Habilitationsprojekt

Death and Afterlife in Dialogue: Toward an Intercultural and Interreligious Eschatology

In the last decades, the processes of globalization and the growing awareness of the contextual nature of global Christianity have presented a dual challenge for theology: first, recognizing the plurality of cultures within and outside Christianity (interculturality); second, acknowledging the historical and ongoing interactions with global religious diversity (interreligiosity). In response to this dual challenge, scholars in Intercultural Theology have often tended (a) to identify religion with culture and thus intercultural and interreligious issues, or (b) to segregate intercultural and interreligious analyses while prioritizing the former. However, approach (a) risks a one-dimensional interpretation of religion that is unable to link the close entanglements between culture and religion, on the one hand, with the causal efficacy of religion as a social reality, on the other hand. Approach (b) is at risk of overemphasizing the deconstructive potential of analytical methods inherited from Cultural Studies, while neglecting the reconstructive potential of critical reflection on systematic issues emerging from interreligious encounter.

Consequently, the project argues for an integrative approach that aims to combine intercultural and interreligious perspectives. First, it emphasizes that any adequate response to the dual challenge of cultural and religious plurality needs to be comprehensive, recognizing the dynamic interaction between theologies and their diverse cultural and religious contexts. Second, the project advocates for a decolonized theology. Informed by the paradigm shift from Mission Studies to Intercultural Theology, it includes voices usually neglected by Western theology not by exploiting them as mere informants, but by encouraging the collaborative inclusion of Western and non-Western, Christian and non-Christian thought in a global forum of critical-constructive dialogue.

Given the universality of death and its multiple, culturally conditioned interpretations found in religious traditions across the globe, eschatology is a topic par excellence for the application of an Intercultural and Interreligious Theology. However, theological reflection on death and afterlife has received insufficient consideration in intercultural and interreligious scholarship. It is crucial for global theological research to address this desideratum, not least because the meaning of human existence in the present is often established by anticipating its final goal, which has important ramifications for religious, social, and political life.

The aim of the project is to develop an explorative “map” for further proceedings in the field of Intercultural and Interreligious Eschatology. In order to demonstrate the significance of eschatology for Intercultural and Interreligious Theology, the project will present case studies from the areas of eschatological anthropology, individual pareschatology and eschatology, and collective eschatology, focussing on Christian eschatologians from Euro-American and Asian contexts in dialogue with Hindu, Buddhist, and Chinese traditions.

Dissertationsprojekt

Buddhistische Interpretationen Jesu
Wie wird Jesus Christus im Buddhismus wahrgenommen? Dieser in der Forschung bislang vernachlässigten Frage geht Mathias Schneider in einer umfassenden Studie nach. Er analysiert die ganze Bandbreite buddhistischer Interpretationen Jesu, die von der Dämonisierung bis zur Einordnung als Buddha reicht. Seine religionshistorische Untersuchung umfasst die globale, vom Kolonialismus geprägte buddhistisch-christliche Begegnungsgeschichte – vom 16. Jahrhundert bis in die Gegenwart und von Sri Lanka über Thailand, Japan, China, Vietnam, Tibet und Deutschland bis in die USA. Im Anschluss daran untersucht der Autor die theologischen Rückwirkungen für die christliche Theologie, wenn diese sich auf buddhistische Jesusdeutungen einlässt oder sie ablehnt. Am Ende steht die Frage nach den Möglichkeiten einer interreligiösen, buddhistisch-christlichen Christologie.

Mathias Schneider: Buddhistische Interpretationen Jesu. Eine religionshistorische und theologische Studie. Beiträge zu einer Theologie der Religionen 26 (Zürich: Theologischer Verlag Zürich, 2023).
ISBN: 978-3-290-18569-5
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