Synopses & Reviews
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.
Review
"...a fabulous and welcome collection that encourages cross-disciplinary fertilization."--Religious Studies
About the Author
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
List of Contributors
Introduction
Part I: Contours of Religious Diversity
Chapter 1 - Martin E. Marty: Historical Reflections on Religious Diversity
Chapter 2 - Ian S. Markham: A Religious Studies Approach to Questions about Religious Diversity
Chapter 3 - Peter Byrne: A Philosophical Approach to Questions about Religious
Diversity
Chapter 4 - Michele Dillon: A Sociological Approach to Questions about Religious
Diversity
Part II: Key Issues Relevant to Religious Diversity
Theological and Philosophical Issues
Chapter 5 - Joseph Runzo: Pluralism and Relativism
Chapter 6 - Paul K. Moser: Religious Exclusivism
Chapter 7 - Keith E. Yandell: The Diversity of Religious Experience
Chapter 8 - Sallie B. King: Interreligious Dialogue
Chapter 9 - Paul J. Griffiths: The Religious Alien
Chapter 10 - Leonard J. Swidler: Religious Diversity and a Global Ethic
Chapter 11 - Gavin D'Costa: Theology Amidst Religious Diversity
Chapter 12 - Michael L. Peterson: Religious Diversity, Theodicy, and the Problem of Evil
Chapter 13 - Keith Ward: Religion and Revelation
Sociological and Public Policy Issues
Chapter 14 - Peter Beyer: Religious Diversity and Globalization
Chapter 15 - Frederick W. Norris: Religious Demographics and the New Diversity
Chapter 16 - Peter B. Clarke: New Religious Movements in Global Perspective
Chapter 17 - George Yancey: Religion, Race, and Ethnicity
Chapter 18 - John G. Stackhouse, Jr.: Religious Diversity, Secularization, and
Postmodernity
Chapter 19 - Christian Smith and Brandon Vaidyanathan: Religion and Multiple
Modernities
Chapter 20 - Jessica Stern, Dalia Mogahed, and Tom Pyszczynski: Religious Engagement
and Violence
Chapter 21 - David Basinger: Religious Diversity and Public Education
Chapter 22 - Roger S. Gottlieb: Global Religion and the Environment
Part III: Differing Perspectives on Religious Diversity
Multi-faith Perspectives
Chapter 23 - Arvind Sharma: A Hindu Perspective
Chapter 24 - David Burton: A Buddhist Perspective
Chapter 25 - Kwasi Wiredu: An African Religions Perspective
Chapter 26 - Chung-ying Cheng: A Chinese Religions Perspective
Chapter 27 - David Shatz: A Jewish Perspective
Chapter 28 - Charles Taliaferro: A Christian Perspective
Chapter 29 - Majid Fakhry: An Islamic Perspective
Gender and World Perspectives
Chapter 30 - Pamela Sue Anderson: A Feminist Perspective
Chapter 31 - Bruce Ellis Benson: A Continental Perspective
Chapter 32 - Michael Ruse: A Naturalistic Perspective
Index