The Promise of Comparative Theology: Reading Between the Lines

Abstract

This chapter surveys the field of Comparative Theology which, by method, is both confessional and dialogical. The chapter discusses the promises it holds for a positive theological account of religious pluralism. It explores this in relationship to the practice of Scriptural Reasoning and the emergence of theology of religions. The chapter then examines interreligious reading in the context of the rapprochement between the church and the Jewish people. It reflects briefly on the dialectic of textuality and imagination, insisting that reading from another religious world entails more than reading from the written text; one also has to read the hidden voices and forgotten traces in between the lines.