FUSION THEOLOGY

FUSION THEOLOGY: a work-in-progress.

These pages will focus on discussion about diversity, citizenship, pluralism, and culture.

ARTICLES

This article reflects my interests in the fiction of Salman Rushdie, postmodernity and citizenship Concord and Discord in Multicultural Societies. It has been published in World Faiths Encounter Number 32, July 2002 and is also posted on the Post-Colonial Web at Post Colonial Web.

The Post-Co. Web has excellent material at Themes in Colonialism and Postcolonialism including sections on Nations and Nationalism and The Other, Otherness and Alterity.

This article explores whether religious voices have a right to contribute to the current debate about shared values and 'citizenship' in multi-cultural Britain, asking whether religion is part of the problem, or part of the cure, with reference to the lack of social cohesion that has contributed to unrest in some inner city areas (Published in INTERFACE: Religion and Public Policy in the UK) Go to this article.

An attempt at a theology for peace drawing on the insight of several religions and also tackling the problem that scriptures are often cited as sanctioning violence. Go to Theology of Peace. This was published in The World & I Spring issue, 2007

This article explores the three paradigms (exclusive, inclusive and pluralist) widely used in Christian thinking on inter-religious relations. It was written as a contribution to the Journal of Unification Studies and published in Volume VII and so reflects on Unification aspects. Although I was on the faculty of the Unification Theological Seminary when I wrote this I am no longer as convinced as I was then that Unification's contribution to inter-religious relations is not self-serving (to glorify Mr Moon). However, the article is a good summary of basic options. Beyond Religious Discord

ON FUSION THEOLOGY

By FUSION THEOLOGY, I refer to theological thought that is open to 'other' construals of meaning. In other words, a theology that is open to articulations of meaning, of truth, to understandings of the human condition, encountered within cultural/religious/philosophical traditions other than one's own. This does not imply an abandonment of what is central to one's own worldview but rather a willingness to engage in two-way conversation with other systems of thought.

� 2007 Clinton Bennett