How can philosophy of religion become more diverse in content and method? How can we take a multiplicity of stories into account and teach a truly inclusive philosophy of religion?
It is now openly acknowledged that if we do not change the underlying framework of the way we do philosophy of religion, we will always create subalterns. Here is an invitation to rethink Philosophy of Religion. Engaging with texts and thinkers from multiple traditions, this book offers 18 distinct approaches to doing Philosophy of Religion and presents an opportunity to change Philosophy of Religion at a fundamental level.
Drawing on religions and philosophies from across history and around the world, each chapter outlines a framework for approaching religion from a different standpoint: monotheism in Christianity, Qi in Daoism, embodiment in neuroscience, naturalism in the atheism debates, and non-territorialism in 19th-century debates on cartography.
Contributors identify the many philosophical systems that guide metaphysical and moral truths and adhere to the principle that traditions are not monolithic but diverse. They recognise that categories such as “indigenous religions” are political rather than descriptive in nature.
Innovative and forward-looking, this collection constructs a new method and terminology that promotes active interaction. It is essential reading for students and teachers looking for a new way of doing Philosophy of Religion.
Preface Gereon Kopf, Purushottama Bilimoria, Nathan Loewen Introduction: The Multi-Entry Approach Gereon Kopf Section I: Engaging Realities Chapter 1: Rethinking Christian Theism: A (Non)Traditionalist Approach to Philosophy of Religion J. Aaron Simmons Chapter 2: Insan-ity or “Knots in the Real”: Ibn al-‘Arabi’s “Philosophy of Religion” Oludamini Ogunnaike Chapter 3: Qi-Cosmology Leah Kalmanson Chapter 4: Embodied Neuroscience as a New Paradigm for Philosophy of Religion Laura E. Weed Chapter 5: Naturalism and Philosophy of Religion Kevin Schilbrack Chapter 6: Faith and Reason Beyond Words: Maps, Visual-Ontological, and Visual-Epistemological Approaches to the Philosophy of Religion Peter Nekola Section II: Engaging Ways of Knowing Chapter 7: Nyaya Critical Thinking on Matters Small and Great: Exploring the rational paradigm Agnieszka Rostalska and Purushottama Bilimoria Chapter 8: Trans-Rationalism Louis Komjathy Chapter 9: Subjectivity, Religion, and Otherness Hye Young Kim Chapter 10: Deconstruction under erasure in Derrida and Zen Buddhism Nathan Loewen and Gereon Kopf Chapter 11: A Systems Approach to Religion in the Mind-Culture Nexus Wesley J. Wildman and Yair Lior Chapter 12: Anapotheotics: a hermeneutic approach to religions as symbolic languages Nathan Eric Dickman Section III: Engaging Relationships Chapter 13: Sensuous Quintet Paradigm of the Sikh Religions Nikky-Guninder Kaur Singh Chapter 14: The Jain renunciate paradigm of envisioning philosophy of religion Marie-Hélène Gorisse Chapter 15: Relationalism: a Lakota paradigm Fritz Detwiler Chapter 16: Isintuism the mother of communalism among the Nguni of Southern Africa Herbert Moyo Chapter 17: Power and Politics (Critical Theory): a first step Nathan Loewen Chapter 18: The Comparative Paradigm Timothy Knepper Epilogue: A Conversation on the Multi-Entry Approach Gereon Kopf, Purushottama Bilimoria, Nathan Loewen
Gereon Kopf is Professor of East Asian Religions and Philosophy of Religion at Luther College, USA. He is the Editor of the Journal of Buddhist Studies. Purushottama Bilimoria Adjunct Lecturer at the California State University, USA and Principal Fellow of Historical and Philosophical Studies at The University of Melbourne, Australia. He is Senior Fellow Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies and Editor-in-Chief of Sophia, Journal of Philosophy of Religion.
Reviews for Engaging Philosophies of Religion: Thinking Across Boundaries
With its revolutionary “multi-entry approach”, this book offers a mind-blowing reading experience and showcases the enrichment that comes from a multiplicity of voices. Each chapter carefully articulates its philosophical method or paradigm on religious theories, practices, assumptions, their embodied expressions, political significance, or neurological underpinnings. A treasure of comparison, respectful engagement, and careful disagreement awaits the reader as each chapter enters in dialogue with other chapters. -- Chiara Robbiano, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Utrecht University, Netherlands This collection of essays presents to the reader a panoramic expanse of spiritual landscapes as well as a multitude of possible methodological approaches to deal with it — a breadth that has remained, in spite of all efforts to decolonialize and to diversify, beyond the usual range of the philosophy of religion. In this book, the discipline is considered as an irreducible plurality, where Christian and Muslim themes are on par with various Indian traditions, Chinese cosmology as well as African and Native American worldviews, none among them towering above the others. -- Rein Raud, Distinguished Professor of Asian and Cultural Studies, School of Humanities, Tallinn University
