Introduction

Abstract

The introduction to this volume sets this project in the wider field of comparative theology and Barth studies, seeking to introduce scholars in each field to each other in order to facilitate mutual learning. The editors acknowledge that Barth has usually been interpreted as hostile to interreligious learning, but they note a number of recent works that have sought to engage Barth as a fruitful source for theologies of religious pluralism, including J. A. DiNoia, Garrett Green, Paul Chung, Glenn Chestnutt, Tom Greggs, and Sven Ensminger. Collins Winn and Moore-Keish then situate this project as the next step: drawing on Barth’s own sharp theological thinking not to justify comparative theology, but simply to engage in it. Following a brief explication of the most relevant passages in Barth’s Church Dogmatics on the topic of religion and the religions, the introduction then offers a description of the volume and its array of comparative experiments in theological reflection. They conclude with the hope that scholars both comparative and Barthian will find fodder for further reflection, with conversation partners they never expected to find.