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Summary: Comparative Religion from a Traditional Stance
Review: "The Human Condition" is one of three volumes from the three year long project run mainly by the Boston University School of Theology called the Comparative Religious Ideas Project (CRIP). The idea was to get together a group of scholars, one representing each major religious tradition (but not of that tradition him/herself), plus a group of "comparativist" scholars, to meet regularly and discuss three main topics: the human condition, ultimate realities, and religious truth. Volumes then emerged on each topic.The religions covered are: Chinese Religion, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism. Most of the scholars are from the faculty of Boston University (School of Theology and Department of Religion). This volume contains a well written foreword by Peter Berger, who talks about globalisation and pluralism. There follows an introduction by Robert Neville, who chaired the project. Then individual chapters follow, one each per world religion, in which the relevant scholar tries to analyze how that religion (based mainly on its texts) has viewed the human condition. The volume ends with chapters trying to draw out some comparisons. This volume will be of use to people interested in comparative religion. It will not be enjoyed, perhaps, by those who disagree with its methodology. For example, as the title of the project suggests, the study confines itself to "ideas", not practises. It therefore lacks something in the way of anthropological and historical approaches. It does not take into account more recent approaches such as narrative theology. And the compressed nature of the chapters means that much of the complexity and polyvocality present in any major religious tradition disappears (an understandable problem if one tries to answer "How does Islam / Christianity / etc. view the human condition" in 30 pages). The book ends with a section on selected works for further reading.
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