Traditions-Directed Approach in the Comparative Philosophy of Religion
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35469/poligrafi.2022.246Keywords:
traditions-oriented comparative study, comparative philosophy of religion, comparative philosophy, comparative theologyAbstract
This paper aimed to present a novel approach to the comparative philosophy of religion which I call traditions-oriented. It is related to and yet distinct from both comparative philosophy and confessional (tradition-oriented) comparative theology. This paper begins with a reflection on the meaning and employment of ‘comparison’ in the context of philosophical analysis. What follows is an analysis of the nature of the comparative practice conducted under the umbrella concept of the comparative philosophy of religion. After sketching out the developmental trajectory of research through which a traditions-oriented, non-neutral, comparative philosophy of religion can emerge, the articulation and implementation of a global monotheistic philosophy of religion is suggested. Two case-studies from the area of Muslim-Christian comparative reflection are used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach developed in this paper.
References
Akay Dag, Esra. Christian and Islamic Theology of Religions: A Critical Appraisal. 1 online resource vols. Routledge Studies in Religion, 56. New York: Routledge, 2017.
Algar, Hamid. “Allama Siyyid Muhammad Hussain Tabatabai: Philosopher, Exegete, and Gnostic.” Journal of Islamic Studies 17, no. 3 (2006): 326–351.
Andrejč, Gorazd. Wittgenstein and Interreligious Disagreement: A Philosophical and Theological Perspective. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-49823-6.
Andrejč, Gorazd, and Daniel H. Weiss, eds. Interpreting Interreligious Relations with Wittgenstein: Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies. 1 online resource vols. Philosophy of Religion - World Religions Ser. Leiden: Brill, 2019.
Angle, Stephen C. “The Minimal Definition and Methodology of Comparative Philosophy: A Report from a Conference.” Comparative Philosophy: An International Journal of Constructive Engagement of Distinct Approaches toward World Philosophy 1, no. 1 (2010). https://doi.org/10.31979/2151-6014(2010).010109.
Beaney, Michael. “Conceptions of Analysis in Analytic Philosophy.” In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, edited by Edward N. Zalta, 2021. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/analysis/s6.html.
Brakel, Jaap van, and Lin Ma. “Necessary Preconditions of the Practice of Comparative Philosophy.” In Comparative Philosophy and Method: Contemporary Practices and Future Possibilities, edited by Steven Burik, Robert Smid, and Ralph Weber, 31–52. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2022. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350155053.
Burrell, David B. “Analogy, Creation, and Theological Language.” In The Theology of Thomas Aquinas, edited by Rik Van Nieuwenhove and Joseph Wawrykow. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2010.
Burrell, David B. Aquinas: God and Action. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1979.
Burrell, David B. Freedom and Creation in Three Traditions. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1993.
Burrell, David B. Towards a Jewish-Christian-Muslim Theology. 1 online resource vols. Challenges in Contemporary Theology. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011.
Cheetham, David. “Comparative Philosophy of Religion.” In Contemporary Practice and Method in the Philosophy of Religion: New Essays, edited by David Cheetham and Rolfe King, 101–117. Continuum Religious Studies. London: Continuum, 2008.
Chimakonam, Jonathan O., and Amara E. Chimakonam. “Two Problems of Comparative Philosophy: Why Conversational Thinking Is a Veritable Methodological Option.” In Comparative Philosophy and Method: Contemporary Practices and Future Possibilities, edited by Steven Burik, Robert Smid, and Ralph Weber, 223–239. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2022. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350155053.
Clooney, Francis X. “Catholic Roots for the Discipline.” In A Companion to Comparative Theology, edited by Pim Valkenberg, Marianne Moyaert, Kristin Johnston-Largen, James Fredericks, and Bede Benjamin Bidlack, 31–49. Brill’s Companions to Modern Theology, Volume 2. Leiden: Brill, 2022.
Clooney, Francis X. “The Emerging Field of Comparative Theology: A Bibliographic Review.” Heological Studies 56, no. 3 (September 1995): 521–550.
Clooney, Francis X. Comparative Theology: Deep Learning across Religious Borders. Malden, Mass.: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.
Cornille, Catherine. Meaning and Method in Comparative Theology. Hoboken: Wiley, 2020.
Cornille, Catherine. “The Problem of Choice in Comparative Theology.” In How to Do Comparative Theology, edited by Francis X. Clooney and Klaus von Stosch. New York, US: Fordham University Press, 2018.
Fleming, J. “Comparative Philosophy: Its Aims and Methods.” Journal of Chinese Philosophy 30, no. 2 (2003): 259–270.
Fredericks, James L. “Introduction.” In The New Comparative Theology: Interreligious Insights from the next Generation, edited by Francis X. Clooney. London: T & T Clark, 2010.
