Buddhist Responses to Religious Diversity

Douglas Duckworth is Associate Professor at Temple University and the Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Religion. Abraham Velez de Cea is professor of Buddhism and World Religions at Eastern Kentucky University. Elizabeth Harris is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow within the Cadbury Centre for the Public Understanding of Religion, University of Birmingham.

Introduction
Douglas Duckworth, Abraham Vélez de Cea and Elizabeth J. Harris

Section One: Buddhist Paths: One or Many?
1. The Buddha and the Diversity of Spiritual Paths
Bhikkhu Bodhi, Chuang Yen Monastery, Carmel, New York
2. Was the Buddha an Exclusivist?
Abraham Vélez de Cea
3. Paths of Liberation? Theravāda Buddhist Approaches to Religious Diversity
Perry Schimidt-Leukel, University of Münster
4. Openness towards the Religious Other in Buddhism
Carola Roloff, University of Hamburg

Section Two: Buddhist Identity Politics
5. Buddhism and the Religious Other: Twenty-First Century Dambulla and the Presence of Buddhist Exclusivism in Sri Lanka
Elizabeth J. Harris
6. The Contemporary Tibetan Buddhism Rimé Response to Religious Diversity
Rachel Pang, Davidson College
7. How Nonsectarian is ‘Nonsectarian’?: Jorge Ferrer’s Pluralist Alternative to Tibetan Buddhist Inclusivism
Douglas Duckworth
8. Buddhism and Beyond: The Question of Pluralism
Douglas Duckworth

Section Three: Constructive Dialogue with Other Religions
9. The Dalai Lama and Religious Diversity
Abraham Vélez de Cea
10. Thoughts on Why, How and What Buddhists Can Learn from Christian Theologians
John Makransky, Boston College
11. Suffering and its Relief: A Buddhist Approach to Religious Pluralism
Christopher Ives, Stonehill College
12. Religious Diversity and Dialogue: A Buddhist Perspective
Asanga Tilakaratne, Independent Scholar
13. Finding the Right Questions about Religious Diversity: What Buddhists Could Contribute to Discussions of Religious Diversity
Rita Gross, University of Wisconsin