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God's diplomat, the pope of the ecumenical movement, but also an acerbic theologian and a difficult person: this is how journalists characterised Willem Adolf Visser 't Hooft (1900-1985). He was one of the best-known Dutch theologians outside the Netherlands and he left his mark on the world church. Even at an early age he made profound efforts in support of international ecumenical youth and student organisations (Dutch Student Christian Movement, YMCA and World Student Christian Federation). He led the World Council of Churches during its formative stages (from 1938), and after its formal establishment in 1948 became its first general secretary, serving until 1966. To Visser 't Hooft, the unity of the church was both an article of faith and of a pragmatic organisation of church influence in a disunited world.

Preliminary Material -- Introduction -- The Theology of Religions -- The Theology of Religions and the Tension between Openness and Closedness -- A Critique of the Pluralist Model of Interreligious Dialogue -- The Cultural Linguistic Theory, Postliberalism, and Religious Incommensurability -- The End of Dialogue?: A Theological Critique of Postliberalism -- Interreligious Dialogue and Hermeneutical Openness -- Testimony and Openness: A Theological Perspective -- Bibliography -- Index of Subjects -- Index of Names.

"In The European Encounter with Hinduism Jan Peter Schouten offers an account of European travellers coming into contact with the Hindu religion in India. From the thirteenth century on, both traders and missionaries visited India and encountered the exotic world of Hindus and Hinduism. Their travel reports reveal how Europeans gradually increased their knowledge of Hinduism and how they evaluated this foreign religion. Later on, although officials of the colonial administration also studied the languages and culture of India, it was - contrary to what is usually assumed - particularly the many missionaries who made the greatest contribution to the mapping of Hinduism"

The centre of gravity of contemporary Christianity has shifted to the southern hemisphere where, with the exception of Latin America, almost all Christians are minorities in their home countries. Christians in Asia live amongst Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Shamanist or Taoist majorities and this context shapes the local Christian theology. The same is true in Africa where traditional religions and beliefs influence African Christians. Central to this change in both Africa and Asia is the creation of a new Jesus, one who accretes local beliefs and concerns and who, in that process, is transformed

Preliminary Material -- Introductory Essay: Theology of Culture, Secularity, and Plurality /Wessel Stoker -- The Background and Nature of the Deep Changes in the Religious Realities in Modern Europe /André Droogers -- The Concept of Culture in Abraham Kuyper, Herman Bavinck, and Karl Barth /Cornelis van der Kooi -- The Role of Faith in Science and in Religion /Keith Ward -- Christian Faith and Reason: A Hermeneutical Approach /Edwin Koster -- Amor Mundi in a (Post)Liberal Era: The Relevance of an Arendtian Theme for Christian Self-Understanding Today /Ronald A. Kuipers -- Equality, Difference, and Justice /Ton van Prooijen -- Business Ethics and Intrinsic Motivation in a Pluralist World /Connie Aarsbergen -- Renewal of Civilization: Toward Justice and Peace /Henk E.S. Woldring -- Populism: A Blessing in Disguise for Democracy? /Govert J. Buijs -- Poverty, Oppression, and Christian Faith /Jerald D. Gort -- The Public Role of Churches in Present Democratic South Africa /Etienne de Villiers -- Imagination and Art in the Christian Faith: On Imagination and Art in the Church /Desiree Berendsen -- Language, Literature, and Transcendence: The Contribution of F.R. Leavis /Henry Jansen -- Readiness and Timing: The Early Modern Virtues of Hamlet's Providential Christianity /Lourens Minnema -- Indigenous Spirituality and Sustainable Development: A Critical Appraisal of African Renaissance Rhetoric /Frans Wijsen -- African Philosophy, Contextualisation, Multiculturalism /W.L. van der Merwe -- Untouchables, Christians, and Hindus: How the Sacred World Order is Preserved and Renounced /Victor van Bijlert -- Contemporary Christian-Hindu Relations in Britain and the Netherlands /Jan Peter Schouten -- Superseded, Obstructive, or Crucial?: Christian Views of Judaism and its Sacred Texts /Alberdina Houtman -- Recent Developments in Christian-Jewish Dialogue /Simon Schoon -- Sympathy and Empathy: The Compassionate Bodhisattva and the Love of Christ /John D'Arcy May -- Christian and Buddhist Spiritualities: Their Differences and Complementarities /Christa Anbeek -- Present-Day Europe and Islam in Encounter: Emerging European Islam and its Dialogue Partners /Gé Speelman -- The Council of Churches in the Netherlands and its Encounter with Islam /Alle G. Hoekema -- Proximity and Distance China and the Christian West: An Essay in Intercultural Philosophy /Sander Griffioen -- Christian Views of the New Religiosities of the Western World /Reender Kranenborg -- Recent Ecclesiological Developments in the World Council of Churches: Continuity or Discontinuity? /Conrad J. Wethmar -- Conversion in the Ecumenical Debate: Great Joy or Great Discomfort? /Jan van Butselaar -- Confessio and Traditio: A Reformed Approach in Dialogue with the Lutheran Tradition /Michael Weinrich -- Christianity and Culture: WARC at the Millennium /George Newlands -- Intercultural Theology as the Integration of Ecumenism and Missiology: The Example of Current Latin American Christology /Martien E. Brinkman -- God Has No Favourites: Ecumenism and Interreligious Dialogue The Unity of God's Creation /Anton Houtepen -- Index of Subjects -- Index of Names -- Contributors.

