Comparative Theology - Deep Learning Across Religious Borders

Drawing upon the author’s three decades of work in comparative theology, this is a pertinent and comprehensive introduction to the field, which offers a clear guide to the reader, enabling them to engage in comparative study.
The author has three decades of experience of work in the field of comparative theology and is ideally placed to write this book
Today’s increasing religious diversity makes this a pertinent and timely publication
Unique in the depth of its introduction and explanation of the discipline of ‘comparative theology’
Provides examples of how comparative theology works in the new global context of human religiosity
Draws on examples specific to Hindu-Christian studies to show how it is possible to understand more deeply the wider diversity around us.
Clearly guides the reader, enabling them to engage in comparative study

Francis X. Clooney, S.J., is Parkman Professor of Divinity at Harvard University. His primary areas of scholarship are theological commentarial writings in the Sanskrit and Tamil traditions of Hindu India, and the developing field of comparative theology. He was the first president of the International Society for Hindu-Christian Studies, and, from 1998 to 2004, was coordinator for interreligious dialogue for the Jesuits of the United States. Professor Clooney is the author of numerous articles and books, including Hindu God, Christian God (2001), Divine Mother, Blessed Mother (2005), Jesuit Postmodern: Scholarship, Vocation, and Identity in the 21st Century (2006), Beyond Compare: St. Francis and Sri Vedanta Desika on Loving Surrender to God (2008), and The Truth, the Way, the Life: Christian Commentary on the Three Holy Mantras of the Srivaisnava Hindus (2008).

Preface and Acknowledgments.
Part I: Starting Points
1. Religious Diversity and Comparative Theology.
Diversity around Us.
Diversity within Us.
Comparative Theology as a Response to Twenty-first-Century Religious Diversity.
Distinguishing Comparative Theology from Related Disciplines.
Comparative Theology and the Academic Study of Religions.
Comparative Theology and Interreligious Dialogue.
Comparative Theology and the Theology of Religions.
Comparative Theology Autobiographically Grounded.
On the Limits of This Book.
Looking Ahead.
2. In Generations Past: Some Ancestors to Today’s Comparative Theology.
Comparative Theology and the Long History of Christian Interreligious Reflection.
Western Jesuit Scholars in India.
Comparative Theology as a Discipline (1699– ).
A Moderate Criticism of Missionary Scholarship and the Older Comparative Theology.
At the End of the Era.
3. Comparative Theology Today.
David Tracy.
Keith Ward.
Robert C. Neville.
A Note on Raimon Panikkar.
James Fredericks.
New Directions.
From Theory (Back) to Practice.
Part II: Doing Theology Comparatively:
4. From Theory to Practice.
The Practice of (Comparative) Religious Reading.
Intelligent Reading.
Commentary as a Religious Practice.
Interreligious Commentary.
Leaving Room for Other Readers and Their Readings.
Necessarily Elite Choices.
5. Getting Particular: A Christian Studies Hinduism.
The Importance of Focus.
(Self)Identifying This Particular Comparative Theologian.
Making a Map, Marking the Field: Hinduism in Brief.
Getting Particular: Mimamsa, Vedanta, and Srivaisnavism.
Appreciating Similarities.
Theistic Hinduism as a Useful and Comfortable Focus.
Theology as a Hindu Discipline.
Comparative Theology in Hinduism and Other Traditions.
My Comparative Theology, Indebted to Hindu Theologies.
6. "Learning to See": Comparative Practice and the Widening of Theological Vision
Plenary Address at the Catholic Theology Society of America, 2003.
Near a Goddess.
Devi’s Beauty, Devi’s Pleasure.
Rediscovering Mary.
Mary and Her Son Jesus, through Muslim Eyes.
Sojourner Truth’s Liberating God.
All in Christ, but Still All.
Vocation.
After "Learning to See".
Part III: The Fruits of Comparison:
7. Theology After Comparison.
Comparative Theology and the Larger Work of Theology.
The Multiple Responsibilities of the Comparative Theologian.
Some Theological Presuppositions Implicit in Comparative Theology.
Comparative Theological Learning, in Particular.
The Imago Dei and Our Destiny in Bliss.
What "Narayana" Might Mean for the Christian.
Encountering Goddesses.
Comparative Theology and the Intensification of Devotion.
Theology on a Smaller Scale.
8. "God for Us".
"God for Us": An Essay.
A Verse, a Clue.
What Hindus Thought about the Verse.
Living the Verse.
The Verse and Its Wider Context.
An Aside on How to See God and on How God Wills to Be Seen.
Noticing One’s First Citizenship: Reflection on Ignatian Insight and My Home Citizenship.
What Ignatius Had to Say.
Some Contemporary Views of the Intensification and Emptying of the Imagination in the Spiritual Exercises.
Multiple Religious Belonging, Human but Also Divine.
"God for Us" as Comparative Theology.
9. Comparative Writer, Comparative Reader.
The Comparative Theologian Transformed.
The Comparative Theologian as Marginal Person.
The Comparative Theologian’s New Community.
Tasks and Opportunities for the Reader.
Beyond This Book.
Notes.
Select Bibliography.
Index.