In the last two centuries, some of Hinduism's greatest saints and scholars have lovingly embraced Christ and made him their own. Continuing and aggressive Christian mission in India is now making some Hindus anti-Christ as well as anti-Christian. Mission agencies are pouring millions into India to "save" the "heathens." Religious tensions are increasing, hitting the headlines and claiming lives. Find out why mission disturbs Hindus. Find out how they have responded to their encounter with Christ and Christianity from colonial to contemporary times, in India and in the West. This is their story in their words. Discover how Hindus revere the Christ of faith rather than the Jesus of history. Explore the universal but not exclusive Christ of Hinduism. Find out the rich social and spiritual dimensions Hindus bring to reflection on Christ. Knowing and understanding others is always challenging. Make your own interfaith journey and discover what happened when Christ crossed the Ganges.

Justin Martyr's Dialogue with Trypho is the oldest preserved literary dialogue between a Jew and a Christian and a key text for understanding the development of early Judaism and Christianity. In Between Jews and Heretics, Matthijs den Dulk argues that whereas scholarship has routinely cast this important text in terms of "Christianity vs. Judaism," its rhetorical aims and discursive strategies are considerably more complex, because Justin is advocating his particular form of Christianity in constant negotiation with rival forms of Christianity. The striking new interpretation proposed in this study explains many of the Dialogue's puzzling features and sheds new light on key passages. Because the Dialogue is a critical document for the early history of Jews and Christians, this book contributes to a range of important questions, including the emergence of the notion of heresy and the "parting of the ways" between Jews and Christians.

"Noone raises provocative questions about Christianity more kindly than PhilipGulley. " --Diana Butler Bass, author of Christianity for the Rest of Us"Everyserious Christian ought to read this book, ponder it, wrestlewith it, but above all, be grateful for its presence in today's urgentconversation about what we are and are becoming as a people of God." --Phyllis Tickle, author of The GreatEmergenceRenownedQuaker minister Philip Gulley, bestselling author of If the Church WereChristian, delivers a practical, insightful guide to developing aliving, flexible, personal Christianity--a faith that allows you to confront theprofound challenges facing every believer in today's difficult world.

This is the only book to date offering a critical overview of Shinto from early times to the modern era, and evaluating Shinto's place in Japanese religious culture. In recent years, a few books on medieval Shinto have appeared, but none has attempted to depict the broader picture, to examine critically Shinto's origins and its subsequent development through the medieval, pre-modern and modern periods. The essays in this book address such key topics as Shinto and Daoism in early Japan, Shinto and the natural environment, Shinto and state ritual in early Japan, Shinto and Buddhism in medieval Japan, and Shinto and the state in the modern period. All of the essays highlight the dynamic nature of Shinto and shrine history by focusing on the three-way relationship, often fraught, between local shrine cults, Shinto agendas and Buddhism.

This critical overview of Shinto from early times to the modern era evaluates Shinto's place in Japanese religious culture. In recent years, a few books on mediaeval Shinto have appeared, but not has attempted to depict the broader picture, to examine critically Shinto's origins and its subsequent development through the mediaeval, pre-modern and modern periods. The essays here address such key topics as Shinto and Daoism in early Japan, Shinto and the natural environment, Shinto and state ritual in early Japan, Shinto and Buddhism in medieval Japan, and Shinto and the state in the modern period. They highlight the dynamic nature of Shinto and shrine history by focusing on the three-way relationship, often fraught, between local shrine cults, Shinto agenda and Buddhism.

'Art and Belief' explores communication between faiths through an examination of contemporary artistic practice. The book discusses how a range of artists formulate their worldview and what motivates them to engage in dialogue. These artists are engaged in a wide range of artistic forms and practice and come to dialogue from diverse religious positions. The aim of the book is to question the assumptions of interreligious dialogue as a largely intellectual exercise in defining the religious "other" and to explore dialogue as a manifestation of interpersonal ethics.

The religious histories of Christian and Muslim countries in Europe and Western Asia are often treated in isolation from one another. This can lead to a limited and simplistic understanding of the international and interreligious interactions currently taking place. This edited collection brings these national and religious narratives into conversation with each other, helping readers to formulate a more sophisticated comprehension of the social and cultural factors involved in the tolerance and intolerance that has taken place in these areas, and continues today. Part One of this volume examines the history of relations between people of different Christian confessions in western and central Europe. Part Two then looks at the relations between Western and Eastern Orthodox Christianity, Islam and Judaism in the vast area that extends around the Mediterranean from the Iberian Peninsula to western Asia. Each Part ends with a Conclusion that considers the wider implications of the preceding essays and points the way toward future research. Bringing together scholars from Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and America this volume embodies an international collaboration of unusual range. Its comparative approach will be of interest to scholars of Religion and History, particularly those with an emphasis on interreligious relations and religious tolerance.

