Akay Dag - Christian and Islamic Theology of Religions.

Theologians have had to increasingly engage with beliefs and practises outside of their own traditions. The resultant theology of religions is, however, often formulated in isolation from the religions they are describing. This book provides a comparison of the development of theology of religions in Western Christianity and its application in an Islamic context. It also shows the parallels between some specific forms of theology of religions, i.e. exclusivism, inclusivism or pluralism, in both Islamic and Christian traditions.

The arguments of Christian and Muslim theologians, including the specific contributions of Rowan Williams and Jerusha Lamptey, are examined in order to reveal the interconnections and contradictions of their pluralist, exclusivist and inclusivist approaches. This provides a rounded picture of Christian-Muslim understanding of religious others and prepares the ground for a stronger and more sophisticated Islamic theology of religions.

This is vital reading for those studying theology of religions, comparative theology and interfaith relations.

Esra Akay Dag is a research assistant in religious studies at Sakarya University, Turkey.

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56Christian and Islamic Theology of Religions

A Critical Appraisal

Esra Akay Dag

First published 2017

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2017 Esra Akay Dag

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ISBN: 978-1-138-70449-7 (hbk)

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To my little boy, Omar.

This book is from a long PhD journey. In this book, I will basically provide a critical analysis of Christian and Islamic theology of religions. The first section of the research, utilising Alan Races threefold typology together with alternative typologies, presents diverse Christian theologians responses to religious pluralism. It argues that although Races typology provides a good overview of current discussion on Christian theology of religions, it fails to do justice to more complex theologies. After paying specific attention to Rowan Williamss theology, I will show that Rowan Williamss Trinitarian theology of religions, with its complexities, challenges both the threefold and other typologies and the pluralist assumption that only pluralism provides sufficient openness towards other religions.

In the second section, I will question the applicability of Races threefold typology to Islamic theology of religions. I will argue that Races typology does not fully help present Islamic theology of religions as the application of inclusivist theology to Islamic theology seems to be problematic. Subsequently, providing diverse Islamic responses to religious diversity under the types of exclusivism and pluralism, I will argue that both approaches do not satisfactorily respond to religious similarities and difference. In this respect, after careful consideration of Jerusha Lampteys Muslima theology of religions, I will argue that she offers a sophisticated theology which pays attention to the problem of doing justice to both religious similarities and differences.

After presenting diverse Christian and Islamic responses to religious pluralism, I will conclude that there is a need to pay attention to the specific details of other religious traditions and show how this complicates theology of religions questions.

I am deeply grateful to the many people, more than I can mention, who supported and encouraged me during my entire PhD journey and the publication of this book process. To begin, I must acknowledge my whole gratitude to my PhD supervisor Prof. Gavin DCosta for his intellectual support and encouragement. From the first moment, he has always been supportive. I would not have been able to complete this project without Prof. DCostas generous support. Throughout my PhD, sometimes I lost my confidence, but he has always convinced me that what I have been working on is important and that I have the ability to do it. After the PhD, he has also been very supportive to publish my research as a book. I am sincerely grateful to my husband, Rahman, for his sacrifice, forbearance and encouragement. Although he was also studying his research, he has always prioritised mine by providing extra psychological and intellectual support. I must extend my deep gratitude to my parents and my sisters and brothers for their prayers, love and encouragement. I am very grateful to my fellow Luke Perera, with whom I shared the same faculty and house during our PhD life. Luke has proofread all my research and also provided some assistance where I had difficulties. I must extend my gratitude to the editors at Routledge, Joshua Wells and Jack Boothroyd, who have kindly responded to every question I asked and also to two anonymous reviewers for their insights.