Toward ‘Generous Love’: Recent Anglican Approaches to World Religions

Abstract

AbstractHow should Anglicans regard other religions? The approaches of a number of Anglican writers considered in this article are valuable, both to Anglicans and to others, beginning with F.D. Maurice in the late nineteenth century. Others include Kenneth Cragg, an Arabist and Evangelical; Alan Race, author of the Exclusivist, Inclusivist, and Pluralist paradigm; Kwok Pui-Lan, a contemporary Asian feminist; Ian S. Markham, who proposes a ‘Theology of Engagement’; Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury and an important writer on the theology of Raimon Panikkar; David F. Ford, proponent of the Cambridge Scriptural Reasoning (SR) program that seeks ‘better quality disagreement’; and Keith Ward, whose systematic theology develops a concept of ‘convergent spirituality’. Moving from the theoretical to the practical, the article discusses the global United Religions Initiative of William E. Swing, former Episcopal Bishop of California. Collectively, these authors provide a range of intersecting Anglican approaches to the evolving question of Anglican relations with other world religions.