Human Condition: A Volume in the Comparative Religious Ideas Project Book

	Foreword	xi
	Preface	xv
	Acknowledgments	xxvii
	Introduction	1
1	On Comparing Religious Ideas	9
1.1	On Comparison: Why It Is Important	9
1.2	Vague Categories	14
1.3	Criteria for Success	16
1.4	Process and Strategy	18
2	Chinese Religion	21
2.1	General Considerations	21
2.2	The Chinese World and the Human Predicament	23
2.3	Resolution of the Human Predicament	21
2.4	Categories for Comparison	37
3	Beginningless Ignorance: A Buddhist View of the Human Condition	49
3.1	Introduction	49
3.2	Primary Doctrinal Evidence--The Four Noble Truths	50
3.3	The Form of a Buddhist Narrative--The Middle Way	58
3.4	What Makes a Useful Category in Comparative Theology?	67
4	To Be Heard and Done, But Never Quite Seen: The Human Condition According to the Vivekacudamani	73
4.1	Introduction: The Text and Its Challenge	73
4.2	The Human Condition, Perceived and Real	77
4.3	The Function of Right Knowledge (viveka) in the Apprehension of the Truth of the Human Condition	81
4.4	The Transformation of Human Living and the Project of Transformation (bhavana)	85
4.5	Exclusions, and the Force of the Text	91
4.6	Integral Acts of Learning across Cultural and Religious Boundaries: Hearing, Knowing, Doing, But Not Speculating	95
5	Religious Dimensions of the Human Condition in Judaism: Wrestling with God in an Imperfect World	101
5.1	Introduction	101
5.2	Sirach (Ecclesiasticus)	104
5.3	Rabbinic Literature	112
5.4	The Modern Period	123
5.5	Conclusion	127
6	Embodiment and Redemption: The Human Condition in Ancient Christianity	133
6.1	Introduction	133
6.2	Paul	134
6.3	Christian Dualism and the High God	136
6.4	Origen	139
6.5	Augustine	142
6.6	Summary	146
6.7	Postscript: Terms of Comparison from the Seminar	148
7	The Human Condition in Islam: Sharia and Obligation	157
7.1	Preliminary Reflections	157
7.2	Ambiguities in Comparison	160
7.3	The Human Condition in Islam	162
7.4	Allah, the Ultimate Source of Sharia: Monotheism and the Creator-Created Duality	164
7.5	Maintaining the God-Human Disjunction	169
7.6	The Linkage of the Transcendental with the Historical	171
8	Comparative Hypotheses: Cosmological Categories for the Human Condition	175
8.1	Introduction	175
8.2	Unity	183
8.3	Ontological Status	198
8.4	Value	212
8.5	Causation	220
9	Comparative Hypotheses: Personal and Social Categories for the Human Condition	237
9.1	Introduction	237
9.2	Personal Identity	238
9.3	Obligation	247
9.4	The Human Predicament	253
9.5	Affiliations	259
9.6	Postscript	264
Appendix A	On the Process of the Project During the First Year	267
Appendix B	Suggestions for Further Reading	287
	Contributors	309
	Index of Names	311
	Index of Subjects	315