Theological Resources
Recent Books, Articles, and Reviews on Interreligious Dialogue
The Faiths of Others: A History of Interreligious Dialogue. By Thomas Albert Howard. Yale University Press, 2021.
A helpful and informative history of contemporary interreligious dialogue.
The Future of Interfaith Dialogue: Muslim-Christian Encounters through A Common Word, edited by Yazid Said and Lejla Demiri (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018).
Dr Peter Admirand and Dr Jonathan Kearney of the CIRD contributed chapters to the edited volume. This book is the fruit of the December 6-7, 2013 conference at The Mater Dei Institute of Education, where the CIRD had its origins.
Interreligious/Interfaith Studies: Defining a New Field, edited by Eboo Patel, Jennifer Howe Peace, and Noah Silverman (Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 2018).
Reviewed in Reflective Teaching (2019) by Dr Peter Admirand.
The Future of Interreligious Dialogue: A Multireligious Conversation on ‘Nostra Aetate’, edited by Charles L. Cohen, Paul F. Knitter, and Ulrich Rosenhagen (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2017).
Reviewed in AAR’s Reading Religion by Dr Peter Admirand.
A Jubliee for All Time: The Copernican Revolution in Jewish-Christian Relations, edited by Gilbert S. Rosenthal (Cambridge: Lutterworth Press, 2017).
Reviewed in the AAR’s Reading Religion by Dr Peter Admirand.
Teaching Interreligious Encounters, edited by Marc A. Pugliese and Alexander Y. Hwang (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017).
Reviewed in The Journal of Interreligious Studies (Issue 22: April 2018) by Dr Peter Admirand.
The Past, Present, and Future of Theologies of Interreligious Dialogue, edited by Terrence Merrigan and John Friday (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017).
Reviewed in Reviews in Religion and Theology (Issue 25.4: October 2018) by Dr Peter Admirand.
“Comparative Theology, either relatively ‘new’ or rooted in the timeless human desire to compare and contrast like and unlike things, is a theological practice, method, and system that works closely, in dialogue with, and between, at least two different religions. Comparative theology seeks to learn and engage with multiple traditions, doctrines, rituals, ethics and practices from various vantage points; namely, from a so-called self-sufficient enclosed space (a religion as an autonomous sphere involving clear boundary and borders); or the more realistic overlapping space where distinct traditions share contexts, histories, and texts and where such traditions are never autonomous, but hybrid, containing many different, and often contrasting, versions (thus, there are many Christianities). While there is no single way to do comparative theology, to be comparative involves a continual passing over and return between the traditions, ideally entailing mutual learning and growth.
The links below offer well-known web resources, book and article links for those who want to learn more about this important subfield of theology called comparative theology, and how it relates to interreligious theology, interreligious dialogue, a theology of religions, and other related, but distinct subfields of theology.”
– Peter Admirand
David Tracy’s 1987 Encyclopaedia Entry on Comparative Theology
Biography of Frank Clooney
2019 interview of Frank Clooney
“What is Comparative Theology?” – by Frank Clooney
“Comparative Theology: A Bibliographic Review” by Frank Clooney (1995)
Great Resource for Comparative Theology (Boston College)
2019 Conference on Comparative Theology
Links to Some Key Books on Comparative Theology
Fordham University Press’ Series: “COMPARATIVE THEOLOGY: THINKING ACROSS TRADITIONS”
Monographs and Edited Collections on Comparative Theology
How to Do Comparative Theology, edited by Francis X. Clooney and Klaus von Stosch (2017)
New Comparative Theology, edited by Francis X. Clooney S.J. (2010)
Atonement and Comparative Theology: The Cross in Dialogue with Other Religions (Comparative Theology: Thinking Across Traditions, edited by Catherine Clooney (2021)
Meaning and Method in Comparative Theology, Catherine Cornille (2019)
Comparative Theology in the Millennial Classroom: Hybrid Identities, Negotiated Boundaries. Routledge Research in Religion and Education, edited by Mara Brecht and Reid B. Locklin (2016)
Comparative Theology: A Critical and Methodological Perspective by Paul Hedges (2017)
Doing the Work of Comparative Theology: A Primer for Christians by Veli-matti Karkkainen (2020)
Articles on Comparative Theology
“Comparative Theology at Twenty‐Five: The End of the Beginning.” S. Mark Heim
First published: 18 October 2018. Modern Theology. https://doi.org/10.1111/moth.12450
“The Return of Comparative Theology.” Reid B. Locklin and Hugh Nicholson. Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Volume 78, Issue 2, June 2010, Pages 477–514, https://doi.org/10.1093/jaarel/lfq017
“Towards a Ritual Turn in Comparative Theology: Opportunities, Challenges, and Problems.” By Marianne Moyaert. Opportunities, Challenges, and Problems. Harvard Theological Review, 111(1), 1-23. doi:10.1017/S0017816017000360.
