Naming and Thinking God in Europe Today: Theology in Global Dialogue

Description

Is there a new need and place for God-talk in Europe? The present volume both confirms this and opens up new questions for discussion. It shows how different traditions of naming and thinking God in Europe draw on various theoretical and philosophical foundations that are in competition with one another in many ways. Due to socio-cultural, historical and political divides between Eastern and Western Europe, these theological traditions often suffer from isolation and mutual misunderstanding. Can the inherent tensions and conflicts be understood more adequately?While exploring a variety of approaches in Europe on the topic, several authors also ask: How can God be named and thought in Europe, which finds itself in the midst of complex crosscultural and interreligious processes - particularly as immigration increases and peoples of non-Christian faith traditions name and think God in ways that differ from and sometimes conflict with Europe's dominant religion(s) and secular culture? What function and impact will traditional God-talk have in a globalizing Europe as religions such as Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism move into the foreground? This volume not only reveals the broad spectrum of its topic but also documents the vivid seeking undertaken by a new generation of European theologians and scholars of religion who openly engage the question of how to live and believe in Europe today, facing complex global challenges. Naming and Thinking God in Europe Today: Theology in Global Dialogue Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Part I - Europe's God in a Globalizing World "God's in His Heaven ... Where He Belongs": Religions, Europe, and Monopolar Transcendence in Global Society Speaking of God in the New world Order, Inc. Europe's God: Liberator or Oppressor? The Postcolonial Mediation of Transcendence Thinking about God from the Perspectives of Ecounter and Community: A Challenge for European Theology in a Globalized World From a European Subject to a Global Verb: God in Terms of Pastoral Relativity Part II - Geographies of God in Europe Thirty-Years' Worth of Studies and Publications on the Subject of God Thinking About God in Central Eastern Europe: Social Experiences and Theological Challenges Thinking About God Philosophically in Europe Today: A Czech Perspective Thinking God in National and Religious Conflicts: The Case of Romania God in Twentieth-Century Portuguese Literature Part III - Musing on God in Europe Thinking God Between Fundamentalism and Liberalism Ethics, the Hermeneutics of Memory, and the Concept of God Mystical and Aesthetic Experiences in Modernity Kataphasis and Apophasis in the Greek Orthodox Patristic Tradition Phenomenology and Theology: A Contemporary Exit Strategy from Metaphysics Ethical Monotheism and Human Freedom: Theological Convergences with the Pluralism of the Modern Age Christian Monotheism: Exclusivity or Openness to Otherness? Christian Faith in the Postmodern Context: The case of Gianni Vattimo Models of Divine Action in the World Thinking God in a Paschal Perspective Communio: A Problematic Keyword of Contemporary God-Talk Part IV - Europe's God in GLobal Dialogue The Idea of "God" in GLobal Theology Twentieth-Century Jewish Thought as a Challenge to Christian Theology Ibn 'Arabī's God, Eckhart's God: Philosophers' God or Religion's God? Can the Hindu Experience of God Enrich the European Concept of God? Thinking God in South India: The Theistic Vedānta of the Viśiṣṭādvaita School Thinking and Naming the Ultimate in Buddhist Theology Intercultural and Interreligious (Un)Translatibility and the Comparative Theology Project Limits and Prospects of Comparative Theology Comparative Theology As an Alternative to the Theology of Religions The Role of Concepts of God in Crosscultural Comparative Theology List of Authors