Catholic Reference for other religions

  • Thread starter Thread starter Enceladus
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
E

Enceladus

Guest
Hello All,

I’m currently studying to become a lay hospital chaplain. I’m wondering if anyone can recommend a good book that I could use as a reference guide to other religious traditions outside of Catholicism, but that is written from a Catholic theological perspective. I’m especially interested in something that might discuss certain commonalities or jumping off points that I as a Catholic trying to minister to different religious groups could use as a point of agreement that I could then use to build on.

I already have William J. Whalen’s book “Separated Brethren,” which is good, but is starting to feel a bit dated. I also notice that it tends to focus more on protestant denominations and not so much on non-Christian religions, which is something I seem to be running into more and more lately.

Any recommendations would be appreciated. Thank you!
 
Definitely not from a Catholic viewpoint, but including Judaism and Islam, as well as various esoteric religions, the Handbook of Denominations in the United States is quite useful. I purchased an unused ex-library copy from ThriftBooks for something like $5.

Scanning through it, the often ridiculous reasons for fractures in bible-based denominations can be easily seen. Included are schismatic Catholic groups and those who claim Catholicism but are probably not, due to gross violations of Church teaching.
 
Check out Servant of God Fr.John Hardon archives under Protestant and Non Christian Religions. He has 71 writings on this written from a Catholic perspective. He may have mps’s and video as well on this subject although Im not 100% sure.

therealpresence.org/archives/archives.htm
 
Do you want something theological or based in practices and traditions? There are several helpful handbooks about faith traditions - Hindus, for instance - and what they believe about suffering and illness, or beliefs about death and the afterlife.
 
May I ask why you want a Catholic explaining non-Catholic faiths? If your goal is to understand your patients and how they see things, would it not be better to learn how a Methodists views things from a Methodist? (Just as an example faith).
 
Hello Jane_doe,

It’s a fair question and I suppose on a practical level, I was hoping for something along the lines of a quick reference guide, so while I’m aware that there are books produced by the various religious groups that I would run into that would offer an explanation of themselves from their own perspective, I’d rather not have to buy a new book every time I run into a new group, I just don’t have the money for that 😉

It’s also been my experience that a lot of those kinds of books aren’t overly interested in discussing doctrinal differences between themselves and other groups, I’m sure part of that is because they couldn’t hope to anticipate every objection that could be brought against their perspective, but just as much I sense an attitude among many writers that doctrinal differences aren’t important, which is a perspective that I disagree with. Its also important for my work because, as much as some writers would like to deny the differences, everyone knows they are there so I’d like to know what the sore spots might be between Catholics and any other group before I go into a room and inadvertently step into a theological mine field.
 
Enceladus said:
Hello Jane_doe,

It’s a fair question and I suppose on a practical level, I was hoping for something along the lines of a quick reference guide, so while I’m aware that there are books produced by the various religious groups that I would run into that would offer an explanation of themselves from their own perspective, I’d rather not have to buy a new book every time I run into a new group, I just don’t have the money for that 😉
Click to expand...
Who said you had to buy a book? Most faiths have free webpages explaining their faith and/or free material you can download. For example, if someone wanted to learn about RCC the CCC is free.
Enceladus said:
It’s also been my experience that a lot of those kinds of books aren’t overly interested in discussing doctrinal differences between themselves and other groups,
Click to expand...
I agree that a Catholicism 101 book (for example) doesn’t have a central thesis of “How Catholics are different than Jainism” for pretty obvious reasons. A Catholicism 101 book wants to tell you about Catholicism, not Jainism.
Enceladus said:
just as much I sense an attitude among many writers that doctrinal differences aren’t important, which is a perspective that I disagree with. Its also important for my work because, as much as some writers would like to deny the differences, everyone knows they are there so I’d like to know what the sore spots might be between Catholics and any other group before I go into a room and inadvertently step into a theological mine field.
Click to expand...
Rather than trying to identify areas to Not Talk About, how about learning which areas to Yes talk about? It seems more direct to start there. What are is really important with that group? Where is their passion and love? Talk about those things.
 
jane_doe said:
May I ask why you want a Catholic explaining non-Catholic faiths? If your goal is to understand your patients and how they see things, would it not be better to learn how a Methodists views things from a Methodist? (Just as an example faith).
Click to expand...
I agree with you, Jane. Chaplains, when on the job, must come from a point of neutrality, as it were. If you are caring for a Methodist, you need to speak Methodist. It’s not about having a comparative religion discussion; you just speak Methodist.
 
ComplineSanFran said:
I agree with you, Jane. Chaplains, when on the job, must come from a point of neutrality, as it were. If you are caring for a Methodist, you need to speak Methodist. It’s not about having a comparative religion discussion; you just speak Methodist.
Click to expand...
👍
 
So, I suppose I should clarify that this is an intellectual curiosity I have, related to my work as a hospital chaplain but perhaps not directly related to the work I might do in any particular patient room.

