"It is exciting to read this kind of intellectual adventure in process. The material is at the cutting edge of an aspect of contemporary religious studies. It is probing towards methodological principles that could be used to further comparative philosophy of religion. The bridges across traditions at a metalevel are intriguing and challenging." — Earle H. Waugh, St. Thomas University

"The juxtaposition of the doctrinal, theoretical, and the practical, pragmatic aspects of religions and religious comparisons is a very fruitful approach." — Winston L. King, Vanderbilt University

Introduction
Frank E. Reynolds


Part I: Self-Understanding and Issues of Practice


1. A Foreword to Comparative Philosophy of Religion
Franklin I. Gamwell


2. What Are Buddhists Doing When They Deny the Self?
Steven Collins


Part II. Types of Reasoning and Issues of Practice


3. Al-Farabi on Religion and Practical Reason
Paul E. Walker


4. In Defense of Rather Fragile and Local Achievement:Reflections on the Work of Gurulugomi
Charles Hallisey


Part III: Practical Reason and the Flow of Time


5. Chronophagous Discourse: A Study of Clerico-Legal Appropriation of the World in an Islamic Tradition
Aziz Al-Azmeh


6. Dis-solving a Debate: Toward a Practical Theory of Myth, with a Case Study in Vedic Mythology
Laurie L. Patton


7. The Reason of Myth and the Rationality of History:The Logic of the Mythic in Bimin-Kuskusmin "Modes of Thought"
Fitz John Porter Poole


Part IV: Practical Reason and the Negotiation of Difference


8. The Rhetoric of Revolution: Comparative Ethics after Kuhn and Gunnemann
Jeffrey Stout


9. The Fear of Qing : Confucian and Buddhist Discourses on Desire
Francisca Cho Bantly


Concluding Reflections


10. Comparison, Pragmatics, and Interpretation in the Comparative Philosophy of Religions
Richard J. Parmentier


Index