The Theological Promise of Religious Diversity

This book draws the recent approach to religious diversity known as relational pluralism into dialogue with Nicholas of Cusa's mystical masterpiece, On the Vision of God, to offer an imaginative way to make theological sense of religious diversity. This is theology that views religious diversity as promising rather than problematic. God in Perspective examines how the familiar Christian theological responses to religious diversity known as the exclusivist, inclusivist, and pluralist models, along with their variants, reflect either modernity's totalizing epistemology, by upholding the pre-eminence of a single religious tradition, or postmodernity's decentering epistemologies, by upholding the relativity of all traditions. God in Perspective seeks a space beyond that stalemate between common-ground and incompatibility, beyond modern homogeneity and postmodern fragmentation. By offering a fresh reading of Nicholas of Cusa's vision and drawing on the best scholarship in contemporary theologies of religious diversity, God In Perspective presents a theological framework that enables people of diverse traditions to hold to the particularity of their beliefs and yet learn from those who stand in a different place, discovering a God who is revealed in and through multiplicity.

Peter Walker is the Principal of United Theological College, Sydney, and lectures in the School of Theology at Charles Sturt University.