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Review Essay* Finding God with–and through–the Other

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 March 2012

Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad*
Affiliation:
Lancaster University

Extract

In a bold and complex book that refers to rigorous and close exegesis but progresses through cultivated intuition, Francis X. Clooney, S.J., the Parkman Professor of Divinity and Professor of Comparative Theology and Director of the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School, locates himself—and asks his readers to place themselves—in a place at once secure and vulnerable, liminal and yet centered, the place at which traditions blur at their boundaries and insights grace us from all directions. I imagine that it can be an unsettling and off-putting read to anyone for whom faith is an undaunted rejection of multiple traditions and theology a xenologically bound discipline. But for those who look at the diversity of the human condition in wonderment and seek theological methods suitable for that diversity, it offers many lessons; these may be unsettling, but in a way that sharpens their own balance, and quickens their own search. The book as a whole seeks to provide a programmatic but grounded case for the discipline of comparative theology, which is in many ways a relatively recent field in the academy.

Type
ARTICLES
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 2012

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References

* Francis X. Clooney, Comparative Theology: Deep Learning Across Religious Borders. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.