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A contribution to the methodology of religious studies, this work discusses using comparison to provide mutual illumination among religious traditions while avoiding the problem of assimilating one tradition to another.
Comparison is at the heart of religious studies as a discipline and foundational to the field's methodology. In this book, Arvind Sharma introduces the term "reciprocal illumination" to describe the mutual enlightenment that can occur when a comparison is made between one tradition and another, one method and another, or between a tradition and a method. Developing the concept of reciprocal illumination through historical, phenomenological, and psychological methods, Sharma demonstrates how to use comparison, while avoiding the pitfall of treating it as merely raw material for higher order generalizations.
Introduction
Part I
1. Does One Religious Tradition Help Us Understand Another? A Wide Lens Approach
2. Does One Religious Tradition Help Us Understand Another? A Zoom Lens Approach
3. Reciprocal Illumination as a Formal Concept
4. Reciprocal Illumination in Relation to the Lived Experience of Other Religions
5. Reciprocal Illumination and Comparative Religion
6. Reciprocal Illumination in Relation to the Views of W. C. Smith and Mircea Eliade
7. Reciprocal Illumination and the Historical Method
8. Reciprocal Illumination and the Phenomenological Method
9. Parallelisms between Hinduism and Christianity as Further Examples of Reciprocal Illumination
Part II
10. Reciprocal Illumination within a Tradition
11. Reciprocal Illumination between Traditions
12. Reciprocal Illumination among Traditions
13. Reciprocal Illumination among Types of Traditions
14. Reciprocal Illumination between Religion and the Secular Tradition
Part III
15. Reciprocal Illumination within a Method
16. The History of Religions: Buddhism and Judaism
17. The Phenomenology of Religion and Buddhism
18. The Psychology of Religion and Buddhism
19. The Psychology of Religion and Hinduism
20. The Sociology of Religion and Hinduism
21. Reciprocal Illumination and the Dialogue of World Religions
Conclusion
Notes
Author Index
Subject Index