Radical Orthodoxy remains an important movement within Christian theology, but does it relate effectively with an increasingly pluralist and secular Western society? Can it authentically communicate the beauty and desire of the divine to such a diverse collection of theological accounts of meaning? This book re-assesses the viability of the social model given by John Milbank, before attempting an out-narration of this vision with a more convincing account of the link between the example of the Trinitarian divine and the created world. It also touches on areas such as interreligious dialogue, particularly between Christianity and Islam, as well as social issues such as marginalisation, integration, and community relations in order to chart a practical way forward for the living of a Christian life within contemporary plurality. This is a vital resource for any Theology academic with an interest in Radical Orthodoxy and conservative post-modern Christian theology. It will also appeal to scholars involved in Islamic Studies and studying interreligious dialogues.

What is between us and the Christians is a deep dark affair which will go for another hundred generations . . ." (Amos Oz, Judas) Among the great social shifts of the post-World War II era is the unlikely sea-change in Jewish Christian relations. We read each other's scriptures and openly discuss differences as well as similarities. Yet many such encounters have become rote and predictable. Powerful emotions stirred up by these conversations are often dismissed or ignored. Demonstrating how such emotions as shame, envy, and desire can inform these encounters, Holy Envy: Writing in the Jewish Christian Borderzone charts a new way of thinking about interreligious relations. Moreover, by focusing on modern and contemporary writers (novelists and poets) who traffic in the volatile space between Judaism and Christianity, the book calls attention to the creative implications of these intense encounters. While recognizing a long-overdue need to address a fundamentally Christian narrative underwriting twentieth century American verse, Holy Envy does more than represent Christianity as an aesthetically coercive force, or as an adversarial other. For the book also suggests how literature can excavate an alternative interreligious space, at once risky and generative. In bringing together recent accounts of Jewish Christian relations, affect theory, and poetics, Holy Envy offers new ways into difficult and urgent, conversations about interreligious encounters. Holy Envy is sure to engage readers who are interested in literature, religion, and, above all, interfaith dialogue.

One of the most persistent problems in Christian-Muslim relations over the centuries has been the tendency of each group to judge the other by a set of standards and criteria quite different from the standards and criteria used in assessing itself. Hugh Goddard argues that in the 20th century such a procedure is no longer admissible. He goes on to point out some of the useful insight which may be gained - by the members of both communities in their understanding both of their own faith and of that of the other - by an attempt to apply the same criteria to both traditions. Goddard discusses parallels, similarities and divergences with clarity and insight. The question of "fundamentalism" is given particularly detailed analytical treatment. This book sets new standards in the understanding of both religions and their understanding of each other.

One of the most persistent problems in Christian-Muslim relations over the centuries has been the tendency by each to judge the other by standards and criteria not used in assessing itself. Goddard argues that such is no longer admissible and proceeds to offer a number of useful insights.

Christianity is not only a global but also an intercultural phenomenon. The diversity of world Christianity is evident not merely outside our borders but even within our own neighborhoods. Over the past half century theologians and missiologists have addressed this reality by developing local and contextual theologies and by exploring issues like contextualization, inculturation, and translation. In recent years these various trajectories have coalesced into a new field called intercultural theology. Bringing together missiology, religious studies, social science research, and Christian theology, the field of intercultural theology is a fresh attempt to rethink the discipline of theology in light of the diversity and pluriformity of Christianity today. Henning Wrogemann, one of the leading missiologists and scholars of religion in Europe, has written the most comprehensive textbook on the subject of Christianity and culture today. In three volumes his Intercultural Theology provides an exhaustive account of the history, theory, and practice of Christian mission. Volume one introduces the concepts of culture and context, volume two surveys theologies of mission both past and present, and volume three explores theologies of religion and interreligious relationships. In this first volume on intercultural hermeneutics, Wrogemann introduces the term "intercultural theology" and investigates what it means to understand another cultural context. In addition to surveying different hermeneutical theories and concepts of culture, he assesses how intercultural understanding has taken place throughout the history of Christian mission. Wrogemann also provides an extensive discussion of contextual theologies with a special focus on African theologies. Intercultural Theology is an indispensable resource for all people—especially students, pastors, and scholars—that explores the defining issues of Christian identity and practice in the context of an increasingly intercultural and interreligious world. 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.

