Description
As Hans Küng said, “No peace among the nations without peace among the religions. No peace among the religions without dialogue between the religions. No dialogue between the religions without investigation of the foundations of the religions.”
Accommodation and Acceptance is a crucial work in both promoting interreligious dialogue and exploring the turbulent history of Christian faith and identity in Asia down the years. From the reaction to missions, often inextricably linked with the practice of colonialism, to the rise of religious pluralism, Ambrose Mong examines the relationships between the leading faiths of Asia up to the present day.
Whether practicing pluralism or exclusivism, the history of Christianity in Asia is long and fascinating. Ambrose Mong delves into the biography of intercultural pioneers like Matteo Ricci and Timothy Richard to understand better the theology – as well as the pragmatism – behind cultural accommodation, and the necessary mutability of an eternal church.
About the Author
Ambrose Mong was born in Singapore and earned degrees in English from the Universities of Calgary and British Columbia. He went on to enter the Dominican Novitiate in Seville and completed his philosophical and theological studies at the University of St Thomas Aquinas in Rome. Ordained as a priest in Hong Kong in 2008, he continued to study at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, completing his M.Phil. and Ph.D. in Religious Studies. At present, he teaches at the University of St Joseph in Macau and at The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
He is the author of Are Non-Christians Saved? (2015) and Purification of Memory: A Study of Modern Orthodox Theologians from a Catholic Perspective (2015, also available from James Clarke & Co).
Contents
Foreword by Ursula King
Preface
Introduction
1. The Gentle Way
2. Chinese in China
3. Towards a Dialogic Community
4. Any Room for Christ in Asia?
5. Plunging into the Ganges
6. The Advaitic Approach
7. Evolutionary Context
8. In Many and Diverse Ways
9. Trinitarian Theology and Multiple Religious Belonging
10. The Miracle of Mindfulness
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
Endorsements and Reviews
With his trademark scholarly rigor and intellectual honesty Ambrose Mong explores one of the most challenging issues facing Christianity in Asia today. For him, accommodation and acceptance of Asian religious pluralism is not an option for Christianity but an imperative for its mission. Mong masterfully shows how Christian faith needs to be reconceptualized in its encounter with Asian religions, from Christology to ecclesiology to Trinitarian theology. This book is a must-read not only for Asian Christians but also, and one may argue especially, for Western Christians.
Professor Peter C. Phan, Ellacuria Chair of Catholic Social Thought, Georgetown University
In the fifty years since the promulgation of Nostra Aetate, many Western Roman Catholic scholars have attempted to assist Roman Catholics and others with the reception of that document. Ambrose Mong is a rising and powerful Asian voice adding vitally to that colloquy. He takes the necessary risks in developing accommodation where needed but never diverts from the essentials of the Gospel. Accommodation and Acceptance shows us a ‘gentle way’ for dialogue, mutual respect and even the ‘holy envy’ of admiration which should be ours in the interreligious encounter of the twenty-first century. Mong’s is an authentic voice and merits great attention.
Rev James F. Loughran, SA, Director of the Graymoor Ecumenical and Interreligious Institute, New York
A welcome addition to the existing corpus of scholarly work on interfaith relations, as [Mong] has not only surveyed in depth various scholars and theologians who have written about the relations between different world religions. … he has also insightfully engaged in comparative analysis of their ideas which can strike chords with the contemporary religious adherents looking for philosophical frameworks and theological lenses to understand religious differences that have become an unescapable reality in our globalised world.
James Ponniah, in Exchange, Vol 46
