Radical Pluralist Philosophy of Religion

Mikel Burley is Associate Professor of Religion and Philosophy at the University of Leeds, UK. His previous books include Rebirth and the Stream of Life: A Philosophical Study of Reincarnation, Karma and Ethics (2016) and Contemplating Religious Forms of Life: Wittgenstein and D. Z. Phillips (2012).

• List of IllustrationsAcknowledgementsIntroductionIntroducing a Radical Pluralist ApproachChapter SummariesPART I: CRITIQUE AND METHODOLOGY1. Religious PluralismsJohn Hick’s Pluralistic HypothesisReductive and Homogenizing Implications of Hick’s ApproachJohn Cobb’s Vision of Creative TransformationVictoria Harrison’s Internalist PluralismA Difficulty with the Internalist PictureWorking with ExamplesConceptual Schemes, Incomprehensibility and RespectConcluding Remarks2. Radical Plurality and Critical DescriptionShortcomings of Contemporary Philosophy of ReligionExpansive Innovations and Residual LimitationsDescription’s Critical PotentialDefamiliarization and Cultural Critique in AnthropologyThickening Description3. Narrative Fiction and Philosophical InquiryNarrative Fiction and Competing Conceptions of Philosophical ReasoningPhilosophers and DramatistsNarrative Fiction as Philosophy of ReligionWole Soyinka’s Death and the King’s HorsemanDeath and the King’s Horseman as Philosophy of ReligionConcluding RemarksPART II: EXEMPLIFYING A RADICAL PLURALIST APPROACH4. ‘Compassion beyond Our Imagination’: Radical Plurality in Buddhist EthicsVarieties of Buddhism and the Rhetoric of CompassionImages of Familial Love and AbandonmentBodily Sacrifice as Heroic Virtue‘Lamps of Their Precious Bodies’Transgressive Compassion and Skilful MeansConcluding Remarks5. ‘Ways of Being Human’: Cannibalism and Respecting the DeadEating Animals but Not Eating People?Varieties of CannibalismWari’ Ways of Respecting the DeadConcluding Remarks6. ‘Awe at the Terrible’: Divine Possession, Blood Sacrifice and the Grotesque BodyPreamble: Studying Ritual PhilosophicallyThe Grotesque‘Horrific Comedy’ and the Formation of a Ritual Sound-WorldKamakhya, Desire and the Womb of the GoddessDeodhas and DeitiesRitualized Transgression and the Performance of Divine PossessionConcluding Remarks7. ‘A Language in Which to Think of the World’: Animism, Philosophy and Indigenous TraditionsThe Concept of Animism: Origins, Decline and RevivalAnimism, Indigeneity and the Philosophy of ReligionBeyond Literalism and MetaphorDemythologizing the ‘Ecologically Noble Savage’Concluding Remarks8. Conclusions: Loosening Up Our LivesAttending to Heterogeneity and Thickening DescriptionTargeting Overgeneralizing Claims and AssumptionsImagining Philosophy of Religion DifferentlyReferencesIndex

Burley's book is well written, provocative, and engaging, and it certainly deserves to be read by anyone who is serious about developing a pluralistic philosophy of religion. Furthermore, since it includes generous summaries and critiques of some other important attempts, the book would be well suited to a class or to anyone wanting to get caught up on the subject.