The Interreligious Dialogue: Philosophical Perspectives

A special issue of Religions (ISSN 2077-1444). This special issue belongs to the section "Religions and Humanities/Philosophies".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2024 | Viewed by 4207

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici, Università degli Studi di Macerata, 62100 Marche, Italy
Interests: phenomenology; hermeneutics; philosophy of religion; translation studies; intercultural hermeneutics and interreligious relations

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Guest Editor
Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí, San Luis Potosí 78000, Mexico
Interests: phenomenology; hermeneutics; philosophy of religion; translation studies; intercultural studies; peace studies; interreligious and intercultural dialogue; philosophy of social sciences

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue will explore the possibility of philosophical reflections dedicated to the Constitution and the dynamic of interreligious dialogue. We all know that establishing a possible dialogue between the different religious traditions constitutes a challenge to the declaration of uniqueness that every religion carries with it. This Special Issue focuses on the possibility of philosophically elaborating the basis and the grammar of this challenge to save the value of the absolute and the human at the same time.

In the philosophy of religion, various philosophical currents have tried to elaborate on this possibility, starting from the Middle Ages through a reflection of a metaphysical nature, passing through modernity (in which the problem has taken a rationalist mode), up to the contemporary era where currents such as phenomenology and hermeneutics have attempted to approach the question of the sacred in such a way as to provide a philosophical basis for reflections of a theological nature.

Indeed, the philosophical attention paid to the dimension of interreligious dialogue can contribute to a more solid foundation of communication between positions that are exclusive. The philosophical penetration of the conditions of the validity of the religious phenomenon, in general, and of some traditions, in particular, can precisely allow for the recovery of common humanity and, at the same time, bring to light the close link between the religious and ethical dimensions (also taking into account current progress in the theory of interculturality).

For these reasons, we invite articles that can shed light on the problematic configuration of intercultural and interreligious dialogue from a philosophical perspective. While we are open to various positions and approaches, we expect each author to articulate their approach, including their stance in philosophy, any assumptions they hold, and their conceptual framework in studying the dialogue between different religions. Articles can focus on reflective analysis of one’s approach itself or other authors’ approaches.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Carla Canullo
Prof. Dr. Stefano Santasilia
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • religious experience
  • hermeneutics of religious experience
  • phenomenology of religion
  • theory of intercultural dialogue
  • intercultural studies
  • interreligious studies

