Ramanuja and Schleiermacher: Toward a Constructive Comparative Theology

Ramanuja and Schleiermacher argue in favour of the developing discipline of comparative theology as a powerful method for gaining critical insight into our inherited world views. The book compares two preeminent theologians, Sri Ramanuja of the Hindu tradition and Friedrich Schleiermacher of the Christian tradition. Each argues that God sustains the universe at every moment of its existence, but they work out the divine sustenance in very different ways. Can the comparison of two theologians vastly separated in space and time help contemporary theologians to think better? This book argues that it can. Each argues that God sustains the universe at every moment of its existence, but they work out the divine sustenance in very different ways. By comparing their description of God’s continual preservation of the universe, this book asks original, unfamiliar questions of each. This method demonstrates the incisive power of comparative theology to generate critical tension and its creative power to resolve it.