Testing the Boundaries: Self, Faith, Interpretation and Changing Trends in Religious Studies

As individuals, we have the ability (although not always the opportunity) to create our own paradigmatic image of the Divine; moreover, as a society we can alter, transform, or even replace those paradigms. Progressive movements exist in nearly every faith tradition-moving towards the future of our world and our belief systems; these movements include both radical and reformist thinkers, and they are challenging the lenses that we employ to image, worship, connect with and understand the Divine.With so many possible interpretations and paradigms competing for social acceptance and support, the choice must be made carefully and wisely, bearing in mind the inevitability of change whilst remaining open to pluralities of thought and practice. This is especially important when it comes to the future of theology and religious studies-in particular to the relations between the various global faith traditions. In Testing the Boundaries, ten scholars explore the praxis of faith including our image of Self in relation to the Divine, our relation to the religious Other, our struggle for religious identity in new locales, the limits of language and translations in sacred texts, our responsibility to nature, our nomadic and transitory tendencies, traditions in the academy, and our interreligious relationships. They test the boundaries of traditional theology and their interdisciplinary fields-dancing in the liminal space where possibilities gather.