Hedges, Paul. Controversies in Interreligious Dialogue and the Theology of Religions. Controversies in Contextual Theology Series. London: SCM Press, 2010.
Khorchide, Mouhanad, and Klaus Von Stosch. The Other Prophet: Jesus in the Qur’an. Translated by Simon Pare. Interfaith Series. Chicago: The Gingko Library, 2019.
Krishna, Daya. “Comparative Philosophy: What It Is and What It Ought to Be.” Diogenes 34, no. 136 (1986): 58–69. https://doi.org/10.1177/039219218603413604.
Legenhausen, Muhammad. “Allamah Tabataba’i and Contemporary Philosophical Theology.” In Contemporary Topics of Islamic Thought. Tehran: Alhoda, 2000.
Ma, Lin, and Jaap van Brakel. Fundamentals of Comparative and Intercultural Philosophy. 1 online resource vols. SUNY Series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2016.
Ma, Lin, and Jaap van Brakel. “On the Conditions of Possibility for Comparative and Intercultural Philosophy.” Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 12, no. 3 (2013): 297–312. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11712-013-9330-5.
Masson-Oursel, Paul, and Harold E. McCarthy. “True Philosophy Is Comparative Philosophy.” Philosophy East and West 1, no. 1 (1951): 6–9. https://doi.org/10.2307/1396931.
Moyaert, Marianne. “Postliberalism, Religious Diversity, and Interreligious Dialogue: A Critical Analysis of George Lindbeck’s Fi Duciary Interests.” Journal of Ecumenical Studies 47, no. 1 (2012): 64–86.
Moyaert, Marianne. “Recent Developments in the Theology of Interreligious Dialogue: From Soteriological Openness to Hermeneutical Openness.” Modern Theology 28, no. 1 (2012): 25–52. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0025.2011.01724.x.
Nasr, Siyyid Huseyn. “Introduction.” In Muhammad Huseyn Tabatabai, Shiite Islam. Translated by Siyyid Huseyn Nasr. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1975.
Panikkar, Raimundo. “What Is Comparative Philosophy Comparing?” In Interpreting Across Boundaries: New Essays in Comparative Philosophy, edited by Eliot Deutsch & Gerald James Larson, 116–136. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988.
Schmidt-Leukel, Perry. Religious Pluralism and Interreligious Theology: The Gifford Lectures--an Extended Edition. 1 online resource vols. Gifford Lectures. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 2017.
Smid, Robert W. Methodologies of Comparative Philosophy: The Pragmatist and Process Traditions. SUNY Series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2009.
Smith, Jonathan Z. “Prologue: In Comparison a Magic Dwells Jonathan Z. Smith.” In A Magic Still Dwells: Comparative Religion in the Postmodern Age, edited by Kimberley C. Patton and Benjamin C. Ray. ACLS Humanities E-Book. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 2000.
Stosch, Klaus Von. “Comparative Theology as Liberal and Confessional Theology.” Religions 4 (2012): 983–92. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel3040983.
Tabatabai, Muhammad Huseyn. Shiih: Majmuih-Yi Muzakirat Ba Prufisur Hanri Kurban, edited by Ali Ahmadi and Hadi Khusrowshahi. Qum: Risalat, 1978.
Tracy, David. “Comparative Theology.” In The Encyclopedia of Religion, edited by Mircea Eliade and Charles Joseph Adams, 14: 446–455. New York, N.Y.: Macmillan, 1987.
Valkenberg, Pim, Marianne Moyaert, Kristin Johnston Largen, James Fredericks, and Bede Benjamin Bidlack. “Introduction.” In A Companion to Comparative Theology, edited by Pim Valkenberg, Marianne Moyaert, Kristin Johnston-Largen, James Fredericks, and Bede Benjamin Bidlack, Volume 2. Brill’s Companions to Modern Theology, Volume 2. Leiden: Brill, 2022.
Weber, Ralph. “Comparative Philosophy and the Tertium: Comparing What with What, and in What Respect?” Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 13, no. 2 (2014): 151–171. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11712-014-9368-z.
Weber, Ralph. “‘How to Compare?’ - On the Methodological State of Comparative Philosophy.” Philosophy Compass 8, no. 7 (2013): 593–603. https://doi.org/10.1111/phc3.12042.
Wittgenstein, Ludwig. Philosophical Investigations. Translated by G.E.M. nscombe. Repr. of English text with index. Oxford: Blackwell, 1968. https://edisciplinas.usp.br/pluginfile.php/4294631/mod_resource/content/0/Ludwig%20Wittgenstein%2C%20P.%20M.%20S.%20Hacker%2C%20Joachim%20Schulte.%20Philosophical%20Investigations.%20Wiley.pdf.
