Beyond Agreement

Interreligious Dialogue amid Persistent Differences

By (author) Scott Steinkerchner Foreword by Francis X. Clooney, SJ

Publication date:

16 November 2010

Length of book:

206 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Dimensions:

227x148mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9781442206427

Beyond Agreement addresses the thorny question of how to make interreligious dialogue productive when the religious differences are so large that finding common ground seems unlikely. The book offers a way to think about interreligious dialogue that allows people to stay committed to their own truth as they have come to know it while being open to learning from other religions. It then outlines a way for Christian theologians to enter into a profitable dialogue with the beliefs and traditions of other religions by presenting practical steps to follow in order to keep the dialogue productive and respectful of similarities and differences among religions.

Chapter 1: The Problem and Promise of Interreligious Dialogue
Notes
Chapter 2: The Relativity of Certainty
The Context
Language-Games and Family-Resemblance
Meaning
World-Pictures
Doubts and Mistakes
Certainty
How Similar Must World-Pictures Be?
Scientific Evidence
Notes
Chapter 3: Talking Across Certainties
The Context
Letting the Difference Make a Difference
Working with Multiple World-Pictures
Religions and World-Pictures
How Different Can World-Pictures Be?
Engaging in Dialogue across Disparate World-Pictures
Other Interpretations of Wittgenstein
Notes
Chapter 4: A Model Dialogue across Disparate World-Pictures
The Tao Te Ching
The Tao
Effective Leadership
Wu-wei
The Gospel of John
The Arrest (18:1-12)
Before the High Priest (18:13-28)
Pilate's Trial (18:28b-19:16)
Jesus' Ressurection
Conclusions
Notes
Chapter 5: Principles and Practices of Comparative Theology
How to Engage in Comparative Projects
Beyond These Comparisons, What Might We Gain? What Do We Risk?
Notes
Bibliography

This book joins the growing rank of distinguished works on religious pluralism, interreligious dialogue, and comparative theology and will be a necessary reading for those interested in these challenging themes.