Does religion bring peace or war? In order to discuss this fundamental question, it is essential to reflect upon religious education that shapes the views of religion among young generations. This book has developed from the special panel on "Religious Education and Peace" for the 19th World Congress of the International Association for the History of Religions (IAHR), the largest international organization in religious studies, which took place in Tokyo in March 2005. Its international contributors discuss the kinds of religious education used for peace education that is attempted or needed, in their respective societies faced with tensions and conflicts, not only between different religions but also between religion and secularism. This is the first book in the field that includes both Asian and Western writers (from Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Israel, Germany, Spain, UK and USA). It is an innovative attempt to build a bridge between the study of religion/religious education and peace education. This book was previously published as a special issue of British Journal of Religious Education

Antagonistic Tolerance examines patterns of coexistence and conflict amongst members of different religious communities, using multidisciplinary research to analyze groups who have peacefully intermingled for generations, and who may have developed aspects of syncretism in their religious practices, and yet have turned violently on each other. Such communities define themselves as separate peoples, with different and often competing interests, yet their interaction is usually peaceable provided the dominance of one group is clear. The key indicator of dominance is control over central religious sites, which may be tacitly shared for long periods, but later contested and even converted as dominance changes. By focusing on these shared and contested sites, this volume allows for a wider understanding of relations between these communities. Using a range of ethnographic, historical and archaeological data from the Balkans, India, Mexico, Peru, Portugal and Turkey, Antagonistic Tolerance develops a comparative model of the competitive sharing and transformation of religious sites. These studies are not considered as isolated cases, but are instead woven into a unified analytical framework which explains how long-term peaceful interactions between religious communities can turn conflictual and even result in ethnic cleansing.

A growing number of people describe themselves as both Buddhist and Christian; but does such a self-description really make sense? Many people involved in inter-faith dialogue argue that this dialogue leads to a mutually transformative process, but what if the transformation reaches the point where the Buddhist or Christian becomes a Buddhist Christian? Does this represent a fulfilment of or the undermining of dialogue? Exploring the growing phenomenon of Buddhist-Christian dual belonging, a wide variety of authors including advocates, sympathisers and opponents from both faiths, focus on three key questions: Can Christian and Buddhist accounts and practices of salvation or liberation be reconciled? Are Christian theism and Buddhist non-theism compatible? And does dual belonging inevitably distort the essence of these faiths, or merely change its cultural expression? Clarifying different ways of justifying dual belonging, contributors offer criticisms of dual belonging from different religious perspectives (Theravada Buddhist, Evangelical Reformed and Roman Catholic) and from different methodological approaches. Four chapters then carry the discussion forward suggesting ways in which dual belonging might make sense from Catholic, Theravada Buddhist, Pure-land Buddhist and Anglican perspectives. The conclusion clarifies the main challenges emerging for dual belongers, and the implications for interreligious dialogue.

The attack on Charlie Hebdo in Paris in January 2015 once again brought to the fore the place of Islam in Western secular democracies, and the questioning of Muslim citizenship. The hyper-mediatisation of jihadist terrorism and its subsequent conflation with Muslim communities in general, has led to both an increase in widespread popular fear of Islam and its followers, and the further marginalization and stigmatization of Muslim communities living in Western societies. This book brings together a range of studies and reflections pertinent to the contemporary issues surrounding religious citizenship and Islamophobia. Sentiments of insecurity and uncertainty, which far-right populist movements focus on, are increasingly finding resonance among ordinary citizens. Some traditional political parties are now flirting with demagogic discourse with respect to matters Islamic to the point where there is a hardening within Western democracies, manifested in the adoption of illiberal policies, the narrowing of the conception of secularity, and the alienation of a younger generation of Muslims. Yet there can still be found both glimmers of hope and slivers of sanity. This book was originally published as a special issue of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations.

The Routledge Handbook of Muslim-Jewish Relations invites readers to deepen their understanding of the historical, social, cultural, and political themes that impact modern-day perceptions of interfaith dialogue. The volume is designed to illuminate positive encounters between Muslims and Jews, as well as points of conflict, within a historical framework. Among other goals, the volume seeks to correct common misperceptions about the history of Muslim-Jewish relations by complicating familiar political narratives to include dynamics such as the cross-influence of literary and intellectual traditions. Reflecting unique and original collaborations between internationally-renowned contributors, the book is intended to spark further collaborative and constructive conversation and scholarship in the academy and beyond.

Foucault, Christianity and Interfaith Dialogue develops a new model for interfaith dialogue using the work of the French historian of ideas, Michel Foucault. The author argues that it is the injustice done to the 'Other' by Roman Catholic, Protestant and other centred and unitary models of religious pluralism that allows the introduction of Foucault's de-centring of transcendence and human reason as an alternative model for understanding religious diversity and the role it ought to play, in the constitution of the self and the making of society. This Foucaultian approach provides a new direction for interfaith dialogue in the modern world and leads to an ethical rather than a nihilistic position while fostering a non-unitary theology of religious pluralism and an open-textured process of self-transformation.
The author's original and imaginative application and expansion of Foucault's concept of the 'More' from The Archaeology of Knowledge (1969) makes important and original contributions to academic work on Foucault and contemporary theology.

