonergan's foundational method to address problems systematically
with a view to achieve breakthroughs in our openness to one
another. The book appeals to the teachings of the Buddha, Jesus,
and Mohammad, relying on the mystical and insights of these
religious founders as well as those of dozens of their followers so
as to find commonalities that can build bridges of mercy. A global
secularity ethics plays a leading role in this book's bridging
efforts.
The papers in this volume form a record of the 1993 Parliament of
the World's Religions, which was one of the largest interfaith
gatherings ever held. Representatives from minority, ethnic and
tribal religions took the podium as equals alongside
representatives from the world's largest religious traditions. This
volume contains major addresses and reflections of this parliament,
set in context by an introduction and conclusion by the editors.
Today the world is confronted with many religious wars and the
migrations of millions of persons due to these conflicts. There is
a need for informed dialog as to the roots of the conflicts and
ways of addressing these in ways that speak to peoples' minds and
hearts. This is what this book attempts to do from the viewpoint of
major religious and ethical thinkers. The book relies on Bernard
Lonergan's foundational method to address problems systematically
with a view to achieve breakthroughs in our openness to one
another. The book appeals to the teachings of the Buddha, Jesus,
and Mohammad, relying on the mystical and insights of these
religious founders as well as those of dozens of their followers so
as to find commonalities that can build bridges of mercy. A global
secularity ethics plays a leading role in this book's bridging
efforts.
Founded by Charles Colson and Richard John Neuhaus in 1994,
Evangelicals and Catholics Together (ECT) has fostered a fruitful
conversation on the meaning of the gospel in today's world. Over
the course of twenty years, ECT has issued nine statements
addressing contemporary topics. This one-volume guide, the first
collection of the ECT statements, explores the key accomplishments
of this groundbreaking, ongoing dialogue. Introductions and notes
provide context and discuss history and future prospects. The book
also includes prefaces by J. I. Packer and Cardinal Timothy Dolan,
a foreword by George Weigel, and an epilogue by R. R. Reno and
Kevin J. Vanhoozer.
How does the Qur'an depict the religious Other? Historically, this
question has provoked extensive debate among Islamic scholars about
the identity, nature, and status of such religious Others. Today,
this debate assumes great importance because of the widening
experience of religious plurality, which prompts inquiry into
convergences and divergences in belief and practice as well as
controversy over the appropriate forms of interaction among
different religions. The persistence of religious violence also
gives rise to difficult questions about the relationship between
the depiction of religious Others, and intolerance and oppression.
Scholars have traditionally accounted for the coexistence of
religious similarity and difference by resorting either to models
that depict religions as isolated entities or models that arrange
religions in a static, evaluative hierarchy. In response to the
limitations of this discourse, Jerusha Tanner Lamptey constructs an
alternative conceptual and hermeneutical approach that draws
insights from the work of Muslim women interpreters of the Qur'an,
feminist theology, and semantic analysis. She employs this approach
to reevaluate, reinterpret, and reenvision the Qur'anic discourse
on religious difference. Through a close reading of the Qur'anic
text, she distinguishes between two forms of religious difference:
hierarchical and lateral. She goes on to explore the complex
relationality that exists among Qur'anic concepts of hierarchical
religious difference and to articulate a new, integrated model of
religious pluralism. Using an interdisciplinary approach to
confront existing Islamic scholarship, Lamptey's Never Wholly Other
offers a new genre of theology.
This volume sheds light on the transformed post-Holocaust
relationship between Catholics and Jews. Once implacable
theological foes, the two traditions have travelled a great
distance in coming to view the other with respect and dignity.
Responding to the horrors of Auschwitz, the Catholic Church has
undergone a "reckoning of the soul," beginning with its landmark
document Nostra Aetate and embraced a positive theology of Judaism
including the ongoing validity of the Jewish covenant. Jews have
responded to this unprecedented outreach, especially in the
document Dabru Emet. Together, these two Abrahamic traditions have
begun seeking a repair of the world. The road has been rocky and
certainly obstacles remain. Nevertheless, authentic interfaith
dialogue remains a new and promising development in the search for
a peace.
The fascinating story of Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) changing himself
while trying to change the religious faith of the Chinese has been
told many times. As a Jesuit, Ricci pushed Christian evangelism by
claiming a theistic affinity with Confucianism and by presenting
himself as a defender of Confucian orthodoxy from Buddhism. Already
in his day, Ricci's unusual cultural adaptation was controversial;
not surprisingly, scholarly studies have hitherto focused almost
exclusively on variations of this controversy. Reacting mostly to
Ricci's account of events, this line of research has provided
insight, but much more can be learned about the early-modern
cross-cultural encounter of Europe and China if the perspective is
broadened to include his intricate and intriguing relationships
with his Chinese friends. With his distinctively different
religiosity, personal charisma, and knowledge of European science
and mathematics, Ricci impressed the social and cultural elite of
late Ming China, many of whom befriended him and some of whom
became Christian converts. However, between him and his Chinese
friends there were always disagreements, resulting sometimes from a
lack of understanding or misunderstanding, and sometimes even when
they apparently understood each other perfectly. Followed closely
as the investigative thread of this book, the many kinds of
disagreement cast an unusual light on an otherwise long familiar
subject and are instructive for the at times tense and even
hostile, but in reality always mutually energizing relationship of
both competition and complement between China and the West in the
early twenty-first century.
