The Human Condition

A Volume in the Comparative Religious Ideas Project

Edited by Robert Cummings Neville
Foreword by Peter L. Berger

Subjects: Philosophy Of Religion
Series: SUNY series, The Comparative Religious Ideas Project
Paperback : 9780791447802, 365 pages, November 2000
Hardcover : 9780791447796, 365 pages, November 2000

View Table of Contents

Request Desk or Examination Copy
Request a Media Review Copy

Table of contents

Foreword
Peter L. Berger

Preface
Robert Cummings Neville

Acknowledgments

Introduction
Robert Cummings Neville with Wesley J. Wildman

1. On Comparing Religious Ideas
Robert Cummings Neville with Wesley J. Wildman

2. Chinese Religion
Livia Kohn

3. Beginningless Ignorance: A Buddhist View of the Human Condition
Malcolm David Eckel with John J. Thatamanil

4. To Be Heard and Done, But Never Quite Seen: The Human Condition According to the Vivekacudamani
Francis X. Clooney, S.J., with Hugh R. Nicholson

5. Religious Dimensions of the Human Condition in Judaism: Wrestling with God in an Imperfect World
Anthony J. Saldarini with Joseph A. Kanofsky

6. Embodiment and Redemption: The Human Condition in Ancient Christianity
Paula Fredriksen with Tina Shepardson

7. The Human Condition in Islam: Shari'a and Obligation
S. Nomanul Haq

8. Comparative Hypotheses: Cosmological Categories for the Human Condition
Robert Cummings Neville with Wesley J. Wildman

9. Comparative Hypotheses: Personal and Social Categories for the Human Condition
Robert Cummings Neville

Appendix A: On the Process of the Project During the First Year
Wesley J. Wildman

Appendix B: Suggestions for Further Reading

Contributors

Index of Names

Index of Subjects

Explores the human condition in a range of world religions and discusses the issue and philosophical implications of comparison itself.

Description

This multi-authored collaborative work on the idea of the human condition as a comparative category cuts across major religious traditions and cultures. Extensive essays by distinguished specialists examine Chinese religion, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Together the essays provide a multi-cultural approach to the human condition, discussing both broad sensibilities of religious traditions as well as specific texts. In addition the volume contains an introduction to a sophisticated theory of comparison for religious ideas, including explicit comparisons based on the specialized essays.

Contributors include Francis X. Clooney, S.J., Malcolm David Eckel, Paul Fredriksen, S. Nomanul Haq, Joseph Kanofsky, Livia Kohn, Robert Cummings Neville, Hugh Nicholson, Anthony J. Saldarini, Tina Shepardson , John Thatamanil,, and Wesley J. Wildman.