The Divine Quest, East and West: A Comparative Study of Ultimate Realities

by James L. Ford

Overview

Many books have discussed the development of the notion of God in Western monotheistic traditions, but how have non-Western cultures conceptualized what those in the West might identify as "God"? What might be learned by comparing different visions of the Divine, such as God, gods, Brahman, Nirvana, and Emptiness? James L. Ford engages these fascinating questions, exploring notions of "the Divine" or "Ultimate Reality" within Jewish, Christian, Hindu, and Buddhist traditions. Looking at a multiplicity of divine conceptions, even within traditions, Ford discusses the relationship between imagination and revelation in the emergence of visions of ultimacy; consequences and tendencies associated with particular notions of the Ultimate; and how new visions of the Ultimate arise in relation to social, cultural, political, and scientific developments. Ford reflects on what can be learned through an awareness of the various beliefs about the Ultimate and on how such disparate visions influence the attitudes and behavior of people in different parts of the world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781438460536
Publisher:	State University of New York Press
Publication date:	03/01/2016
Pages:	434
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

James L. Ford is Professor of Religion at Wake Forest University and the author of Jōkei and Buddhist Devotion in Early Medieval Japan.

Table of Contents

List of Figures and Tables xi

Preface xiii

A Note on Orthography xvii

Acknowledgments xix

Part 1 Approaching the Ultimate 1

Defining "Ultimate Reality" 1

The Phenomenological Approach 4

Peter Berger, Social Construction, and the Sacred Canopy 6

Imagination 19

Snapshots in the Evolution of a Tradition 24

The "Axial Age" and Its Legacy 26

Toward What End? 28

Part 2 God: From Early Judaism to Postmodern Christianity 31

Introduction 31

Setting the Stage: God in Ancient Israelite Religion and Early Judaism 32

Act 1 The Evolution of God in Ancient Israelite and Early Jewish Traditions 49

The Emergence of Christianity 67

Act 2 God of Early Christianity 68

Act 3 From Augustine to Thomas Aquinas and Natural Theology 75

Act 4 Luther and the Reformation 82

Act 5 "God" and the Enlightenment Encounter 87

Act 6 Beyond Theism: "God" Meets Postmodernism 95

Summary and Conclusions 109

Part 3 Hindu Traditions: Brahman and the 330 Million Gods and Goddesses of India 115

Introduction 115

Act 1 Vedic Religion and the Gods of Sacrifice 118

Act 2 The Late Vedic Period and the Axial Age 130

Act 3 Devotional Hindu Traditions 144

Act 4 Debating the One and the Many in Classical

Hindu Theology 168

Act 5 Hinduism's Colonial Encounter and Its Theological

Consequences 173

Act 6 "Hinduism" in America 183

Reflections on the Ultimate in Hindu Traditions 189

Part 4 Buddhist Traditions: From Nirvana to Emptiness 193

Introduction 193

First Things First: A Basic Introduction to Buddhism 194

Act 1 Searching for the Ultimate in Early Buddhism 212

Act 2 From Nikaya to Mahayana Buddhism 227

Act 3 The Chinese Transformation of Buddhism 265

Act 4 The Buddhist Encounter with the West 292

The Ultimate in Buddhist Traditions: From Early Nikaya to the West 302

Part 5 Reflections on the Divine Quest 307

Introduction 307

Morphology of the Ultimate 308

New Visions of Ultimacy: Revelation, Mystical Discovery, and Imagination 317

The Ethics of Ultimacy 319

Reconciling Ultimate Realities and Truth Claims 325

Evolving Toward Process? 331

Ultimate Contingency 336

Notes 339

Bibliography 371

Index 395

Editorial Reviews

"Given the quality of its content and the clarity of its style … Ford's Divine Quest could well serve both graduate and undergraduate courses in world religions, interreligious dialogue, and comparative theology." — Horizons

"…fascinating and thorough." — CHOICE

From the Publisher