The two volumes are part of a 5 volume series that deals with fundamental issues in Interreligious Dialogue.
Criteria of Discernment in Interreligious Dialogue focuses on the principles and norms used within particular religions when judging what is true and valuable in other religious traditions. While always implicitly operative, this volume attempts to make those criteria explicit, and the object of internal religious as well as interreligious reflection. Besides ethical criteria, which are present in all religious traditions, the volume illustrates the differences in both principles and processes of discernment, not only between, but also within particular religious traditions. As such, Protestant principles of discernment (R. Bernhardt) are somewhat different from Roman Catholic ones (G. D'Costa) and Tibetan Buddhist (J. Simmer-Brown, J. Makransky) from Pure Land Buddhist ones (M. Unno).
Interreligious Hermeneutics focuses on the possibilities and limits of interreligious understanding and exchange. Some contributions deal with fundamental questions concerning the means and the end of understanding across religious traditions (Tracy, Jeanrond, Moyaert, Maraldo) while others engage in the interpretation of texts and teachings of another religion (Shah-Kazemi, Eckel). Some experiment with the appropriation of hermeneutical categories of another tradition (O'Leary, Keenan) while others discuss concrete contests in which interreligious hermeneutics is both urgent and possible (Vroom, Patton). This volume thus challenge established notions of religious boundaries and point to the creative potential of engaging other religions in the pursuit of understanding and truth.
Prior to joining the faculty at Boston College where she serves as chair of the Department of Theology, Catherine Cornille taught for ten years in the department of Theology at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. Her research interests focus on the Theology of Religions, the theory of Interreligious Dialogue, concrete questions in the Hindu-Christian and Buddhist-Christian dialogues, and the phenomenon of inculturation and intercultural theology. Her more purely historical or phenomenological research focuses on theories and methods in the comparative study of religions, women in world religions, and Asian new religious movements.
Eugene: Wipf and Stock, 2009 and 2010
