The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Comparative Theology

An incisive and original collection of the most engaging issues in contemporary comparative theology

In The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Comparative Theology, a team of distinguished scholars delivers a one-of-a-kind collection of essays on comparative theology. Honoring the groundbreaking work of Francis X. Clooney, S.J.--whose contributions to theology and religion will endure for generations--the included works explore seven key subjects in comparative theology, including its theory, method, history, influential contemporary developments, and potentially fruitful avenues for future discussion.

The editors provide essays that reflect on the critical, theoretical, and methodological aspects of comparative theology, as well as constructive and critical appraisals of Francis Clooney's scholarship. Over forty original contributions from internationally recognized scholars and insightful newcomers to the field are included within. Readers will also find:

• Insightful discussions of the larger implications of comparative theology beyond the discipline itself, especially as it relates to educational programs, institutions, and post-carceral life
• Robust promotion of the research methods and critical thinking present in Francis Clooney's work
• Practical discussions of the most pressing challenges and opportunities facing theological researchers today
• Papers from leading contributors located around the globe, including emerging voices from the global south

Perfect for advanced undergraduate and graduate students of theology and religious studies, The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Comparative Theology will also benefit scholars with an interest in comparative religion, interreligious studies, and interreligious theology.

Auteur

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.

Contenu

List of Contributors ix

Preface xiv
John B. Carman and William A. Graham

Acknowledgments xvi

Introduction xvii
Axel M. Oaks Takacs and Joseph L. Kimmel

Part I Theories and Methods in Comparative Theology 1

1 Five Insights on Method from Comparative Theology 3
Jason W. Smith

2 Imagining Religion, Intuiting Comparison: Comparing the Roles of Inner Sense in the Scholarship of Jonathan Z. Smith and Francis X. Clooney, SJ 13
Joseph L. Kimmel

3 Resisting Religious Relativism in Comparative Theology 21
Catherine Cornille

4 Grounding Theology of Religions in Comparative Theology: A Fulfillment Model in Reverse 32
Ruben L.F. Habito

5 Beyond the Text: Comparative Theology and Oral Cultures 43
Nougoutna Norbert Litoing

6 Faith Seeking Understanding or Understanding Seeking Faith? 51
Bennett DiDente Comerford

7 Kinesics, Proxemics, and Haptics: A Sakta Method for Comparative Theology 63
Pravina Rodrigues

Part II The Spirituality, Vocation, and Formation of the Comparative Theologian 77

8 "The One Who Prays Is a (Comparative) Theologian": The Spirituality of Francis X. Clooney's Comparative Method 79
Christopher Conway

9 Settling the Seer: "Deep Learning" and the Yoga of Slowness 89
Michelle Bentsman

10 Comparative Theology Embodied: The Mentorship, Methodology, and Ministry of Francis X. Clooney 95
Katie Mahowski Mylroie

11 Performance and Engagement: Reconsidering Religious Experience in Contemporary Comparative Theology 104
Reid B. Locklin

12 A Fowlerian Perspective on the Faith of the Comparativist 115
Erik Ranstrom

13 Comparative Theology as Process Not Conclusion: Francis Clooney on the Proper Formation of Comparative Theological Readers 129
John J. Thatamanil

Part III Comparative Theology and the Society of Jesus 139

14 Comparing Jesuits: Roberto de Nobili, Henri de Lubac, and Francis X. Clooney 141
James Fredericks

15 Francis X. Clooney, SJ: Jesuit, Scholar, Missionary 151
Christian S. Krokus

16 The Ignatian Tradition and the Intellectual Virtues of a Comparative Theologian 162
Peng Yin

17 Wonder Grasps Anything: Punctuation and Patristic Theology in the Early Colonial Philippines 173
Maria Cecilia Holt

Part IV E xpanding on Francis X. Clooney's Corpus 185

18 The Interpretation of Scripture in the Comparative Theology of Francis X. Clooney 187
Leo D. Lefebure

19 "Good Dark Love Birds, Will You Help?": Comparative Reflections on Clooney's His Hiding Place Is Darkness 198
Kimberley C. Patton

20 "Paradoxology": The Srivaisnava Art of Praising Visnu 209
Vasudha Narayanan

21 Hymns on Mary in Hindu--Muslim--Christian Dialogue 225
Klaus von Stosch

22 Mary and Motherhood -- A Comparatively Informed Reconsideration 235
Mara Brecht

Part V E xercises in Comparative Theology 247

23 Transformational Liberation in the Age of COVID-19: A Comparative Theology of "the Good Woman" 249
Tracy Sayuki Tiemeier

24 And the Angels Wept: How Jewish and Hindu Narratives May Enrich Each Other 260
Arvind Sharma

25 Modification, Emanation, and Parinama-Vada in Medieval Theistic Vedanta and Kabbalah 268
Ithamar Theodor

26 Advancing the Ritual-Liturgical Turn in Comparative Theology: Good Friday as a Case Study 280
Daniel Joslyn-Siemiatkoski

27 Creative Fidelity in Expanding the Canon 291
Scott Steinkerchner, OP and Martin Badenhorst, OP

28 Slow Reading of Beautiful Writing: Calligraphy as Vehicle for Comparative Theology 302
Lucinda Mosher

29 Joy in the Earth: A Christian Cosmology Based on Agapic Nondualism 313
Jon Paul Sydnor

30 Perceiving Divinity, Cultivating Wonder: A Christian--Islamic Comparative Theological Essay on Balthasar's Gestalt 326
Axel M. Oaks Takacs

31 Paradoxes of Desire in St John of the Cross and Solomon ibn Gabirol: Thinking with Poetry in Comparative Theology 345
Luis Manuel Giron-Negron

Part VI Comparative Theology Beyond the Discipline 371

32 Locating the Self in the Study of Religion: Francis Clooney and the Experiment of Hindu--Christian Studies 373
Jonathan Edelmann

33 Learning Interreligiously as Public Theology: Limits and Possibilities for Institutional Leaders 389
Michelle Voss Roberts

34 Comparative Theology and Public Theology: In Search of a Responsible Theology Today 400
Albertus Bagus Laksana

35 God Meets Us There: Prison as True Home for the Christian Comparative Theologian 411
Mark J. Edwards

Part VII The Past, Present, and Future of Comparative Theology 419

36 Comparative Theology Beyond Religionization 421
Marianne Moyaert

37 Asking an Unusual Question of Kabir and Kazi Nazrul Islam 431
Rachel Fell McDermott

38 Comparative Theology avant la lettre? A Muslim "Deep Reading" of the Ramayana in Early Modern South Asia 442
Shankar Nair

39 Creativity and Resistance in Comparative Theology: Lessons from Eighteenth-Century Korea 449
Won-Jae Hur

40 In Praise of Artisans: Ramon Marti, Georges Anawati, and the Importance of L…