Wiley Blackwell Companion to Comparative Theology

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.

• List of Contributors ixPreface xivJohn B. Carman and William A. GrahamAcknowledgments xviIntroduction xviiAxel M. Oaks Takacs and Joseph L. KimmelPart I Theories and Methods in Comparative Theology 11 Five Insights on Method from Comparative Theology 3Jason W. Smith2 Imagining Religion, Intuiting Comparison: Comparing the Roles of Inner Sense in the Scholarship of Jonathan Z. Smith and Francis X. Clooney, SJ 13Joseph L. Kimmel3 Resisting Religious Relativism in Comparative Theology 21Catherine Cornille4 Grounding Theology of Religions in Comparative Theology: A Fulfillment Model in Reverse 32Ruben L.F. Habito5 Beyond the Text: Comparative Theology and Oral Cultures 43Nougoutna Norbert Litoing6 Faith Seeking Understanding or Understanding Seeking Faith? 51Bennett DiDente Comerford7 Kinesics, Proxemics, and Haptics: A Sakta Method for Comparative Theology 63Pravina RodriguesPart II The Spirituality, Vocation, and Formation of the Comparative Theologian 778 "The One Who Prays Is a (Comparative) Theologian": The Spirituality of Francis X. Clooney's Comparative Method 79Christopher Conway9 Settling the Seer: "Deep Learning" and the Yoga of Slowness 89Michelle Bentsman10 Comparative Theology Embodied: The Mentorship, Methodology, and Ministry of Francis X. Clooney 95Katie Mahowski Mylroie11 Performance and Engagement: Reconsidering Religious Experience in Contemporary Comparative Theology 104Reid B. Locklin12 A Fowlerian Perspective on the Faith of the Comparativist 115Erik Ranstrom13 Comparative Theology as Process Not Conclusion: Francis Clooney on the Proper Formation of Comparative Theological Readers 129John J. ThatamanilPart III Comparative Theology and the Society of Jesus 13914 Comparing Jesuits: Roberto de Nobili, Henri de Lubac, and Francis X. Clooney 141James Fredericks15 Francis X. Clooney, SJ: Jesuit, Scholar, Missionary 151Christian S. Krokus16 The Ignatian Tradition and the Intellectual Virtues of a Comparative Theologian 162Peng Yin17 Wonder Grasps Anything: Punctuation and Patristic Theology in the Early Colonial Philippines 173Maria Cecilia HoltPart IV E xpanding on Francis X. Clooney's Corpus 18518 The Interpretation of Scripture in the Comparative Theology of Francis X. Clooney 187Leo D. Lefebure19 "Good Dark Love Birds, Will You Help?": Comparative Reflections on Clooney's His Hiding Place Is Darkness 198Kimberley C. Patton20 "Paradoxology": The Srivaisnava Art of Praising Visnu 209Vasudha Narayanan21 Hymns on Mary in Hindu--Muslim--Christian Dialogue 225Klaus von Stosch22 Mary and Motherhood -- A Comparatively Informed Reconsideration 235Mara BrechtPart V E xercises in Comparative Theology 24723 Transformational Liberation in the Age of COVID-19: A Comparative Theology of "the Good Woman" 249Tracy Sayuki Tiemeier24 And the Angels Wept: How Jewish and Hindu Narratives May Enrich Each Other 260Arvind Sharma25 Modification, Emanation, and Parinama-Vada in Medieval Theistic Vedanta and Kabbalah 268Ithamar Theodor26 Advancing the Ritual-Liturgical Turn in Comparative Theology: Good Friday as a Case Study 280Daniel Joslyn-Siemiatkoski27 Creative Fidelity in Expanding the Canon 291Scott Steinkerchner, OP and Martin Badenhorst, OP28 Slow Reading of Beautiful Writing: Calligraphy as Vehicle for Comparative Theology 302Lucinda Mosher29 Joy in the Earth: A Christian Cosmology Based on Agapic Nondualism 313Jon Paul Sydnor30 Perceiving Divinity, Cultivating Wonder: A Christian--Islamic Comparative Theological Essay on Balthasar's Gestalt 326Axel M. Oaks Takacs31 Paradoxes of Desire in St John of the Cross and Solomon ibn Gabirol: Thinking with Poetry in Comparative Theology 345Luis Manuel Giron-NegronPart VI Comparative Theology Beyond the Discipline 37132 Locating the Self in the Study of Religion: Francis Clooney and the Experiment of Hindu--Christian Studies 373Jonathan Edelmann33 Learning Interreligiously as Public Theology: Limits and Possibilities for Institutional Leaders 389Michelle Voss Roberts34 Comparative Theology and Public Theology: In Search of a Responsible Theology Today 400Albertus Bagus Laksana35 God Meets Us There: Prison as True Home for the Christian Comparative Theologian 411Mark J. EdwardsPart VII The Past, Present, and Future of Comparative Theology 41936 Comparative Theology Beyond Religionization 421Marianne Moyaert37 Asking an Unusual Question of Kabir and Kazi Nazrul Islam 431Rachel Fell McDermott38 Comparative Theology avant la lettre? A Muslim "Deep Reading" of the Ramayana in Early Modern South Asia 442Shankar Nair39 Creativity and Resistance in Comparative Theology: Lessons from Eighteenth-Century Korea 449Won-Jae Hur40 In Praise of Artisans: Ramon Marti, Georges Anawati, and the Importance of Languages 460Wilhelmus Valkenberg41 Lectio Divina and Comparative Reading in the History of Christian--Muslim Encounters 470Rita George-Tvrtkovicì42 Vicarious Voyage: What Difference Does Comparative Theology Make for Theology? 480S. Mark Heim43 Is There or Shall We Need a "Home" for Comparative Theologies? A Ru (Confucian) Response to Francis X. Clooney 491Bin Song44 Comparative Theology After Clooney 501Hugh NicholsonAuthor Index 510Subject Index 513