Steinkerchner, O: Watching Clouds

Watching Clouds is about how to have productive interreligious theological dialogue between different traditions when the religious differences are so large that finding common ground seems unlikely. The book offers a way to think about interreligious dialogue that allows us to stay committed to our own truth as we have come to know it while being open to learning from other religions. It then outlines a way for Christian theologians to enter into a profitable dialogue with the beliefs and traditions of other religions. The book examines a long-standing religious debate within Buddhism surrounding the Buddha-Nature, comparing the rang- stong view of Tsongkhapa and the gzhan-stong view of Dolpopa, two medieval Tibetan Buddhist scholars, as well as the modern work Francis X. Clooney, S.J., who pursues Hindu-Christian dialogue in the mode of comparative theology. It then uses the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein to construct a framework with which to understand these religious debates and comparative approaches and ends with offering practical guidelines on making these dialogues productive.