The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Comparative Theology
by Axel M. Oaks Takacs, Joseph L. Kimmel
An incisive and original collection of the most engaging issues in contemporary comparative theology In The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Comparative Theology, a team of distinguished scholars delivers a one-of-a-kind collection of essays on comparative theology. Honoring the groundbreaking work of Francis X. Clooney, S.J.—whose contributions to theology and religion will endure for generations—the included works explore seven key subjects in comparative theology, including its theory, method, history, influential contemporary developments, and potentially fruitful avenues for future discussion. The editors provide essays that reflect on the critical, theoretical, and methodological aspects of comparative theology, as well as constructive and critical appraisals of Francis Clooney's scholarship. Over forty original contributions from internationally recognized scholars and insightful newcomers to the field are included within. Readers will also find:
- Insightful discussions of the larger implications of comparative theology beyond the discipline itself, especially as it relates to educational programs, institutions, and post-carceral life
- Robust promotion of the research methods and critical thinking present in Francis Clooney's work
- Practical discussions of the most pressing challenges and opportunities facing theological researchers today
- Papers from leading contributors located around the globe, including emerging voices from the global south
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Author Biography
Axel M. Oaks Takacs is Assistant Professor of Theology and Religious Studies at Molloy University and the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Interreligious Studies. He is a comparative theologian and scholar of Islamic Studies and interreligious studies, with an established record of published articles and entries in edited volumes such as the Georgetown Companion to Interreligious Studies, the Brill Companion to Comparative Theology, and Fordham's How To Do Comparative Theology. Joseph L. Kimmel recently completed his PhD in the Study of Religion at Harvard. He teaches part-time at Boston College and serves as an Episcopal priest. In addition to a forthcoming article in the Journal of the American Academy of Religion, he has been published in journals including Biblical Interpretation, the Journal of Interreligious Studies, the International Journal of Culture and Mental Health, and the Graduate Journal of Harvard Divinity School.
Table of Contents
List of Contributors ix Preface xiv
John B. Carman and William A. Graham Acknowledgments xvi Introduction xvii
Axel M. Oaks Takacs and Joseph L. Kimmel Part I Theories and Methods in Comparative Theology 1 1 Five Insights on Method from Comparative Theology 3
Jason W. Smith 2 Imagining Religion, Intuiting Comparison: Comparing the Roles of Inner Sense in the Scholarship of Jonathan Z. Smith and Francis X. Clooney, SJ 13
Joseph L. Kimmel 3 Resisting Religious Relativism in Comparative Theology 21
Catherine Cornille 4 Grounding Theology of Religions in Comparative Theology: A Fulfillment Model in Reverse 32
Ruben L.F. Habito 5 Beyond the Text: Comparative Theology and Oral Cultures 43
Nougoutna Norbert Litoing 6 Faith Seeking Understanding or Understanding Seeking Faith? 51
Bennett DiDente Comerford 7 Kinesics, Proxemics, and Haptics: A Sakta Method for Comparative Theology 63
Pravina Rodrigues Part II The Spirituality, Vocation, and Formation of the Comparative Theologian 77 8 "The One Who Prays Is a (Comparative) Theologian": The Spirituality of Francis X. Clooney's Comparative Method 79
Christopher Conway 9 Settling the Seer: "Deep Learning" and the Yoga of Slowness 89
Michelle Bentsman 10 Comparative Theology Embodied: The Mentorship, Methodology, and Ministry of Francis X. Clooney 95
