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Studies on the Contact between Christianity and Other Religions, Beliefs, and Cultures
A series emerging from discussions within an interdisciplinary research group at the Free University of Amsterdam, Currents of Encounter deals with specific concerns of theology of religion, philosophy of religion, comparative religion, and missiology, exploring the relation between the Christian faith and contemporary culture as well as the encounter between Asian, African, Latin American, and Western contextualizations of Christianity.
The aim of Currents of Encounter is to stimulate discussion and reflection on its theme from various presuppositional and methodological points of view. The underlying assumption of this aim is that the interdisciplinary avenue - neither an exclusively positivist nor a purely normative theological approach - provides the best means of access to a better understanding of the problems and potentialities inherent in the encounter between Christianity and the world of which it is a part.
The aim of Currents of Encounter is to stimulate discussion and reflection on its theme from various presuppositional and methodological points of view. The underlying assumption of this aim is that the interdisciplinary avenue - neither an exclusively positivist nor a purely normative theological approach - provides the best means of access to a better understanding of the problems and potentialities inherent in the encounter between Christianity and the world of which it is a part.
The book series Studies in Religion and the Arts promotes the development of discourses for exploring the religious dimensions of the verbal, visual and performing arts. The goal of the series is to form an international and multi-disciplinary forum for the scholarly discussion on the expression of religious sentiments in art.
The series has published an average of one volume per year over the last 5 years.
The series has published an average of one volume per year over the last 5 years.
Abstract
The present essay aims at exploring the issue of the freedom of research in the Academic Study of Religion. This essay brings together questions, arguments, and narratives in the framework of which the issue has been addressed and expressed. By adopting the approach of the ‘discursive research’, I seek to trace the production of the meaning of ‘freedom’ that is legitimated and shared in the Academic Study of Religion. I shall give a breakdown of this process of meaning-production along the following lines: the authority, the rights, and the impartiality of science particularly with regard to both the concept of ‘(Religious)Value-Free’ and the program of the ‘academic freedom from religion’. Besides I describe a counter-narrative based on what I may call ‘Non-Religious-Value’-Free and the academic program of the ‘autonomy of religion’. Eventually, I acknowledge a complementarity between the two narratives, as well as between the notions of facts-given and god/church-given freedom. The central takeaway of the essay is the recognition of a binary opposition between the senses of freedom along these lines.
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Die vorliegende Reihe möchte das Gespräch der christlichen Theologien mit nichtchristlichem Nachdenken über die letzte Wirklichkeit beflügeln und ein Forum für die sich neu entwickelnde Forschungsrichtung der Komparativen Theologie bieten. Dabei geht es darum, Wege zum Verstehen nichtchristlicher Religionen auszuloten, in denen die Verschiedenheit der je anderen Weltzugänge angemessen gewürdigt wird, ohne die Geltungsansprüche der eigenen Religion in unzulässiger Weise zu relativieren. Zugleich geht es darum, Debatten zwischen christlichen Theologien und nichtchristlichen Weltzugängen nachzuzeichnen und so ein freundschaftlich-solidarisches Ringen um die eine Wahrheit aus der Sicht verschiedener Religionen zu stärken. Und schließlich soll hermeneutisch zu einem besseren Verstehen über Religionsgrenzen hinweg beigetragen werden. Getragen sind diese Bemühungen von der Einsicht, dass das bessere Kennenlernen der anderen immer auch eine Hilfe ist, um sich selbst besser zu verstehen und das eigene Nachdenken über Gott bzw. die letzte Wirklichkeit zu vertiefen.
Um diese Ziele zu erreichen, kommen in den Beiträgen zur Komparativen Theologie Theologen und Theologinnen bzw. Gelehrte verschiedener religiöser Traditionen miteinander und mit Vertreterinnen und Vertretern der Religions- und Kulturwissenschaften ins Gespräch, um so im interdisziplinären Gespräch die religionsbezogene Forschung zu vertiefen und im Methodenspektrum zu erweitern. Dabei werden gesellschaftlich brisante und für das interreligiöse Gespräch zentrale Fragestellungen ausgewählt und theologisch bearbeitet. Der Vergleich über Religionsgrenzen hinweg soll auf diese Weise Orientierungsleistungen für Menschen heute erbringen und das dialogische Profil der Theologien schärfen.
The book series, Contributions to Comparative Theology, stimulates the conversation of theologies of different religions and provides a forum for the newly developing research field of Comparative Theology. It advances ways to fathom and understand other religions, in which the diversity of another’s religious view of the world is adequately acknowledged without impermissibly relativizing the truth claims of one's own religion. At the same time, the series portrays real debates between Christian theologies and non-Christian worldviews, showing the ways in which a friendly pursuit of the one truth can be charted without compromising the integrity of one’s own religious commitments. Finally, by working hermeneutically, this series contributes to a better understanding of the differences that lie across religious boundaries. These efforts are underlined by the awareness that getting to know each other better is also helpful to arrive at a better understanding of one’s self and to deepen one's thinking about God – or ultimate reality.
To achieve these goals, theologians of various religious traditions come together in conversation with each other and also with representatives of religious and cultural studies. In the ensuing interdisciplinary dialogue, understandings of religion are deepened and expanded as socially and religiously challenging issues and topics, particularly those that feature prominently in interreligious conversation, are investigated theologically to reveal the unique contribution that Comparative Theology can make to advancing a civil dialogue and a civic culture. Theological investigations across disciplinary and religious boundaries thus provide resources for sharpening the dialogical profile of different theologies through the medium of Comparative Theology.
