Pneumatology and the Christian-Buddhist Dialogue

Does the Spirit Blow Through the Middle Way?
Erscheinungsjahr 2012
ISBN: 978-90-04-23117-7
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 11, 359 Seiten, Format (B × H): 160 mm x 236 mm, Gewicht: 1400 g

Reihe: Studies in Systematic Theology

Recent thinking in Christian theology of religions has taken a “pneumatological turn” which asks how the doctrine of the Holy Spirit can contribute to the interreligious dialogue and to the emerging discourse of comparative theology. Pneumatology and the Christian-Buddhist Dialogue. Does the Spirit Blow through the Middle Way? tests the viability of this approach as applied to the Christian-Buddhist dialogue. Various Christian and Buddhist traditions are compared and contrasted within a pneumatological framework. Is the Holy Spirit to be found along the Buddha’s middle way? Some Christians say yes, while others demur. The thesis of this volume is that such a pneumatological perspective opens up possibilities for the deepening and transformation of Christian theology in the religiously plural world of the twenty-first century.

Zielgruppe

All faculty, researchers, and students in graduate level programs interested in Buddhist-Christian dialogue, comparative theology and philosophy, interreligious dialogue & encounter, global theology, constructive theology, and theology of religions or theology of religious pluralism.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Yong, Amos

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Dialog & Beziehungen zwischen Religionen
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Vergleichende Religionswissenschaft
• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Systematische Theologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface
Acknowledgments

Chapter 1 – Introduction: Christian Theology Entering the Middle Way
1.1 The Christian Encounter with Buddhism: Whence and Whither
1.2 Starting with the Spirit: Methodological Issues and the Interfaith Encounter
1.2.1 Pneumatology and Interreligious Engagement
1.2.2 Pneumatology and Interreligious Witness
1.2.3 Pneumatology and Comparative Theology
1.3 An Overview of the Book

Part I – Spirit and Emptiness: Divine Presence, Human Nature, and the Middle Way

Chapter 2 – Spirit, Creation, and Human Nature: Divine Presence in Pneumatological Perspective
2.1 Spirit and Creation in the Genesis Narrative
2.2 Spirit, Mind, Body and the Neurosciences
2.3 Spirit and the World: Rethinking Divine Presence

Chapter 3 – Shunyata: The World and Becoming Human in East Asian Buddhism
3.1 Anatman and Shunyata in Early Buddhist Traditions
3.2 Shunyata, Human Nature, and the Neurosciences
3.3 Pratityasamutpada, the Human Person and Interrelationality

Chapter 4 – Toward a Comparative Christian-Buddhist Anthropology
4.1 Pneuma and Shunyata: On Human Being and Becoming
4.2 Interpreting the Human: Pneumato-christological Perspectives
4.3 Method in Science and Religion: A Pneumatological Assist

Part II – Spirit, Salvation, and the Eightfold Path: Divine Activity and Liberation along the Middle Way

Chapter 5 – Becoming Divine: Eastern Orthodoxy and the Desert Tradition of Spirituality
5.1 The Spirituality of the Desert
5.2 The Desert Path and the Psycho-Dynamics of Liberation in the Philokalia
5.2.1 The Way of the Desert and the Mortification of the Flesh
5.2.1 Spiritual Warfare and the Illumination of the Mind
5.2.3 Deification and the Hesychast Stillness of Heart
5.3 The Jesus Prayer and the Journey to God

Chapter 6 – Perfection and Liberation: Buddhaghosa and the Theravadin Tradition of Self-Renunciation
6.1 The Theravadin Arahant
6.2 The Path of the Arahant and the Psycho-Dynamics of Liberation in Buddhaghosa’s Visuddhimagga
6.2.1 Sila and the Purification of Virtue
6.2.2 Samadhi and the Purification of Conciousness
6.2.3 Panna and the Perfection of the Arahant
6.3 Renunciation and Theravadin Buddhist Perfection

Chapter 7 – Toward a Comparative Christian-Buddhist Soteriology
7.1 A Phenomenology of Deification and Perfection
7.2 The Psychology and Epistemology of Liberation
7.3 Salvation: Pneumatological and Buddhological Comparisons and Contrasts

Part III – The Satan and Mara: Divine Absence and the Demonic Threatening the Middle Way

Chapter 8 – Pentecostal Demonologies and the Asian Context
8.1 Christian Traditions and the Demonic
8.2 Pentecostal Theologies of the Demonic
8.3 Exorcising the Demonic

Chapter 9 – Buddhist Traditions of the Demonic
9.1 Textual and Doctrinal Perspectives on Buddhist Demonologies
9.2 The Praxis of Buddhist Exorcisms
9.3 Toward a Buddhist Hermeneutics of the Demonic

Chapter 10 – Toward a Comparative Christian-Buddhist Cosmology
10.1 From a Phenomenology to a Cosmology and Soteriology of the Demonic
10.2 Interpreting the Demonic: A Cross-cultural and Interreligious Understanding
10.3 Toward a Christian Discernment of Spirit(s) “after” Buddhism

Chapter 11 – Conclusion: Skillful Means and the Transformation of the Middle Way
11.1 Summaries
11.2 Discerning the Spirit “after” Buddhism
11.2.1 Discerning the Spirit and the Word
11.2.2 Discerning the Spirit of Jesus
11.2.3 Discerning the Spirit of Salvation
11.3 Whither Christian Theology and the Middle Way? Implications for Christian Practices

Name Index
Subject Index

Über Autor(innen)

Yong, Amos
Amos Yong, Ph.D. (1998) Systematic Theology, Boston University, is J. Rodman Williams Professor of Theology at Regent University School of Divinity, and the author/editor of many books, including The Cosmic Breath: Spirit and Nature in the Christianity-Buddhism-Science Trialogue (Brill, 2012).