Circling the Elephant

John J. Thatamanil is Associate Professor of Theology and World Religions at Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York. He is the author of The Immanent Divine: God, Creation, and the Human Predicament; An East-West Conversation (Fortress, 2006). He teaches a wide variety of courses in the areas of comparative theology, theologies of religious diversity, Hindu-Christian dialogue, the theology of Paul Tillich, theory of religion, and process theology. He is committed to the work of comparative theology-theology that learns from and with a variety of traditions. A central question that drives his work is "How can Christian communities come to see religious diversity as a promise rather than as a problem?"

Preface: Autobiography and Comparative Theology xi Note on Transliteration xix Introduction: Revisiting an Old Tale 1 1 Religious Difference and Christian Theology: Thinking About, Thinking With, and Thinking Through 21 2 The Limits and Promise of Exclusivism and Inclusivism: Assessing Major Options in Theologies of Religious Diversity 41 3 No One Ascends Alone: Toward a Relational Pluralism 70 4 Comparative Theology after Religion? 108 5 Defining the Religious: Comprehensive Qualitative Orientation 152 6 The Hospitality of Receiving: Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Interreligious Learning 193 7 God as Ground, Singularity, and Relation: Trinity and Religious Diversity 213 8 This Is Not a Conclusion 249 Acknowledgments 259 Notes 263 Index 289

... [A] boon for the disciplines of interreligious studies, comparative theology, and interreligious dialogue... Thatamanil's style and method advances the friendly debate between meta-confessional and confessional comparative theologians. There will surely be more lively conversation to come.-- "The Journal of Interreligious Studies" Religious diversity is a positive good. Interreligious learning does happen, but mostly in public life. Religious diversity should become a critical spiritual practice within faith communities, as it would help us understand both ultimate reality and each other better. Thatamanil's volume provides important food for thought towards this end.-- "Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology" Insightful, skillful, and convincing, this book could serve as an anchor for a course.-- "Choice" Circling the Elephant is a compelling case for interreligious learning in our times, grounded in a convincing critique of religious traditions as impermeable historical fortresses. Theological arguments for openness to the wisdom of our neighbors' traditions are richly illustrated by stories of the creativity and transformation that flow from such deep human encounters. Thatamanil's work is a new and valuable resource for comparative theology, theologies of religious diversity, and constructive theology across traditions.---Anantanand Rambachan, St. Olaf College Rooted in the expansive diversity of our actual human existence, John Thatamanil offers a new approach to the well-worn paths of theologies of religious pluralism and comparative theology. Challenging the very category of 'religion' from out of the near-infinite ways we humans orient ourselves in the world, this provocative proposal invites us to consider what it might still mean to be 'religious' when the unbounded encounter with the beauty of the particular is data for theological reflection. As complex and complicated as our moment in history, Circling the Elephant is an invitation to embrace the bewildering divine and human with a creativity that just might make us want to be better people.---Jeannine Hill Fletcher, author of The Sin of White Supremacy: Christianity, Racism and Religious Diversity in America With rigorous research and wisdom from years of Hindu-Christian-Buddhist trialogue, Dr. Thatamanil presents a trinitarian theology of religious diversity that is expansive, provocative, and imaginative. It is deeply rewarding to witness how intra- and inter-religious dialogues occur in this creative theologian's mind simultaneously on many levels. The book pushes the envelope of the ways constructive theology can be done!---Kwok Pui-lan, Dean's Professor of Systematic Theology, Candler School of Theology, Emory University Circling the Elephant is an enlightening seminal work of constructive theology that invites us to consider religious diversity as a blessing... this book will have a profound influence in the fields of theology and religious studies.-- "Critical Theology" Thatamanil has given us an important text that expands debates within and beyond the theology of religions and comparative theology and will become, I believe, part of the standard repertoire for students and scholars.---Paul Hedges, Journal of the American Academy of Religion