This book by Gregg Ten Elshof explores ways of using resources from
the Confucian wisdom tradition to inform Christian living. Neither
highlighting nor diminishing the differences between Confucianism
and Christianity, Ten Elshof reflects on perennial human questions
with the teachings of both Jesus and Confucius in mind. In
examining such subjects as family, learning, and ethics, Ten Elshof
sets the typical Western worldview against the Confucian worldview
and considers how each of them lines up with the teachings of
Jesus. Ten Elshof points to much that is deep and helpful in the
Confucian tradition, and he shows how reflection on the teachings
of Confucius can inspire a deeper and richer understanding of what
it really means to live the Jesus way.
By all measures, the late twentieth century was a time of dramatic
decline for the Islamic world, the Ummah, particularly its Arab
heartland. Sober Muslim voices regularly describe their current
state as the worst in the 1,400-year history of Islam. Yet,
precisely at this time of unprecedented material vulnerability,
Islam has emerged as a civilizational force strong enough to
challenge the imposition of Western, particularly American,
homogenizing power on Muslim peoples. This is the central paradox
of Islam today: at a time of such unprecedented weakness in one
sense, how has the Islamic Awakening, a broad and diverse movement
of contemporary Islamic renewal, emerged as such a resilient and
powerful transnational force and what implications does it have for
the West? In One Islam, Many Muslim Worlds Raymond W. Baker
addresses this question. Two things are clear, Baker argues:
Islam's unexpected strength in recent decades does not originate
from official political, economic, or religious institutions, nor
can it be explained by focusing exclusively on the often-criminal
assertions of violent, marginal groups. While extremists monopolize
the international press and the scholarly journals, those who live
and work in the Islamic world know that the vast majority of
Muslims reject their reckless calls to violence and look elsewhere
for guidance. Baker shows that extremists draw their energy and
support not from contributions to the reinterpretation and revival
of Islamic beliefs and practices, but from the hatreds engendered
by misguided Western policies in Islamic lands. His persuasive
analysis of the Islamic world identifies centrists as the
revitalizing force of Islam, saying that they are responsible for
constructing a modern, cohesive Islamic identity that is a force to
be reckoned with.
This book tackles the core problem of how painful historical
memories between diverse religious communities continue to impact,
even poison, present day relations. Its operative notion is that of
healing of memory, a notion developed by John Paul II. The
different papers explore how the painful memories of yesteryear can
be healed in the framework of contemporary efforts. In so doing,
they seek to address some of the root causes that continue to
impact present day relations, but which rarely if ever get
addressed in other contexts. Strategies from six different faith
traditions are brought together in what is, in some ways, a
cross-religious brainstorming session that seeks to identify the
kinds of tools that would allow us to improve present day
relations. At the end of the conceptual pole of this project is the
notion of hope. If memory informs our past, hope sets the horizons
for our future. How does the healing of memory open new horizons
for the future? And what is the notion of hope in each of our
traditions, so that it might be receptive to opening up to a common
vision of good for all? Between memory and hope, the project seeks
to offer a vision of healing and hope that can serve as a resource
in contemporary interfaith relations.
While existing scholarship informs us about early contact between
Christians, Muslims, and Jews, the nature of that interaction, and
how it developed over time, is still often misunderstood. Robert
Gregg emphasizes that there was both mutual curiosity, since all
three religions had ancestral traditions and a commanding God in
common, and also wary competitiveness, as each group was compelled
to sharpen its identity against the other two. Faced with the
overlap of many scriptural stories, they were eager to defend the
claim that they alone were God's preferred people. In Shared
Stories, Rival Tellings, Gregg performs a comparative investigation
of how Jewish, Christian, and Muslim interpreters-both writers and
artists-developed their distinctive and exclusionary understandings
of narratives common to their three Holy Books: Cain and Abel, Sara
and Hagar, Joseph and Potiphar's Wife, Jonah and the Whale, and
Mary the Mother of Jesus. Exposed in the process are the major
issues under contention and the social-intellectual forces that
contributed to spirited, creative, and sometimes combative
exchanges between Muslims, Christians and Jews. In illuminating
these historical moments, and their implications for contemporary
relations between these three religions, Gregg argues that
scripture interpreters played an often underappreciated role in
each religion's individual development of thought, spirituality,
and worship, and in the three religions' debates with one
another-and the cultural results of those debates.
The question of Christian-Muslim relations is one of enduring
importance in the twenty-first century. While there exists a broad
range of helpful overviews on the question, these introductory
texts often fail to provide readers with the depth that a thorough
treatment of the primary sources and their authors would provide.
In this important new project, Charles Tieszen provides a
collection of primary theological sources devoted to the
formational period of Christian-Muslim relations. It provides brief
introductions to authors and their texts along with representative
selections in English translation. The collection is arranged
according to the key theological themes that emerge as Christians
and Muslims encounter one another in this era. The result is a
resource that offers students a far better grasp of the texts early
Christians and Muslims wrote about each other and a better
understanding of the important theological themes that are
pertinent to Christian-Muslim dialogue today.
The Community of Believers offers the proceedings of the 2013
Building Bridges seminar, a dialogue between leading Christian and
Muslim scholars under the stewardship of Georgetown University.
These essays consider such themes as the Church as mystical body of
Christ versus the Church as proclamation; the roots and uses of the
term ummah and its development over time; Christian desires for
communion, experiences of division, and approaches to unity; the
history of Muslim disunity; twentieth-century Christian
ecclesiology and its responses to a post-Christendom and
post-Christian world; and the Arab Spring as a case study for
contemplating accommodationism, conservatism, reformism, and
fundamentalism as Muslim strategies to address the pressures of
modernism. The volume also includes texts and commentaries used in
the seminar's discussions of each topic and a concluding essay
summarizing the tone, content, and style of participant exchanges
throughout the seminar.
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