Um diese Ziele zu erreichen, kommen in den Beiträgen zur Komparativen Theologie Theologen und Theologinnen bzw. Gelehrte verschiedener religiöser Traditionen miteinander und mit Vertreterinnen und Vertretern der Religions- und Kulturwissenschaften ins Gespräch, um so im interdisziplinären Gespräch die religionsbezogene Forschung zu vertiefen und im Methodenspektrum zu erweitern. Dabei werden gesellschaftlich brisante und für das interreligiöse Gespräch zentrale Fragestellungen ausgewählt und theologisch bearbeitet. Der Vergleich über Religionsgrenzen hinweg soll auf diese Weise Orientierungsleistungen für Menschen heute erbringen und das dialogische Profil der Theologien schärfen.
The book series, Contributions to Comparative Theology, stimulates the conversation of theologies of different religions and provides a forum for the newly developing research field of Comparative Theology. It advances ways to fathom and understand other religions, in which the diversity of another’s religious view of the world is adequately acknowledged without impermissibly relativizing the truth claims of one's own religion. At the same time, the series portrays real debates between Christian theologies and non-Christian worldviews, showing the ways in which a friendly pursuit of the one truth can be charted without compromising the integrity of one’s own religious commitments. Finally, by working hermeneutically, this series contributes to a better understanding of the differences that lie across religious boundaries. These efforts are underlined by the awareness that getting to know each other better is also helpful to arrive at a better understanding of one’s self and to deepen one's thinking about God – or ultimate reality.
To achieve these goals, theologians of various religious traditions come together in conversation with each other and also with representatives of religious and cultural studies. In the ensuing interdisciplinary dialogue, understandings of religion are deepened and expanded as socially and religiously challenging issues and topics, particularly those that feature prominently in interreligious conversation, are investigated theologically to reveal the unique contribution that Comparative Theology can make to advancing a civil dialogue and a civic culture. Theological investigations across disciplinary and religious boundaries thus provide resources for sharpening the dialogical profile of different theologies through the medium of Comparative Theology.
Is the Sublime Sustainable? introduces the key points of debate around the sublime while opening new avenues for future inquiry, especially through its comparative aesthetics approach. In it, you will discover how thinking on the sublime emerged historically and then engage with the recent critical scholarship on the topic, including from the fields of theology, philosophy, and literature. The critiques of the sublime are then expanded in dialogue with perspectives from Japanese aesthetics and art, shaping the argument that what is needed today is a sublime that enriches human lives by cultivating profound, participative relationships.
Is the Sublime Sustainable? introduces the key points of debate around the sublime while opening new avenues for future inquiry, especially through its comparative aesthetics approach. In it, you will discover how thinking on the sublime emerged historically and then engage with the recent critical scholarship on the topic, including from the fields of theology, philosophy, and literature. The critiques of the sublime are then expanded in dialogue with perspectives from Japanese aesthetics and art, shaping the argument that what is needed today is a sublime that enriches human lives by cultivating profound, participative relationships.
Christianity, Violence, and Empire in the Nineteenth Century
Volume Editor:
Pacifying Missions provides the first sustained examination of peace and missionary work in the context of the British Empire. It interrogates diverse missionary projects from Africa and the Pacific region, unfolding a variegated world of ideas, discourses, and actions. The volume yields compelling evidence for a reconsideration of peace as a vital focus for analysis in the history of Christian mission. It also reveals a landscape of peace that was plural, dynamic, and contested, worked out in specific contexts, and deeply entangled with understandings and experiences of violence.
Contributors to this volume are: Geoffrey Troughton, Elizabeth Elbourne, Jane Samson, David Maxwell, Norman Etherington, Esme Cleall, Amy Stambach, Joanna Cruickshank, and Bronwyn Shepherd.
Contributors to this volume are: Geoffrey Troughton, Elizabeth Elbourne, Jane Samson, David Maxwell, Norman Etherington, Esme Cleall, Amy Stambach, Joanna Cruickshank, and Bronwyn Shepherd.
Christianity, Violence, and Empire in the Nineteenth Century
Volume Editor:
Pacifying Missions provides the first sustained examination of peace and missionary work in the context of the British Empire. It interrogates diverse missionary projects from Africa and the Pacific region, unfolding a variegated world of ideas, discourses, and actions. The volume yields compelling evidence for a reconsideration of peace as a vital focus for analysis in the history of Christian mission. It also reveals a landscape of peace that was plural, dynamic, and contested, worked out in specific contexts, and deeply entangled with understandings and experiences of violence.
Contributors to this volume are: Geoffrey Troughton, Elizabeth Elbourne, Jane Samson, David Maxwell, Norman Etherington, Esme Cleall, Amy Stambach, Joanna Cruickshank, and Bronwyn Shepherd.
Contributors to this volume are: Geoffrey Troughton, Elizabeth Elbourne, Jane Samson, David Maxwell, Norman Etherington, Esme Cleall, Amy Stambach, Joanna Cruickshank, and Bronwyn Shepherd.
Abstract
This article is a study on the miniature clay Buddha tablets and stupas collected by the Ōtani Expedition presently at the National Museum of Korea. Similar examples were found in the Dunhuang cave temples, Buddhist stupas of Xi Xia, and through English and American expeditions of the early twentieth century. A comparative study establishes the functions and characteristics unique to the Ōtani clay tablets and stupas. Such artifacts were once believed to absolve the transgressions of the dead or commissioner, while also allowing one to accumulate merits for an improved afterlife. Well-suited for Buddhist missionary work, these tablets and stupas were produced in all regions where Buddhism was prevalent. Though small and made from a modest material, the miniature clay tablets and stupas represent an important genre of Buddhist art that expresses the universal role of religious art.
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