Introduction: Comparative Theologies and Multiple Modernities

Abstract

The introduction chapter discusses the correlation of interreligious dialogue (practical engagement) with comparative religious scholarship (theoretical foundation and elaboration). David Tracy presents public theology in ways of correlating it analogically with the comparative study of religion. On the other hand, Francis Clooney develops a commentarial approach to comparative theology, utilizing Tracy’s analogical imagination. Clooney’s position is astute in a careful and deliberate reading of Christian texts with other religious texts. To what extent does the hermeneutical reflection and comparative theology effectively relate to theological discourse of God’s mission and church? How do we reformulate Clooney’s epistemology of comparative theology (faith seeking understanding) in the sociological debate of multiple modernities and make its comparative project more amenable to social and political agenda? Given this, I shall treat a necessity of argument for integrating comparative theology linked to the Ultimate Reality in a phenomenological framework. In distinction from Tracy, I shall elucidate a phenomenological study of religion and culture, in which a theological phenomenology is conceptualized in a hermeneutical and sociological framework for developing comparative theology. This new model of critical comparative theology and its method is introduced with respect to Clooney’s comparative theology, when it comes to deal with social responsibility, politics of recognition, and postcolonial challenge.