
Understanding Religion through the Eyes of Others
Case Studies of Key Thinkers
Timothy Stanley(Author)
Routledge (Publisher)
1st Edition
Will be published approx. on 9. December 2025
Book
Hardback
132 pages
978-1-032-34703-5 (ISBN)
Description
This book studies religion through the eyes of some of its most influential, exemplary, and sometimes controversial people. Historically organized and philosophically nuanced, each chapter locates a thinker in their material context to elucidate the impact of their ideas. Figures covered include Philo Judaeus, Adi Shankara, Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, Julian of Norwich, and W.E.B. Du Bois. Empathizing with their different viewpoints aims to build the capacities necessary to live tolerantly in religiously diverse democracies today. It draws students into perennial debates that evoke the habits of mind capable of engaging today's multi-religious societies, and provides options for further reading at the end of each chapter.
Thought provoking and wide-ranging, this book will be essential reading for students and scholars of world religions, comparative religion, and the history and philosophy of religion.
Thought provoking and wide-ranging, this book will be essential reading for students and scholars of world religions, comparative religion, and the history and philosophy of religion.
Reviews / Votes
Stanley offers a different way of cultivating the empathy necessary for religiouspluralism. Move across time and space to understand religion and religious di\erence
through someone's else's eyes-and discover our own world anew.
Rabbi Dr. Rachel S. Mikva, Herman Schaalman Professor in Jewish Studies
Stanley models a deeply human approach to the study of (inter)religious encounter through vivid case studies drawn from diverse religious traditions. With meticulous care and rigorous empathy, he engages not only the ideas of these key historical thinkers but the lives and contexts from which they arose, with an eye to the religious diversity they embody and confront. By striving to see through the eyes of others, to the extent such a thing is possible, Stanley o?ers a compelling model for how we can study religion more deeply and critically in human-centered ways - especially for living well in religiously diverse secular democracies.
Dr. Hans S. Gustafson, Director of the Jay Phillips Center for Interreligious Studies, University of St. ThomasStanley offers us a unique and original book. Combining both a historical exegesis of texts and contexts with a focus on how we live in contemporary multicultural societies, his book attempts to help us see through other's eyes while also understanding how past situations of diversity might be relevant to us. Accessible to upper undergraduates and graduate students, this challenging book can bring a new vision to the classroom for teaching religion to promote deliberative democracy.
Professor Paul Hedges, Professor of Interreligious Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
Academic, Postgraduate, Undergraduate Advanced, and Undergraduate Core
Illustrations
6 s/w Abbildungen, 6 s/w Photographien bzw. Rasterbilder
6 Halftones, black and white; 6 Illustrations, black and white
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 13 mm
Weight
388 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-032-34703-5 (9781032347035)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Book
approx. 12/2025
1st Edition
Routledge
€62.60
Not yet published

E-Book
12/2025
Routledge
€55.49
Available for download

E-Book
12/2025
Routledge
€55.49
Available for download
Person
Timothy Stanley is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Humanities, Creative Industries and Social Sciences at the University of Newcastle, Australia. His recent books include Religion after Deliberative Democracy (Routledge 2022), Printing Religion after the Enlightenment (Bloomsbury Publishers 2022), and Writing Faith (Fortress 2017).
Content
Introduction 1. Philo Judaeus (c. 25 BCE - c. 50 CE) 2. Adi Shankara (c. 700-750 CE) 3. Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (c. 1056 - 1111 CE) 4. Julian of Norwich (c. 1343 - 1416 CE) 5. W. E. B. Du Bois (1868 - 1963 CE)