Articles on Comparative Theology Compared with other Theological Approaches
“Comparison with Comparative Theology: An Alternative to Religious Studies or Theology of Religions?” by Betül AVC. Religions (2018). https://doi.org/10.3390/rel9030083
“Theology Today: Comparative Theology as a Catholic Theological Approach.” By Marianne Moyaert. Theological Studies Volume: 76 issue: 1, 2015, page(s): 43-64. https://doi.org/10.1177/0040563914565298
“Interfaith Dialogue and Comparative Theology: A Theoretical Approach to a Practical Dilemma.” By Michael Atkinson. The Journal of Social Encounters: Vol. 3: Iss. 1, 47-5 (2019).
“Toward a Comparative Theology of Liberation: Exploring the Relevance of Comparative Theology for doing Indian Liberation Theology.” By Joshua Samuel.. Interreligious Studies and Intercultural Theology, 1(1),2017, 47–67. https://doi.org/10.1558/isit.31058.
Interreligious Studies examines the pedagogical, theoretical, ritual, ethical, and scriptural space between and among two religions and/or faith positions and systems. Much of the work in this field conjoins, overlaps, dialogues with, and critiques related subfields like comparative theology and the larger academic disciplines of Theology and Religious Studies. With its own academic journals, like the Journal of Interreligious Studies, along with other academic markers like conferences, research groups, and anthologies, this "adolescent field" to use the words of one of its foundational contributors, Lucinda Mosher, is at the cusp and intersection of contemporary theology and the study of religions or worldviews.
Here are some recent texts seeking to define, expand, and explain the burgeoning field of Interreligious Studies:
The Georgetown Companion to Interreligious Studies.
Edited by Lucinda Mosher, Georgetown University Press, 2021.
Interreligious Studies: Dispatches from an Emerging Field.
Edited by Hans Gustafson. Baylor University Press, 2020.
Interreligious/Interfaith Studies: Defining a New Field.
By Eboo Patel and Jennifer Howe Peace. Beacon Press, 2018
Interreligious Studies: A Relational Approach to Religious Activism and the Study of Religion.
By Oddbjørn Leirvik. Bloomsbury, 2015.
On 25 February 2021, interfaith pioneer Dr Judith Banki led over 110 students, academics, and colleagues across Europe and America in a talk covering her key role in what became the Vatican II document, Nostra Aetate in 1965. The talk was supported by the Irish Council of Christians and Jews in partnership with Dublin City University’s Centre for Interreligious Dialogue.
This talk was also part of the School of Theology, Philosophy and Music’s Theology, Religious Studies, and Philosophy Research Seminars. Dr Peter Admirand, the Christian Co-Chair of the Irish Council of Christians and Jews and the Director of DCU’s Centre for Interreligious Dialogue, organized and hosted the ZOOM talk.
In the Q & A that followed Dr Banki’s main talk, she also touched upon her ongoing engagement in interfaith dialogue and encounters, showing an envious amount of memory-recall and knowledge of the leading figures in the field both before Nostra Aetate and the subsequent 60 years since. Not surprisingly, comments from students, the academic community, and members of the International Council of Christians and Jews stressed how much of an honor and privilege it was to hear her. Ray, a 3rd year student studying to be a post-primary teacher wrote: “The lecture was fascinating, especially when you think that she was a top table player through such a historical event. Her humility and willingness for progress stood out to me - this is an innate trait that one cannot be taught but is something everybody worldwide could work on.”
Likewise, Kaz, an Erasmus Student from Lithuania studying this term in Ireland, remarked: “Judith not only worked towards building a bridge which would allow for a conversation between groups of different religious backgrounds…but also broke the mold, which was incredibly brave of her. Judith put herself in a situation where she was making a change…As Judith said, she was told ‘A woman can’t do this job’, but she came out as a very strong woman who is to this day passing on her stories which help us all be more tolerant and open minded today.”
Numerous comments in the ZOOM chat also praised her for giving an “inspiring” lecture, many from those who are also pioneers and leaders in the field. Dermot Lane commented: “A wonderful lecture. The enduring power of a faithful witness. Thank you,” while Sister Celia Deutch wrote: “Thanks so very much, Judy. You are an inspiration to so many of us!”
The recording can be accessed here.
As part of the module, TP508: The Holocaust and Modern Culture, Eva Paddock, who is a Kindertransport survivor, delivered a talk on 30 March 2021. The Kindertransport (Children’s Transport) was a humanitarian rescue programme which ran between November 1938 and May 1940 and brought approximately 10,000 refugee Jewish children to Great Britain from Germany and German-annexed territories. Many of these children would otherwise have been murdered in the Shoah.
On May 21, 2021, Professor John Pawlikowski gave a fascinating historical overview of the changing view of the Other in Catholic Thought.
Particularly memorable is his aside that he asked Gregory Baum if he wrote (in longhand) the first draft of what become section 4 of Nostra Aetate (Baum was noncommittal); Pawlikowski citing a phrase from Pope Francis --"God has many faces. no one has seen all the faces of God," which he believes is vey significant for future interreligious dialogue; and his sharp link and warning of evangelization and potential geocide, which led to an interesting discussion.