Interreligious Literacy and Hermeneutical Responsibility: Can There Be a Theological Learning from Other Religions,or Only a Phenomenological-Historical Learning about Them?

Abstract

Getting seminarians up to speed on interreligious literacy is not a luxury but a necessity. Still, how much knowledge, or what kind, does one need in order to learn from another religion theologically? What might a serious attempt at interreligious understanding actually look like? Learning from the religions theologically will not look the same as it does when we learn about them phenomenologically and historically. While acts of interreligious reparticularization are a hermeneutical privilege, theologians must acknowledge their accountability; after all, the believer traduced could be the neighbor next door.