Book Review: "Interpreting Proverbs 11:18-31, Psalm 73 and Ecclesiastes 9:1-12 in Light of and as a Response to Thai Buddhist Interpretations: A Contribution to Christian-Buddhist Dialogue."
Author Information Regent University School of Divinity
摘要
Haug is a longtime Lutheran missionary to Thailand, and this volume represents her doctoral thesis completed through the School of Mission and Theology in Stavanger, Norway, in dialogue with nineteen Thai Buddhists who accepted her invitation to read and reflect on three passages of the HB. Systematicians, contextual theologians and biblical scholars, and scholars of interreligious dialogue in general and of the Christian‐Buddhist dialogue in particular all ought to read this book. The more theologically oriented will revisit traditional topics like the doctrine of God, theodicy, the relationship between divine sovereignty and human freedom, sowing‐and‐reaping (especially in relationship to the Buddhist notion of kamma), etc., in light of Haug's account of Thai Buddhist readings and her own research on these scriptures. Biblical scholars will observe how reader‐response, intercultural, and interreligious interpretations can impact Christian hermeneutics, potentially illuminating aspects of the text not previously foregrounded. The last group of scholars and researchers are here treated to non‐Christian readings of Christian texts and the attendant interfaith implications for Christian theology (so that this volume nicely supplements the much more vigorous current of Christian readings of non‐Christian texts). As with previous books in the Studies in Systematic Theology series, major theological topics are taken up in cross‐cultural and interfaith context, further solidifying the sense that Christian theological thinking into the middle of this century will have to traverse increasingly such dialogical paths. Haug's model opens up new possibilities for such systematic and interreligious reflection.
