Religious Pluralism and Truth

Thomas Dean is Associate Professor in the Department of Religion at Temple University. He is co-founder of the newly-established International Association of Asian Philosophy and Religion.

"This anthology helpfully and provocatively questions many current assumptions in various schools of scholarship about the value-free nature, or ethical, cultural, and rational relativism, inherent to the comparative study of religions. This I think in itself makes the book important and helpful. Moreover, many of the essays suggest and evaluate possible normative-constructive criteria appropriate to the cross-cultural philosophy of religion, and some essays also helpfully raise and clarify some of the methodological weaknesses of past comparative studies." — Michael Stoeber, The Catholic University of America

• Preface Introduction: Cross-Cultural Philosophy of ReligionThomas Dean Part I. Religious Pluralism and Cross-Cultural Truth 1. The Philosophy of Worldviews, or the Philosophy of Religion TransformedNinian Smart 2. Philosophical Pluralism and the Plurality of ReligionsRaimundo Panikkar 3. Religious Pluralism and the Future of ReligionsHarold Coward Part II. Criteria of Cross-Cultural Truth in Religion 4. Truth, Criteria and Dialogue Between ReligionsNinian Smart 5. Doctrinal Schemes, Metaphysics and Propositional TruthWilliam J. Wainwright 6. Religious Pluralism and Cross-Cultural Criteria of Religious TruthMary Ann Stenger Part III. Models of Cross-Cultural Truth in  Religion 7. The Logic of Oppositions of Religious DoctrinesWilliam A. Christian, Sr. 8. The Doctrines of a Religious Community about Other ReligionsJoseph A. DiNoia 9. The Logic of Interreligious DialogueNorbert M. Samuelson 10. Gadamer's Hermeneutics as a Model for Cross-Cultural Understanding and Truth in ReligionMary Ann Stenger Part IV. Hermeneutics of Cross-Cultural Truth in Religion 11. Rethinking the Doctrine of Double-Truth: Ambiguity, Relativity and UniversalityConrad Hyers 12. Mystical Experience as a Bridge for Cross-Cultural Philosophy of Religion: A CritiqueJohn Y. Fenton 13. Structures of Ultimate Transformation and the Hermeneutics o fCross-cultural Philosophy of ReligionFrderick J. Streng 14. The Hermeneutics of Comparative Ontology and Comparative TheologyAshok K. Gangadean Notes Contributors Index