In the few years since the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, evil has become a central theme in the media and human consciousness: the evil of terrorism, the evil of secular culture, concern for poverty, and climate change .... Yet different cultures and religious traditions have different ideas of what evil is and what its root causes are. Although there is no massive clash of cultures, many disagreements and also conflicts in the world arise from the deep differences in views of evil. This volume explores religious views of evil. Scholars from different religions and fr

Because religion is so central to the lives and experience of the vast majority of people throughout the world, it figures very prominently in a variety of ways in interhuman relations. Unfortunately, 'religion' often appears to be one of the potent sources of mistrust, discord and strife between and among individuals, groups and cultures. What frequently lies at the root of such suspicion and dissension is general ignorance concerning the religious other, a lack of knowledge about his or her beliefs, aspirations and views of the good and morally honorable life. And even if people have some factual knowledge about other religions, they regularly display little understanding of them and their adherents. Learning both to know and understand people of other faiths and their religions is absolutely requisite to the realization of paradigms of coherent and intelligent 'convivance,' that is, living together in sensible, peaceable and cooperative harmony. An effective agency for fostering such knowledge and understanding is the discipline of theology of religions, which examines how religions have and ought to view other religions. And it is particularly the practice of comparative theology of religions which bears the most promise in this regard. The present symposium consists of precisely this kind of comparative exercise and may be viewed as an important contribution to the development of a new project which endeavors to enlarge the horizon and broaden the focus and reflection of theology of religions as that has been gradually developed during the last few decades, a new enterprise, in other words, which seeks to universalize and mutualize theology-of-religions discourse. One of the important things this volume shows is that the views religions have of other religions differ from one another in very substantial ways, which is explained by the fact that they derive from diverging paradigms of faith, belief and ritual and specific cultural and social contexts. This textbook demonstrates how strongly different Hindu, Buddhist, Shinto and Confucian views are from those of Islam, Judaism and Christianity, which latter in turn also exhibit considerable differences among themselves. These differences are greater than people immersed in their own cultures often realize or expect. It is becoming ever more clear that ignorance of or disinclination to acknowledge or refusal to accept these real differences constitute major root causes of serious conflicts in the world. The essays in this book, written by representatives of the major world religions, offer descriptive and/or prescriptive appraisals of other religions in general or one other religion in particular from the perspective of the religion of the author concerned. It is hoped that this unique exercise in intercultural theology of religions will generate insights and new forms of understanding which can be used by religious leaders and other educators to help correct the disposition toward religious haughtiness, insularity and communalism and the dangerous leanings toward interreligious suspicion, antipathy and animosity which are all too often evident in our contemporary societies

Preliminary Material -- Introduction -- The Guide to Peace and Happiness /Rammohan Roy -- From False Prophet To Demonstrable Divinity /Nehemiah Goreh -- The Saviour of All /Pandita Ramabai -- The Yoga Master: The Ramakrishna Mission -- Jesus the Avatara /Vengal Chakkarai -- Intermezzo /Frank Wesley -- The Suffering Christ as an Example /Mahatma Gandhi -- Intermezzo /Nandalal Bose -- The Eternal Christ in the Ashram Movement -- Intermezzo /Alfred Thomas -- Christ between the Religions: The Great Three: Panikkar, Thomas, Samartha -- Intermezzo /Jyoti Sahi -- Jesus as Liberator in the Theology of the Dalits -- Intermezzo /Susheila Williams -- Postscript -- Bibliography -- Index of Names -- Index of Subjects.