LIT Verlag Berlin-Münster-Wien-Zürich-London

Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur

Interreligious Studies

Herausgegeben von Dr. Frans Wijsen, Dr. Jorge Castillo Guerra

Due to globalization and migration, interactions between people with various cultural orientations increase. The world has become a "global ecumene". The cultural consequences of this process are complex. Some scholars hold that there is a cultural homogenization or "coca-colonization". People from different cultural backgrounds increasingly think, speak and behave in the same way. According to other scholars there is cultural diversification or "re-tribalization". People define narrow-minded identities and fight a "holy war" against other "tribes". A third school of thought holds that these narrow-minded identities are not to be interpreted as revivals. They are - to a large extent - local products of the global. Hence there is cultural diffusion or "glocalization".

Religions are not excluded from the interconnectedness of cultures. After decades of neglect, religion is back to academia. Increasingly religion is studied by a variety of disciplines as a factor in intercultural communication and international relations, in economic and political sciences, peace and development studies. It is acknowledged that traditional approaches of studying religions and interreligious relations, e.g. theology and science of religion, no longer suffice to cope with religious dynamics in a complex world. Consequently there is an inter- and trans-disciplinary field which has been coined interreligious studies. What we have seen before, the emancipation of science of religion out of theology, is now happening again: the emancipation of interreligious studies out of both theology and religious studies.

This book series aims at giving a contribution to this emerging field of study. It seeks openness to a diversity of rationalities that is apparent in interreligious encounters. We invite scholars from various disciplines and especially those who explore and cross the boundaries of their disciplines to submit manuscripts to this series. Together we hope to build up a new body of knowledge focussed on inter-religious hermeneutics and communication.

Prof. Dr. Frans Wijsen

Dr. Jorge Castillo Guerra

José M. Vigil, Luiza Tomita, Marcello Barros (Eds.)
Along the Many Paths of God
Foreword: Pedro Casadáliga
Bd. 1, 2008, 288 S., 29.90 EUR, br., ISBN 978-3-8258-1520-2

José M. Vigil
Theology of Religious Pluralism
Bd. 2, 2008, 360 S., 34.90 EUR, br., ISBN 978-3-8258-1519-6

Laurenti Magesa
African Religion in the Dialogue Debate
From Intolerance to Coexistence
Bd. 3, 2010, 208 S., 19.90 EUR, br., ISBN 978-3-643-90018-0

Jorge E. Castillo Guerra, Joop Vernooij (Eds.)
Relaciones interreligiosas en el Caribe
Ecumene, interculturalidad e interreligiosidad
Bd. 4, 2010, 200 S., 19.90 EUR, br., ISBN 978-3-643-90021-0