Buddhist Responses to Religious Diversity

Douglas Duckworth is Associate Professor at Temple University and the Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Religion. Abraham Velez de Cea is professor of Buddhism and World Religions at Eastern Kentucky University. Elizabeth Harris is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow within the Cadbury Centre for the Public Understanding of Religion, University of Birmingham.

• IntroductionDouglas Duckworth, Abraham Vélez de Cea and Elizabeth J. HarrisSection One: Buddhist Paths: One or Many? 1. The Buddha and the Diversity of Spiritual PathsBhikkhu Bodhi, Chuang Yen Monastery, Carmel, New York 2. Was the Buddha an Exclusivist?Abraham Vélez de Cea3. Paths of Liberation? Theravāda Buddhist Approaches to Religious DiversityPerry Schimidt-Leukel, University of Münster 4. Openness towards the Religious Other in BuddhismCarola Roloff, University of Hamburg Section Two: Buddhist Identity Politics5. Buddhism and the Religious Other: Twenty-First Century Dambulla and the Presence of Buddhist Exclusivism in Sri LankaElizabeth J. Harris 6. The Contemporary Tibetan Buddhism Rimé Response to Religious Diversity Rachel Pang, Davidson College 7. How Nonsectarian is ‘Nonsectarian’?: Jorge Ferrer’s Pluralist Alternative to Tibetan Buddhist InclusivismDouglas Duckworth8. Buddhism and Beyond: The Question of PluralismDouglas DuckworthSection Three: Constructive Dialogue with Other Religions 9. The Dalai Lama and Religious DiversityAbraham Vélez de Cea10. Thoughts on Why, How and What Buddhists Can Learn from Christian TheologiansJohn Makransky, Boston College 11. Suffering and its Relief: A Buddhist Approach to Religious Pluralism Christopher Ives, Stonehill College 12. Religious Diversity and Dialogue: A Buddhist PerspectiveAsanga Tilakaratne, Independent Scholar13. Finding the Right Questions about Religious Diversity: What Buddhists Could Contribute to Discussions of Religious DiversityRita Gross, University of Wisconsin