Ultimate Realities: A Volume in the Comparative Religious Ideas Project - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0791447766 ISBN 13: 9780791447765

Publisher: State University of New York Press, 2000

Synopsis

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

The idea of ultimacy as a comparative category that cuts across major religious traditions and cultures is discussed in Ultimate Realities, a multi-authored collaborative work. In this light, Chinese religion, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are examined by distinguished specialist historians. Two senses of ultimacy emerged in the Comparative Religious Ideas Project from which this volume came. One is the ultimacy of ontological matters such as God, the Dao, or Brahman. The other is the anthropological ultimacy of religious quests such as the Buddhist journey to enlightenment which does not stress any ontological ultimate, and indeed in some forms considers ontological ultimates to be problematic. Underneath this comparative study is a theory and method of comparison which are discussed at length and embodied in the project.

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

About this title

About the Authors

Robert Cummings Neville is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Religion, and Theology at Boston University. His many books include Metaphysics of Goodness: Harmony and Form, Beauty and Art, Obligation and Personhood, Flourishing and Civilization, also published by SUNY Press.

Tu Wei-ming is Professor of Chinese History and Philosophy and a member of the Committee on Religion at Harvard University. He is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Coordinator of the Dialogue of Civilizations Project at the East-West Center. He is the author of Confucian Thought: Selfhood as Creative Transformation; and Centrality and Commonality: An Essay on Confucian Religiousness, both published by SUNY Press; Confucian Ethics Today: The Singapore Challenge; Humanity and Self-Cultivation; and Neo-Confucian Thought in Action: Wang Yang-ming's Youth.

Edition details

• Publisher: State University of New York Press
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0791447766
• ISBN 13: 9780791447765
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 391
• Editor: Neville Robert Cummings