Katie Mahowski Mylroie 11 Performance and Engagement: Reconsidering Religious Experience in Contemporary Comparative Theology 104
Reid B. Locklin 12 A Fowlerian Perspective on the Faith of the Comparativist 115
Erik Ranstrom 13 Comparative Theology as Process Not Conclusion: Francis Clooney on the Proper Formation of Comparative Theological Readers 129
John J. Thatamanil Part III Comparative Theology and the Society of Jesus 139 14 Comparing Jesuits: Roberto de Nobili, Henri de Lubac, and Francis X. Clooney 141
James Fredericks 15 Francis X. Clooney, SJ: Jesuit, Scholar, Missionary 151
Christian S. Krokus 16 The Ignatian Tradition and the Intellectual Virtues of a Comparative Theologian 162
Peng Yin 17 Wonder Grasps Anything: Punctuation and Patristic Theology in the Early Colonial Philippines 173
Maria Cecilia Holt Part IV E xpanding on Francis X. Clooney's Corpus 185 18 The Interpretation of Scripture in the Comparative Theology of Francis X. Clooney 187
Leo D. Lefebure 19 "Good Dark Love Birds, Will You Help?": Comparative Reflections on Clooney's His Hiding Place Is Darkness 198
Kimberley C. Patton 20 "Paradoxology": The Srivaisnava Art of Praising Visnu 209
Vasudha Narayanan 21 Hymns on Mary in Hindu--Muslim--Christian Dialogue 225
Klaus von Stosch 22 Mary and Motherhood -- A Comparatively Informed Reconsideration 235
Mara Brecht Part V E xercises in Comparative Theology 247 23 Transformational Liberation in the Age of COVID-19: A Comparative Theology of "the Good Woman" 249
Tracy Sayuki Tiemeier 24 And the Angels Wept: How Jewish and Hindu Narratives May Enrich Each Other 260
Arvind Sharma 25 Modification, Emanation, and Parinama-Vada in Medieval Theistic Vedanta and Kabbalah 268
Ithamar Theodor 26 Advancing the Ritual-Liturgical Turn in Comparative Theology: Good Friday as a Case Study 280
Daniel Joslyn-Siemiatkoski 27 Creative Fidelity in Expanding the Canon 291
Scott Steinkerchner, OP and Martin Badenhorst, OP 28 Slow Reading of Beautiful Writing: Calligraphy as Vehicle for Comparative Theology 302
Lucinda Mosher 29 Joy in the Earth: A Christian Cosmology Based on Agapic Nondualism 313
Jon Paul Sydnor 30 Perceiving Divinity, Cultivating Wonder: A Christian--Islamic Comparative Theological Essay on Balthasar's Gestalt 326
Axel M. Oaks Takacs 31 Paradoxes of Desire in St John of the Cross and Solomon ibn Gabirol: Thinking with Poetry in Comparative Theology 345
Luis Manuel Giron-Negron Part VI Comparative Theology Beyond the Discipline 371 32 Locating the Self in the Study of Religion: Francis Clooney and the Experiment of Hindu--Christian Studies 373
Jonathan Edelmann 33 Learning Interreligiously as Public Theology: Limits and Possibilities for Institutional Leaders 389
Michelle Voss Roberts 34 Comparative Theology and Public Theology: In Search of a Responsible Theology Today 400
Albertus Bagus Laksana 35 God Meets Us There: Prison as True Home for the Christian Comparative Theologian 411
Mark J. Edwards Part VII The Past, Present, and Future of Comparative Theology 419 36 Comparative Theology Beyond Religionization 421
Marianne Moyaert 37 Asking an Unusual Question of Kabir and Kazi Nazrul Islam 431
Rachel Fell McDermott 38 Comparative Theology avant la lettre? A Muslim "Deep Reading" of the Ramayana in Early Modern South Asia 442
Shankar Nair 39 Creativity and Resistance in Comparative Theology: Lessons from Eighteenth-Century Korea 449
Won-Jae Hur 40 In Praise of Artisans: Ramon Marti, Georges Anawati, and the Importance of Languages 460
Wilhelmus Valkenberg 41 Lectio Divina and Comparative Reading in the History of Christian--Muslim Encounters 470
Rita George-Tvrtkovicì 42 Vicarious Voyage: What Difference Does Comparative Theology Make for Theology? 480
S. Mark Heim 43 Is There or Shall We Need a "Home" for Comparative Theologies? A Ru (Confucian) Response to Francis X. Clooney 491
Bin Song 44 Comparative Theology After Clooney 501
Hugh Nicholson Author Index 510 Subject Index 513
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