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Toward a World Theology
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20099 |
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Section : |
BOOK WORLD
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| Issue
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2 / 1992 |
4,989 Words |
| Author
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John Kelsay
John Kelsay is associate professor in the Department of
Religion at Florida State University and author of the
forthcoming book Islam and War (Westminster Press). He has
coauthored Human Rights and the Conflict of Cultures and has
coedited Cross, Crescent and Sword and Just War and Jihad. |
WORLD SCRIPTURE
A Comparative Anthololgy of Sacred Texts
Edited by Andrew Wilson
New York: Paragon House, 1991
928 pp., $29.95
At first glance, the publication of a new anthology of scriptures from the world's religions hardly seems to justify an extensive review. At least since Max Muller published his fifty-one volume series, Sacred Books of the East, there has been an audience for translations of scriptures of the world's religions. More recently, the phenomenal growth of religious studies in American universities has extended this audience interest, creating a place for collections that attempt, in a single volume, to provide students with a convenient introduction to sacred literature: Kenneth Kramer's World Scriptures (New York: Paulist, 1986) and Smart and Hecht's Sacred Texts of the World (New York: Crossroad, 1982 and 1989) are among the most recent. Such collections are important in a variety of pedagogical settings, but evaluating them does not seem to be the task of lengthy reviews. Such texts are judged more or less useful according to the interests and needs of particular audiences; for example, university faculty and the students they teach. In one sense, Andrew Wilson's recent effort simply adds to the list: Interested persons now have one more option among texts of this genre. With its particular set of selections and mode of organization, World Scripture will be of considerable interest to some; of less to others.
There is, however, another dimension to Wilson's effort, which makes it a more considerable contribution, worthy of lengthier discourse. Wilson means to accomplish what his title suggests: the production of a "World Scripture," a sacred text serviceable for an increasingly interdependent, even integrated, world. Perhaps better, Wilson intends World Scripture to serve in the development of a spirituality that will accord with the needs of an increasingly interdependent, global order. Wilson writes:
We live in an ecumenical age. … Theologians of all faiths are affirming the positive worth of other religions and seeking to overcome the prejudice of an earlier time. … Interfaith dialogue in our time is going beyond the first step of appreciating other religions to a growing recognition that the religions of the world have much in common… We may even … speak of a coming "Copernican revolution" in religion that recognizes a unity underlying all religions. To discern the shape of this underlying
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