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List of contents
Introduction
The Problem of Objective “Truth” and the Threat of Relativism for Religious Practitioners in the Modern World
Chapter 1
Comparative Theology, Religious Diversity, and the Question of Ultimate Truth
Chapter 2
The “Bridge Concept” and Its Materials
Chapter 3
The Histories of Individuals, and the Context for Their Ideas
Chapter 4
The Roles of Individual Intellect and the Collective Intelligence of the Community in Knowledge Formation
Chapter 5
The Role of the Historical Founders of Religious Traditions in Shaping and Conveying Religious Knowledge, Meaning, and Truth for Contemporary Believers
Chapter 6
The Role and Authority of Personal Experience in the Apophatic Knowledge of Ultimate Reality
Conclusion
Possible Madhyamaka Implications for Catholic Theology
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Jason M. VonWachenfeldt is the Henry and Janie Woods Junior Chair in the Religion and Philosophy Department at the Lawrenceville School, USA.
Summary
This study investigates how a comparison between the Catholic theologian Edward Schillebeeckx's controversial reading of Thomist philosophy and the Tibetan Buddhist Gendun Chopel's challenge to the standard Geluk teaching of Tsongkhapa's Madhyamaka philosophy might assist in rethinking conceptions of religious knowledge. Utilizing a wide variety of methodical approaches to establish an imaginary dialogue between these two thinkers, this comparison remains embodied in the thought and praxis of actual individuals, and yet still firmly embedded within the conversations and trajectories of their broader religious traditions.
Foreword
Reimagines the potential of modern Catholic theology by comparing Schillebeeckx to the Tibetan Philosopher Gendun Chopel.
Additional text
How to embrace the relativizing social construction of all truth-claims without sliding down the slippery slopes of relativism? Von Wachenfeldt answers that question by engaging two contemporary scholars, one Catholic (Schillebeeckx) and the other Tibetan (Chopel), in an intriguing and illuminating conversation. An example of comparative theology at its best.
