62. Jesus Christ and the Religions: An Essay in Theology of Religions, by Hans Waldenfels. ISBN 13: 978-0-87462-739-8 & ISBN 10: 0-87462-739-7. Paper. Bibliography. Index. 146 pp. $20
We are not living in the world of one religion anymore, the one to which we belong. Different religions are competing with each other, and we have to learn to deal with a plurality of religions which are calling for our reaction. As any other person in his or her religion, Christians should know about their own Christian position. And before we enter into dialogue with other religions, other churches and communities, dialogue is required and needed inside our own Church.
Interfaith dialogue in its depth entails an all comprising sharing, mutual openness and the proclamation of active faith in words and deeds. This book gives stimulus to such an active dialogue.
Hans Waldenfels is a German Jesuit who studied theology and religions in Tokyo, Hiroshima, and Kyoto, and then later in Rome. He was a disciple of the school of the Japanese philosophers Keiji Nishitani and Yoshinori Takeuchi, later also of Masao Abe, in Tokyo, and of Heinrich Dumoulin, the historian of Zen Buddhism. In Bonn he followed Joseph Ratzinger and Heimo Dolch in the chair of fundamental theology. Under him the chair in theology was the first in Germany to include inter religious dialogue. Waldenfels has been deeply engaged in the practice of dialogue with representatives of Asian religions, and also with Moslems and Jews.
Marquette University Press
