Acknowledgements
How is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?
Acts of the Apostles, 2:8
This companion to comparative theology brings together scholars and practitioners from many different cultural and religious traditions who try to listen and to understand one another across linguistic boundaries. For me, a scholar from Europe working in the United States of America, two scholarly societies have been instrumental in bringing together these voices: the Catholic Theological Society of America and the American Academy of Religion. It was at an annual convention of the CTSA in Milwaukee, seven years ago, that I started a conversation with Mirjam Elbers, acquisitions editor at Brill Publishers, since I had never associated this particular publisher with Catholic theology. But yes, they were interested and maybe I could think about a contribution on comparative theology for a series on Modern Theology? Not being a native speaker, and certainly not familiar with all possible forms of comparative theology, I started to look for associate editors, and I was happy to engage the great experience and friendship of Jim Fredericks. At that time, Frank Clooney was not immediately convinced of the usefulness of a handbook, but he graciously helped shaping the project anyway. Meanwhile, the American Academy of Religion gave me the opportunity to connect with Kristin Johnston Largen, Marianne Moyaert and Bede Bidlack who were my colleagues as co-chairs of the Comparative Theology unit in the AAR. These friendships and collaborations in the two scholarly societies make it possible to survey a field – albeit from a Western academic perspective and lacking native and African voices – in such a way that the different voices from many cultural and religious and scholarly traditions can journey together to bring you this book.
Finally, I want to thank Tessel Jonquière, Ingrid Heijckers-Velt, and Peter Buschman for their help getting this book into excellent shape, and last but certainly not least my PhD students Ghada Ghazal and Kate Kelly Middleton for the joy of collaborating with me on this book project. We were together as part of an Emerging Religious Leaders project when we heard the words quoted above on Pentecost 2022.
Pim Valkenberg