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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Theology and Non-western Philosophy Introduction As contemporary Western theologians consider the relationship between theology and philosophy they are aware as never before of the presence of the many highly sophisticated non-Western traditions of intellectual reflection on religious themes that show many similarities to those central to Western theology, such as revelation, God, creation, and the nature and destiny of the human person.

Is it legitimate, important, useful or even possible for contemporary Christian theology to engage with such non-Western philosophy? Before we can consider this question further it is necessary to make clear how the key terms are going to be used in this chapter. First, ‘theology’ and ‘non-Western’ are taken to denote both origin and geography. ‘Theology’ here means that Christian theology which has historically developed in Europe and America, whether it has remained in these areas or not.

‘Non-Western’ thus includes Jewish and Muslim philosophy as it developed in Islamic Spain as well in the Middle East, as well as Eastern philosophy, such as that found in Hinduism and Buddhism. If the distinction is not tied to both origins and geography, it becomes impossible to know what counts as a contrast between ‘theology’ and ‘non-Western,’ since Christianity is itself by origin a non-Western religion, and non-Western philosophy has also developed in Europe and America over the centuries.

Moreover, ‘philosophy’ is taken to be intellectual reflection or ‘thought’ in general, specifically religious thought, or ‘theology’ as this term is often used. ‘Philosophy’ is a Western term, often contrasted with ‘theology’ in the Western context and use of the term poses particular problems when applied to non-Western traditions where the contrast is not made.

In this chapter ‘philosophy,’ ‘thought’ and ‘theology’ are used interchangeably, though always with the core theme in mind of how reason serves religious faith. In contemporary Western theology the discipline that argues most emphatically that theology should engage with non-Western philosophy is the emergent one of ‘comparative theology,’ which one of its leading advocates, the American Catholic theologian, Francis Clooney S.J.