The Oxford Handbook of Religious Diversity

by Meister, Chad V.

• ISBN13: 9780195340136
• ISBN10: 0195340132
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-12-03
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

There exists today a rich and abounding diversity of religions in the world-a diversity with respect to both belief and practice. But it is a diversity that poses many challenges and raises many questions, most especially in a pluralistic milieu. How do we engage in effective dialogue with religious others? What should public education reflect in a religiously pluralistic context? What role might the diversity of religions play in developing a global ethic? How do the various religious traditions deal with the plurality of religious belief and practice? What role does gender play in such discourse? The Oxford Handbook of Religious Diversity is a volume of thirty-three original chapters that cover numerous issues in religious diversity and draw readers into the heart of the current dialogue. It is divided into three parts: Contours of Religious Diversity, Key Issues Relevant to Religious Diversity, and Differing Perspectives on Religious Diversity. Chapters in the first part trace the general features of religious diversity discussions from four different fields: history, religious studies, philosophy, and sociology. Part two explores key theological, philosophical, sociological, and public policy issues relevant to religious diversity. The third and final part provides differing analyses of religious diversity from multi-faith, gender, and global points of view. An indispensable guide for scholars and students, the Handbook makes a state-of-the-art contribution to the field with essays crafted by experts representing a wide variety of religious and philosophical perspectives.

Author Biography

Chad Meister is Professor of Philosophy at Bethel College. He is author or editor of over a dozen books, including Evil: A Guide for the Perplexed (forthcoming), Introducing Philosophy of Religion (2009), and The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Religion, co-edited with Paul Copan (2007). He is also Book Review Editor for the quarterly journal Philosophia Christi.

Table of Contents

Contributors	p. xi
Introduction	p. 3
Contours of Religious Diversity
Historical Reflections on Religious Diversity	p. 9
A Religious Studies Approach to Questions about Religious Diversity	p. 21
A Philosophical Approach to Questions about Religious Diversity	p. 29
A Sociological Approach to Questions about Religious Diversity	p. 42
Key Issues Relevant to Religious Diversity
Theological and Philosophical Issues
Pluralism and Relativism	p. 61
Religious Exclusivism	p. 77
The Diversity of Religious Experience	p. 89
Interreligious Dialogue	p. 101
The Religious Alien	p. 115
Religious Diversity and a Global Ethic	p. 127
Theology amid Religious Diversity	p. 142
Religious Diversity, Evil, and a Variety of Theodicies	p. 154
Religion and Revelation	p. 169
Sociological and Public-Policy Issues
Religious Diversity and Globalization	p. 185
Religious Demographics and the New Diversity	p. 201
New Religious Movements in Global Perspective	p. 214
Race, Ethnicity, and Religion	p. 226
Religious Diversity, Secularization, and Postmodernity	p. 239
Multiple Modernities and Religion	p. 250
Religious Violence and Peace	p. 266
Religious Diversity in Public Education	p. 277
Religious Diversity and Religious Environmentalism	p. 290
Differing Perspectives on Religious Diversity
Multifaith Perspectives
A Hindu Perspective	p. 309
A Buddhist Perspective	p. 321
An African Religions Perspective	p. 337
A Chinese Religions Perspective	p. 351
A Jewish Perspective	p. 365
A Christian Perspective	p. 381
An Islamic Perspective	p. 393
Gender and World Perspectives
A Feminist Perspective	p. 405
A Continental Perspective	p. 421
A Naturalistic Perspective	p. 433
Index	p. 447
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