Pieris confronts two of the most urgent and complex questions facing Christians today - so many poor people and so many religions. He believes that the approaches of the Christian Churches to these questions will determine whether Christianity will continue to have any relevance for Asia or not.

Foreword

xi

Paul Knitter

Preface

xv

I POVERTY AND LIBERATION

Spirituality in a Liberative Perspective

3

(12)

Liturgy versus Spirituality

4

(4)

Focus on the Liturgy of Life

4

(4)

Spirituality versus Secular Involvement

8

(2)

Focus on the Theology of the Cross

8

(2)

Secular Involvement versus Liturgy

10

(5)

Focus on Jesus the Man

10

(5)

To Be Poor as Jesus Was Poor?

15

(9)

Spirituality as a Struggle to Be Poor

15

(5)

Spirituality as a Struggle for the Poor

20

(4)

Ideology and Religion: Some Debatable Points

24

(11)

Problems of Definition

24

(5)

Historical Background

25

(1)

Ideology in the Pejorative Sense

26

(1)

Ideology and Sociology of Knowledge

27

(2)

Crossing the Boundary

29

(6)

II RELIGION AND LIBERATION

Asia's Non-Semitic Religions and the Mission of Local Churches

35

(16)

Perspectives and Clarifications

35

(3)

Perspectives

35

(2)

Clarifications

37

(1)

Concrete Issues

38

(7)

Inculturation, Indigenous Theology, and Oriental Spirituality

38

(5)

Asian Religions and the Politics of Poverty in the Context of the Local Church's Mission to the Poor

43

(2)

The Way toward Ecclesiological Revolution: The Double Baptism in Asian Religion and Poverty

45

(6)

The Jordan of Asian Religion

45

(3)

The Calvary of Asian Poverty

48

(3)

Western Models of Inculturation: Applicable in Asia?

51

(8)

The Greco-Roman Models of Inculturation: Not Applicable in Asia

51

(3)

The North European Model of Christianization: Too Late in Asia

54

(2)

The Monastic Paradigm: An Approximation to the Asian Mentality

56

(3)

Speaking of the Son of God in Non-Christian Cultures

59

(10)

The Two Christological Perspectives in Asia Today

59

(3)

The Fulfillment Approach

59

(1)

The Contextual Approach

60

(2)

Two Perspectives for a Christology in Asia Today

62

(7)

Return to Jesus

62

(1)

The New Asian Formula

63

(6)

III THEOLOGY OF LIBERATION IN ASIA

Toward an Asian Theology of Liberation

69

(18)

Toward a Definition of the Religio-Cultural Dimension

69

(5)

Linguistic Heterogeneity

70

(1)

Integration of the Cosmic and the Metacosmic in Asian Religiousness

71

(3)

The Overwhelming Presence of Non-Christian Soteriologies

74

(1)

Non-Christian Soteriology: Some Theological Perspectives

74

(7)

Wealth and Poverty

75

(1)

The State and the Sangha

76

(3)

Scientific Knowledge and Spiritual Wisdom

79

(2)

The Asian Sense in Theology

81

(4)

A Third World Critique of Our Theological Past

81

(2)

The Asian Style as Asian Theology

83

(2)

Conclusions

85

(2)

The Place of Non-Christian Religions and Cultures in the Evolution of Third World Theology

87

(24)

Theology of Religions: Current Boundaries of Orthodoxy

87

(9)

Basis and Background: The Third World as a Theological Perspective

87

(1)

The Liberation Thesis on Religion: Its Western and Colonialist Character

88

(5)

Liberation and Inculturation: History of a Tension

93

(3)

Toward a Third World Theology of Religions

96

(15)

Anatomy of Religion in the Third World

96

(4)

The Revolutionary Urge in Religions and the Role of Ideologies

100

(6)

Religion and Revolution in a Third World Theology

106

(5)

A Theology of Liberation in Asian Churches?

111

(16)

Valid Theology and the Local Church: The Dilemma of Asian Catholics

111

(3)

Roman Christianity and the Stoic Perception of ``Liberation''

114

(3)

The Elitist Concept of the ``Liberated Person''

117

(3)

The Biblical Perspective: The Messianic Role of the Masses

120

(4)

Asian Theology and the Religiousness of the Poor

124

(3)

Postscript--Asia's Search for Christ: A Scriptural Meditation

127

(2)

Notes

129

(10)

Publications in Western Languages

139

(4)

Aloysius Pieris

Index

143

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