A groundbreaking book about Americans searching for faith and mutual respect, The Faith Club weaves the story of three women, their three religions, and their urgent quest to understand one another.When an American Muslim woman befriends two other mothers, one Jewish and one Christian, they decide to educate their children about their respective religions. None of them guessed their regular meetings would provide life-changing answers and form bonds that would forever alter their struggles with prejudice, fear, and anger. Personal, powerful, and compelling, The Faith Club forces readers to face the tough questions about their own religions. Pioneering, timely, deeply thoughtful, and full of hope, The Faith Club's caring message will resonate with people of all faiths.

He demonstrates that Ashkenazic Jewish culture was profoundly shaped and conditioned by life in an overwhelmingly Christian society. Drawing on diverse Christian documents, he portrays Christian beliefs about medieval Jews and Judaism with a degree of detail seldom found in Jewish historics. Emphasizing social, political, and economic history, but also duscussing religious topics, Glick describes the evolution of a complex, inherently unequal relationship. Because the Ashkenazic Jews of medieval Europe were ancestral to almost the entire Jewish population of eastern Europe, their historical experience played a major role in the heritage of most Jewish Americans.

A new paradigm for relations between religions, one of acceptance and collaboration, requires not only a willingness to move beyond a tradition of hostility and competition but also significant theological rethinking. Within Jewish Orthodoxy there have been very few voices that have advanced and justified a vision of other faiths in this light: to this day, the reigning paradigm is one of practical collaboration while avoiding theologically based engagement or reflection. Two of the most important Orthodox Jewish voices advocating change have been those of Irving Yitz Greenberg and Jonathan Sacks. This book presents the theological, moral, and social views of these two leading rabbis. It focuses on the significance of covenant for both, and how they adapt this concept to enable the development of a Jewish view of other religions. In considering how they may have influenced each other, it also studies the limitations and internal contradictions that characterize their work as they attempt to point the way forward, in a spirit of dialogue, to continuing theological reflection on Judaism’s approach to world religions.

Interest in Christian-Muslim dialogue has grown considerably in recent years. How Islam and Christianity have approached each other theologically is one of the most absorbing ways of understanding the challenge of interreligious relations or Christian-Muslim polemics. This volume provides an indispensable reading and reference tool, showing how Muslim and Christian scholars have shaped the discourse on the varying interfaces between Christianity and Islam. The Reader contains a substantial introduction and presents a range of scholarly approaches to Christian-Muslim relations. Included are selections of primary polemical material, focusing on critical and appreciative approaches to the Jesus/Muhammad, Bible/Qur an and God question for Muslims and Christians.

Interest in Christian-Muslim dialogue has grown considerably in recent years. How Islam and Christianity have approached each other theologically is one of the most absorbing ways of understanding the challenge of interreligious relations or Christian-Muslim polemics. This volume provides an indispensable reading and reference tool, showing how Muslim and Christian scholars have shaped the discourse on the varying interfaces between Christianity and Islam. The Reader contains a substantial introduction and presents a range of scholarly approaches to Christian-Muslim relations. Included are selections of primary polemical material, focusing on critical and appreciative approaches to the Jesus/Muhammad, Bible/Qur an and God question for Muslims and Christians.

Creative Encounters explores the forms and functions of contemporary interreligious dialogue by focusing on artists who are active in this field across different art forms and different religious positions. It seeks to understand how artists formulate a dialogical worldview in a religiously plural and post-secular context and what motivates them to engage in dialogue. Traditional normative theories of interreligious dialogue are called into question. Critical attention is brought to the narrow focus on dialogue as a purely intellectual quest for making the religious other, as an abstract but coherent theological and historical entity, intelligible. A contrasting view of dialogue as a question of interpersonal ethics inspired primarily by the philosophy of Buber is introduced. The study is thoroughly empirical in scope, building on in-depth interviews with artists. The analytical approach is qualitative, resting on a hermeneutically inspired epistemology.

Originally published in 1939. After the death of Muhammad his community was ruled by three caliphs who kept their capital as Medina, the City of the Prophet. Under the rule of the caliphs those who did not confess the Muslim faith were under certain restrictions both in public and private life. This volume examines the social, cultural, religious and economic aspects of this period and includes chapters on: Government Service; Churches and Monasteries; Christian Arabs, Jews and Magians; Dress; Financial Persecution, Medicine and Literature and Taxation.