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not be of much help to reserve the name "theology" for this way of doing theology. |
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One may also concede that "comparative" may not be the right word to suggest what actually goes on in the reading of texts and therefore in this book, where the engaged reader is "inscribed" into an ever more complexly composed context, in order to write after and out of it. The distance one might normally associate with comparison is lacking; the images of visual assessment often associated with comparinglooking at things togetherare inappropriate. Perhaps another Latin word, ''collectio""reading-together"might be rehabilitated for this purpose. But for now, "comparative theology" serves to indicate my intention to inscribe within the Christian theological tradition theological texts from outside it, and to (begin to) write Christian theology only out of that newly composed context. |
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3. Comparative Theology in Relation to Other Disciplines |
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The nature of comparative theology can be clarified by noting its relation to two presupposed but distinct disciplines: "Indology," as one instance from among a wider range of areaor culture- or religion-specific studies often termed "area studies," and the comparative study of religion. |
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Good comparative study, including good comparative theology, of course depends heavily on the ability of the comparativist to articulate a viable understanding of the "other," in which the encountered "other" is not manufactured to fit the comparativist's prejudices and expectations. The comparative theologian must achieve a certain distance from her or his own starting point, in order to be able to learn from another tradition by understanding it on its own terms, and in a way that can never be entirely predicated on the expectations of one's home tradition, because it reformulates those expectations regarding the home tradition. |
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This is why credible Indological study is necessary for my project. A credible use of Advaita in a comparative project depends on a prior credible reading of Advaita even if, as conceded above, this reading is not accomplished entirely apart |
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