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of comparison, now attuned to scriptural sources and their use, and to commentarial strategies and their refinement, as these are mapped out across the expanse of the newly juxtaposed Texts that are read together. |
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This consideration of a variety of the issues which arise in the construction of the proper context for comparisonthe Context that is produced out of the intelligent and attentive juxtaposition of the Texts of two traditionshas extended the reflection on Text begun in Chapter 2; but it also reflects the incompleteness of Chapter 2, and our reassessment of theology after Advaita Vedanta remains at its beginning. We must consider now the question of the truth of comparison, whether comparative theological reading can be communicated and persuasive to one's "home" faith community. This question follows from Chapter 3, where we explored the inscription of truth in texts and its accomplishment after texts and not merely outside them, and is the topic of the next section. |
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III. The Truth Of Comparative Theology |
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1. The Patient Deferral of Issues of Truth |
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Engagement in a comparative theological reading which draws upon two (or more) Texts leads eventually to a confrontation with the same question of truth that is taken up in the Advaita and Christian traditions themselves: how does one get beyond reading, in order to know and state persuasively one's views about the world that exists outside texts? |
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Though the questions become increasingly compelling the more one readswhat is the increasingly complex reading project for?what truth does one discover?I nevertheless begin by defending a deferral of a response to them. Any hope of advance in our thinking from the practice of comparative reading to a realization consequent upon this practice relies in part on our determination to compose this further discourse only in a properly consequent fashion, as truly after comparison, and not merely as the restatement of an earlier position, after a brief detour into comparison. |
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