I am also not opposed to looking up a particular religious group online to get a thumbnail sketch of basic beliefs or doctrines and important traditions within a given faith, especially if it’s one I’m truly unfamiliar with. In asking for a book though, what I’m hoping for is something more in depth than what a typical webpage can tell me.

That’s also why I was seeking something written from a Catholic perspective, and turned to this forum for a recommendation. As many have pointed out, it’s really not that difficult to find resources online about any religious group, but an analysis of the theology of a given group from an explicitly Catholic perspective is surely something a bit more obscure and hard to find, so I was just wondering if anyone had any ideas.

As I final point, I think you’d be surprised how many people actually do want to have a comparative religion discussion. I certainly was. It definitely isn’t the majority, but I’d say at least once a day I’ll run into a patient who’s very well grounded in their own personal faith tradition and is genuinely curious about what the major differences would be between their perspective on a given theological topic and mine. A lot of the patients I work with have been in the hospital for a long while and they’re a bit bored and so will sometimes seek out conversations that maybe they wouldn’t otherwise do with a stranger. Sometimes I’m the first Catholic they’ve ever run into face to face who’s knowledgeable about the faith and they have a desire to understand some teaching of the Church that they’ve never heard adequately explained to them.

I’d also disagree with the assumption that a chaplain must always come from a neutral perspective. Certainly, care, concern, and a genuine interest and openness to the patient and their views is indispensable to this kind of work, no doubt about it. I’d also say that in most rooms I enter I never even identify as Catholic, it doesn’t even come up. But sometimes, like in the example I cited above and in other instances, the patient and their family really want to know who they are dealing with and will ask very pointed questions about my views. In those moments honesty and transparency are called for, and any attempt by me to seem to be trying to hid my views behind vaguely neutral language or in any way imply that there are no differences between us will get me kicked out of the room.

Its experiences like these that have piqued my interest in the book I’ve discribed, so again, if anyone has any recommendations I’d love to hear them.
 
Enceladus said:
So, I suppose I should clarify that this is an intellectual curiosity I have, related to my work as a hospital chaplain but perhaps not directly related to the work I might do in any particular patient room.

I am also not opposed to looking up a particular religious group online to get a thumbnail sketch of basic beliefs or doctrines and important traditions within a given faith, especially if it’s one I’m truly unfamiliar with. In asking for a book though, what I’m hoping for is something more in depth than what a typical webpage can tell me.

That’s also why I was seeking something written from a Catholic perspective, and turned to this forum for a recommendation. As many have pointed out, it’s really not that difficult to find resources online about any religious group, but an analysis of the theology of a given group from an explicitly Catholic perspective is surely something a bit more obscure and hard to find, so I was just wondering if anyone had any ideas.

As I final point, I think you’d be surprised how many people actually do want to have a comparative religion discussion. I certainly was. It definitely isn’t the majority, but I’d say at least once a day I’ll run into a patient who’s very well grounded in their own personal faith tradition and is genuinely curious about what the major differences would be between their perspective on a given theological topic and mine. A lot of the patients I work with have been in the hospital for a long while and they’re a bit bored and so will sometimes seek out conversations that maybe they wouldn’t otherwise do with a stranger. Sometimes I’m the first Catholic they’ve ever run into face to face who’s knowledgeable about the faith and they have a desire to understand some teaching of the Church that they’ve never heard adequately explained to them.

I’d also disagree with the assumption that a chaplain must always come from a neutral perspective. Certainly, care, concern, and a genuine interest and openness to the patient and their views is indispensable to this kind of work, no doubt about it. I’d also say that in most rooms I enter I never even identify as Catholic, it doesn’t even come up. But sometimes, like in the example I cited above and in other instances, the patient and their family really want to know who they are dealing with and will ask very pointed questions about my views. In those moments honesty and transparency are called for, and any attempt by me to seem to be trying to hid my views behind vaguely neutral language or in any way imply that there are no differences between us will get me kicked out of the room.

Its experiences like these that have piqued my interest in the book I’ve discribed, so again, if anyone has any recommendations I’d love to hear them.
Click to expand...
Small comment; “To thine own self be true… Thou canst not then be false to any man.”

I think you have the answer in your own heart and need no book. Well done… 👍
 
I’ve included an Amazon link which may be of some use. The book title is “The Catholic Church and the World Religions: A Theological and Phenomenological Account” by Gavin D’Costa (Editor)

There is another book by John Bowker which is shown as “World Religions: The Great Faiths Explored & Explained” by John Bowker, although he’s an Anglican theologian. At a guess though, he’d be even handed.

amazon.com/Catholic-Church-World-Religions-Phenomenological/dp/0567466973

There are similar Protestant books, but you need to be wary. They will probably show the Catholic Church as being in error somewhere along the line.
 
Wow Bob! Thanks! This is exactly the kind of thing I was looking for! I had no idea there was a book out there that would meet my curiosity so ideally!

Thanks so much!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top