Engaging Radical Alterity

Abstract

As someone located in Daoist Studies and Religious Studies without formal theological training, I have developed my own pedagogical approach to teaching Comparative Theology and the theologies of religious diversity. I begin with a discussion of the relative appropriateness and problematic nature of the terms “Theology” and “Comparative Theology” for studying non-Christian and even nontheistic traditions. I then move on to present a quasi-normative polytheistic or pluralistic theology of religions and discuss Religious Studies classrooms as dialogic spaces and interreligious encounters. I emphasize that the postcolonial and postmodern study of religion assumes theology is an essential characteristic, which also reveals mutually exclusive, equally convincing accounts of “reality.” Comparative Theology and interreligious dialogue provide helpful methodologies for addressing the challenges of radical alterity. We may endeavor to “think through” alternative perspectives and, in the process, defamiliarize the familiar and familiarize the unfamiliar.