LEADER 04458nam 2200577 450 001 9910823116403321 005 20230822234922.0 010 $a0-8232-8854-4 024 7 $a10.1515/9780823288540 035 $a(CKB)4100000011286410 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC6220290 035 $a(DE-B1597)566207 035 $a(DE-B1597)9780823288540 035 $a(OCoLC)1198931296 035 $a(EXLCZ)994100000011286410 100 $a20201014d2020 uy 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aurcnu|||||||| 181 $ctxt$2rdacontent 182 $cc$2rdamedia 183 $acr$2rdacarrier 200 10$aCircling the elephant $ea comparative theology of religious diversity /$fJohn J. Thatamanil 210 1$aNew York :$cFordham University Press,$d[2020] 210 4$dİ2020 215 $a1 online resource (xviii, 296 pages) 225 1 $aComparative theology: thinking across traditions 327 $tFront matter --$tContents --$tPreface: Autobiography and Comparative Theology --$tNote on Transliteration --$tIntroduction: Revisiting an Old Tale --$t1. Religious Difference and Christian Theology: Thinking About, Thinking With, and Thinking Through --$t2. The Limits and Promise of Exclusivism and Inclusivism: Assessing Major Options in Theologies of Religious Diversity --$t3. No One Ascends Alone: Toward a Relational Pluralism --$t4. Comparative Theology after Religion? --$t5. Defining the Religious: Comprehensive Qualitative Orientation --$t6. The Hospitality of Receiving: Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Interreligious Learning --$t7. God as Ground, Singularity, and Relation: Trinity and Religious Diversity --$t8. This Is Not a Conclusion --$tAcknowledgments --$tNotes --$tIndex 330 $aChristian theologians have for some decades affirmed that they have no monopoly on encounters with God or ultimate reality and that other religions also have access to religious truth and transformation. If that is the case, the time has come for Christians not only to learn about but also from their religious neighbors. Circling the Elephant affirms that the best way to be truly open to the mystery of the infinite is to move away from defensive postures of religious isolationism and self-sufficiency and to move, in vulnerability and openness, toward the mystery of the neighbor. Employing the ancient Indian allegory of the elephant and blind(folded) men, John J. Thatamanil argues for the integration of three often-separated theological projects: theologies of religious diversity (the work of accounting for why there are so many different understandings of the elephant), comparative theology (the venture of walking over to a different side of the elephant), and constructive theology (the endeavor of re-describing the elephant in light of the other two tasks).Circling the Elephant also offers an analysis of why we have fallen short in the past. Interreligious learning has been obstructed by problematic ideas about ?religion? and ?religions,? Thatamanil argues, while also pointing out the troubling resonances between reified notions of ?religion? and ?race.? He contests these notions and offers a new theory of the religious that makes interreligious learning both possible and desirable. Christians have much to learn from their religious neighbors, even about such central features of Christian theology as Christ and the Trinity. This book envisions religious diversity as a promise, not a problem, and proposes a new theology of religious diversity that opens the door to robust interreligious learning and Christian transformation through encountering the other. 410 0$aComparative theology--thinking across traditions. 606 $aChristianity and other religions 606 $aReligious pluralism 606 $aReligions$xRelations 610 $aComparative theology. 610 $aTrinity. 610 $aconstructive theology. 610 $agenealogy of religion. 610 $ainterreligious dialogue. 610 $ainterreligious hospitality. 610 $atheology of religions. 615 0$aChristianity and other religions. 615 0$aReligious pluralism. 615 0$aReligions$xRelations. 676 $a261.2 700 $aThatamanil$b John J.$01712331 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910823116403321 996 $aCircling the elephant$94104370 997 $aUNINA