Researchers Tool for Cross Cultural and Historical Study of Religion

Although in later days his viewpoint has changed, in his earlier work on phantasmal studies, Michael Novak (1978) was a strong proponent of stall possibility, which, he believed, provided the inhering context in which a theory is held. That theory post be a theory about aesthetics, or it layabout be a theory about the nature of reality, or ultimacy. Standpoint provides a stance from which the individual views the world and it is created by the intersection of personal, social, and cultural stories. As he put it, the standpoint:

. . . is a sense of who. Who specifies the direction in which the theory looks, establishes the behavior of perceiving required for it, supplies the imaginative context and the uneasiness out of which the theory grew, shapes the judgments and actions which follow. Who is to a theory what blood and air be to a human being. A standpoint is the who at a habituated point in time. (Novak, 1978, p. 53)

Since the who of the ancient Hebrews, the modern American Baptist, the Muslim of the Middle Ages, and the Chinese scholar writing before the third estate era are quite different, the theories which they constructed about the nature of the macrocosm are likely to be quite different too. In addition, our viewpoint in contemporary times, looking at for each one of these perspectives also constitutes a particular standpoint, and this influences how we assess, judge, and value what we see.

. . . is truth-seeking dialogue, in which each is conscious that the transcendent being is infinitely extensiveer than his own limited vision of it, and in which the partners accordingly seek to share their visions in the hope that each may be helped toward a fuller awareness of the heaven-sent Reality before which they both stand. (1982, p. 117)

The pluralist perspective is one in which each participant in the dialogue is clearly grounded in a particular tradition and knowledgeable about what that entails. communion becomes a sharing of perspectives, rather than an attempt to proselytize or convert. The intention is expansion of understanding and truly knowing some other person and tradition.

To return to Diana Eck (1993), there are numerous determine to the dialogue approach, including better understanding, enrichment of one's own religious life, and the promotion of counterinsurgency and global community. However, according to her, dialogue is quite difficult and demands a rigorous adherence to a pluralist perspective in roll to be most fruitful.

For example, in looking at Buddhism and Christianity (or Islam, or Judaism), there are major differences that cannot be overcome by asserting that both affirm a transcendent reality. For Panikkar (1989), Buddhism is fundamentally an atheistic religion which, at times, has been disputed as a religious system in any sense. It has no usance for doctrine or orthodoxy, and no matinee idol as god is understood in the other major traditions. The categories within Buddhism and Christianity are quite different, even when those in dialogue attempt to assay for the similarities.

For Malina, then, in order to understand the documents that comprise the Christian book of account it is necessary to understand them in the context of their own time. As he put it:

Thus, the cross-cultural critique, with those traditions and individuals who are still living, has great potential to turn into cross-cultural criticism, blame, and prejudice, as those outside the trad
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