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Summary
Looks at the concept of Ultimate Reality in Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, and Christianity.
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.
“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
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
Preface
A Note on Orthography
Acknowledgments
Part I. Approaching the Ultimate
Defining “Ultimate Reality”
The Phenomenological Approach
Peter Berger, Social Construction, and the Sacred Canopy
Imagination
Snapshots in the Evolution of a Tradition
The “Axial Age” and Its Legacy
Toward What End?
Part II. God: From Early Judaism to Postmodern Christianity
Introduction
Setting the Stage: God in Ancient Israelite Religion and Early Judaism
Act 1: The Evolution of God in Ancient Israelite and Early Jewish Traditions
The Emergence of Christianity
Act 2: God of Early Christianity
Act 3: From Augustine to Thomas Aquinas and Natural Theology
Act 4: Luther and the Reformation
Act 5: “God” and the Enlightenment Encounter
Act 6: Beyond Theism: “God” Meets Postmodernism
Summary and Conclusions
Part III. Hindu Traditions: Brahman and the 330 Million Gods and Goddesses of India
Introduction
Act 1: Vedic Religion and the Gods of Sacrifice
Act 2: The Late Vedic Period and the Axial Age
Act 3: Devotional Hindu Traditions
Act 4: Debating the One and the Many in Classical Hindu Theology
Act 5: Hinduism’s Colonial Encounter and Its Theological Consequences
Act 6: “ Hinduism in America”
Reflections on the Ultimate in Hindu Traditions
Part IV. Buddhist Traditions: From Nirvana to Emptiness
Introduction
First Things First: A Basic Introduction to Buddhism
Act 1: Searching for the Ultimate in Early Buddhism
Act 2: From Nikaya to Mahayana Buddhism
Act 3: The Chinese Transformation of Buddhism
Act 4: The Buddhist Encounter with the West
The Ultimate in Buddhist Traditions: From Early Nikaya to the West
Part V. Reflections on the Divine Quest
Introduction
Morphology of the Ultimate
New Visions of Ultimacy: Revelation, Mystical Discovery, and Imagination
