(1950-)...

(1950-), has characterised as the ‘theologically conscious study of religions other than one’s own.’[^1] Such a general definition of comparative theology suggests and indeed encompasses a considerable variety of actual approaches.

Comparative theology is practised by theologians belonging to different Christian denominations, who promote different understandings of what the theological task is and who make a variety of greater or lesser claims about the aims and achievement of engagement with non-Western philosophy.

They also differ in what kind of engagement they prefer, with some studying a single text or single tradition of another religion and others surveying a number of traditions centred on a major theological theme. All, however, claim that engagement with non-Western philosophy is possible, interesting and useful for the doing of Western Christian theology. Nonetheless, contemporary comparative theologians face some serious questions about the success of their work.

One area of challenge centres on the question of whether the work of comparative theologians shows sufficient continuity with Christian theology defined as a reasoned exploration of Christian revelation and faith, in critical engagement with other positions and subject to scrutiny and validation by the theologian’s own ecclesial community.[^2] Comparative theologians are routinely academics working in a university context where there is the freedom to develop a theological account as he or she chooses.

Can such comparative theology qualify as Christian theology in the sense above or does it translate into a form of religious studies, in which claims about the truth and the demands of faith and of faith communities are marginalised and excluded?

A second area of challenge concerns the epistemological issues involved in any Western theology engaging with a non-Western philosophy and relates to objections from contemporary critiques of intercultural engagement, especially Western interaction with Eastern culture.