| REWARDING
ENCOUNTERS Islam and the Comparative Theologies of Kenneth Cragg and Wilfred Cantwell Smith Bård Mæland What happens if Christian theology is taken as a point of departure for understanding Islam? Will such a ‘fore-understanding’ help or foreclose an attempt to understand Muslims and Islam? On the other hand, how is one’s Christian faith informed by such an effort to understand? Is it changed by this meeting of faiths in some way or other? Rewarding Encounters aims to consider these questions as the writings of Kenneth Cragg and Wilfred Cantwell Smith are explored and interpreted. In a close-up study of their works, Dr M?land develops significant insights into interreligious hermeneutics and Trinitarian theology. Thus, M?land demonstrates how Christian theology both provides resources for understanding Muslims and Islam, and at the same time how it is deeply informed, and more deeply understood, by such an encounter. Dr B?rd M?land is senior researcher to the Chaplain in Chief of the Norwegian Armed Forces. His research has mainly concentrated on comparative theology and military ethics. M?land is a former chaplain to the Norwegian Military Academy, and has previously also served as chaplain to the Norwegian infantry battalion in UNIFIL, South Lebanon. He is the editor of the Journal of Military Ethics.
January 2003 |
