Volume 84, Issue 6

What place should Christian theology, what places should theologies have at universities? This article first summarizes the conceptual history of »theology« in Christianity, Judaism and Islam and then offers an overview of existing options that have been realized for different theologies at universities. Finally, it proposes some criteria that could be of importance when making decisions regarding the academic organization of Theology and Religious Studies.

The article initially distinguishes between three directions of Christian theology of religions (dual, monistic, interactionist). Critical questions are then asked about conventional approaches to a theology of religions from the perspective of discourse theory, economics of religion, sociology of religion and spatial theory as well as an intercultural theology. The thesis is that a future theology of religions must pay greater attention to the actually existing conditions of interreligious relations. Finally the alternative approach of a theology of interreligious relations is proposed.

Comparative theology originally developed from the encounter with Eastern religions. As a result, it lacks concrete theological discussions with other religions in their theological self-understanding. While the theology of Israel has seemingly always been a breaking point for all theologies of religions, the article aims to show that Qurʾanic theology also holds its own challenges for Christianity, which must be addressed in contemporary comparative theological research. Especially the insight that many Qurʾanic interventions in Christological debates are dependent on a critique of the imperial political theology of Byzantium challenges traditional views on Muslim-Christian relations. But also recent ecumenical approaches to the Qurʾanic theology of Abrahamic religions have to be reflected.

This article analyses the development of Islamic theology of religions in recent decades and classifies the various approaches into two main categories: exclusivism and pluralism. Furthermore, it argues that, in contrast to the historical Islamic tradition, which predominantly pursued a rather exclusivist approach, a theology of religions based exclusively on the Qurʾan offers significantly greater potential for an Islamic theology of pluralism.

This article explores some basic Buddhist attitudes towards other religions as found in the history of the spread of Buddhism in Asia and, since the 19th century, in the Americas and Europe. In the encounter with other religious traditions, Buddhist formations prove to be highly adaptable and integrative in terms of specific elements, while holding on to fundamental insights. Particular emphasis is placed on Buddhist meta-communicative concepts and terminology. Since Buddhism is basically a non-theistic religion, its encounter with theistic religions can be characterized as asymmetrical.