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 382 KiB  
Article
Interreligious Concordance and Christianity in Nicholas of Cusa’s De Pace Fidei
by Francesco Bossoletti
Religions 2024, 15(8), 1018; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15081018 - 21 Aug 2024
Viewed by 377
Abstract
In the months following the Turkish capture of Constantinople in 1453, Nicholas of Cusa composed his De Pace Fidei, a text with which he defended and highlighted the value of interreligious dialogue and peace. Beginning with a textual analysis of its central [...] Read more.
In the months following the Turkish capture of Constantinople in 1453, Nicholas of Cusa composed his De Pace Fidei, a text with which he defended and highlighted the value of interreligious dialogue and peace. Beginning with a textual analysis of its central formula (“una religio in rituum varietate”), I analyze the role that Christianity occupies in the text: I exclude its possible reduction to the una religio or to one of the multiple world religions. I then identify through a literal analysis its role as a mediator between the plurality of historical religions and that religio founded on the fides orthodoxa on which the cardinal rests his argument. In addressing this matter, I also establish how the German cardinal makes the heavenly representatives of Christianity consciously use philosophical and not only theological arguments to avoid the reduction of his position to any kind of historical one. I, hence, argue for the possible transposition of the De Pace Fidei’s method to a contemporary philosophy of interreligious dialogue. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Interreligious Dialogue: Philosophical Perspectives)
15 pages, 329 KiB  
Article
How Confucius Seeks to Convince Others: Contrasting an One-World Analects with Two-World Theories
by Paul J. D’Ambrosio
Religions 2024, 15(8), 957; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15080957 - 7 Aug 2024
Viewed by 731
Abstract
Western thinkers have often seen Confucianism as unique in that it does not fit well into standard categories of either religion or philosophy. In terms of how this difficulty is reflected in academia, it seems that Confucianism is simultaneously both a religion and [...] Read more.
Western thinkers have often seen Confucianism as unique in that it does not fit well into standard categories of either religion or philosophy. In terms of how this difficulty is reflected in academia, it seems that Confucianism is simultaneously both a religion and a philosophy, and neither. This paper attempts to begin a discussion of a related issue, which has been relatively underappreciated; namely, how does Confucianism attempt to convince people to be Confucian? Restricting our discussion to the Analects, we can find appeals to a belief which seem almost religious, rational arguments which seem philosophical, and a host of other methodologies that may help to convince readers to follow the Confucian way. The discussion of the Analects is cursory here, and only a few passages will be discussed in a general manner. We will contrast this with a general outline of approaches to convincing people found in two-world theories, which can help to illuminate the uniqueness of the Analects, especially when it is read as a one-world perspective. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Interreligious Dialogue: Philosophical Perspectives)
15 pages, 406 KiB  
Article
From Criticism and Rejection to Sino-Western Communication: The Evolution of Zheng Guanying’s Understanding of the Spread of Christianity in China
by Di Li
Religions 2024, 15(6), 750; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15060750 - 19 Jun 2024
Viewed by 575
Abstract
Zheng Guanying paid close attention to the issue of the spread of Christianity in China since his youth. Over a period of more than three decades, he produced five monographs specifically addressing Christianity, from unequivocally opposing the spread of Christianity in China in [...] Read more.
Zheng Guanying paid close attention to the issue of the spread of Christianity in China since his youth. Over a period of more than three decades, he produced five monographs specifically addressing Christianity, from unequivocally opposing the spread of Christianity in China in the mid-to-late 1870s, to advocating for the adoption of the preaching form of the Christian “gatherings every seven days” to disseminate the village covenants and sacred edicts among the Chinese people in the 1890s. He proposed that the Chinese people should hold the right to spread Christianity. In 1906, he advocated for the establishment of a “common religion” and proposed “one religion for all nations” to eliminate wars around the world. In his later years, he proposed the “Five great wishes” to integrate and govern the various religions of the world with Taoism as the core, attempting to reconstruct global order from the perspective of religious unity. He envisioned the establishment of a sacred Taoist monastery, the dissemination of religious concepts, and the cultivation of talents, which drew on the organizational structure and missionary methods of Christianity, reflecting the thinking and efforts of modern Chinese intellectuals to bridge the Chinese and Western civilizations, seek solutions for modern China, reconcile conflicts between China and the West, and pursue global unity. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Interreligious Dialogue: Philosophical Perspectives)
16 pages, 432 KiB  
Article
From Understanding Śūnyatā to Connecting It with the Tathāgatagarbha: The Emergence and Evolution of Sengzhao’s Emptiness of the Nonabsolute
by Benhua Yang
Religions 2024, 15(5), 588; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15050588 - 11 May 2024
Viewed by 1181
Abstract
Historical transmission and other controversies related to Sengzhao’s Things Do Not Shift have long been a subject of scholarly attention. However, his essay Emptiness of the Nonabsolute has been insufficiently studied, despite being traditionally deemed emblematic of the Chinese understanding of Mādhyamaka philosophy. [...] Read more.
Historical transmission and other controversies related to Sengzhao’s Things Do Not Shift have long been a subject of scholarly attention. However, his essay Emptiness of the Nonabsolute has been insufficiently studied, despite being traditionally deemed emblematic of the Chinese understanding of Mādhyamaka philosophy. The present study shows that this essay has also historically generated divisions and debates in the Chinese context. It finds that Emptiness of the Nonabsolute expresses the Mādhyamaka philosophy of emptiness in a distinctly Chinese manner by grounding itself in the principle of dependent origination, and by transforming issues of being and nonbeing and the name and the “thing-in-itself” into conditional emergence. Nevertheless, Sengzhao’s essay evoked the two markedly distinct construals of Buzhengukong 不真故空 and Bushizhenkong 不是真空 as Tathāgatagarbha and Buddha-nature philosophy within Chinese Buddhism. Bushizhenkong directly aligned Sengzhao’s ostensibly representative theory of Mādhyamaka emptiness in China with the doctrinal framework of Tathāgatagarbha and Buddha-nature, triggering almost a millennium-long period of discussions and controversies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Interreligious Dialogue: Philosophical Perspectives)
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