Piety and Responsibility

This book analyzes the writings of Karl Rahner, Karl Barth, and Vedanta Desika to disclose how each construes "piety" and "responsibility" as integral to each other. It explores a fundamental unity of love of God and love of neighbour in ecumenical and interreligious frameworks.

'This probing study examines the centrality of love and service within the work of three significant theologians, Protestant, Catholic, and Hindu. Sheveland's work advances the project of comparative theology, demonstrating differences and commonalities among faiths.' Christopher Key Chapple, Loyola Marymount University, USA 'To bring Karl Rahner and Karl Barth into fruitful dialogue with one another, as this beautiful book does, is already a remarkable achievement: more remarkably still, however, in relating the two of them to the work of Vedanta Desika, John Sheveland shows how much more illuminating and challenging the conversation becomes when it is conducted interreligiously as well as ecumenically'. The Revd Fergus Kerr OP, University of Edinburgh, UK 'This work of John Sheveland sets a new standard of careful analysis and sheer excellence for comparative theology. He explores the essential structure of religious anthropology and spirituality constituted in the double relationships to God and fellow humans. He interweaves the voices of Catholic (Rahner), Protestant (Barth), and Hindu (Desika) with magisterial authority and polyphonic finesse. He moves forward from statement, to dialogue, to reverently critical conversation. In the comparative crescendo these independent voices blend to reveal remarkable analogies across boundaries. This book can supply the underpinnings for a course and even a program in theology for our pluralistic age. Bravo.' Roger Haight, S. J. Union Theological Seminary, USA 'This book [...] develops fully an example of polyphony and makes a valuable contribution to the emerging 'school' of 'Comparative Theology.' Vidyajyoti Journal of Theological Reflection 'Sheveland carries out this tour de force with a masterful hand and enviable elegance... Sheveland’s contributions are enormous not only in his theological comparison among three different theological visions but also in his theological method for carrying out this comparison. Us

Dr. John Sheveland is an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Gonzaga University. He received a Master of Arts in Religion from Yale Divinity School and a Ph.D. in Systematic and Comparative Theology from Boston College. At Gonzaga University he teaches courses in Christian Theology, Interreligious Dialogue, and World Religions. His research interests include Christian-Hindu and Christian-Buddhist Comparative Theology, Comparative theological anthropology, and theological responses to religious violence. He is a member of the American Academy of Religion, the College Theology Society, and the Catholic Theological Society of America, and has contributed scholarly articles to journals such as Studies in Interreligious Dialogue, Louvain Studies, The Way, Expository Times, and to several edited books.

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