Persons as Religious Classics: Comparative Ethics and the Theology of Bridge Concepts

Abstract

This paper examines the effect of scholars’ religious commitments on how they specify their object of study and select a method appropriate to its investigation. Using recent work on the notion of “bridge concepts” and “the analogical imagination” in the comparative study of religious ethics as a case study, this paper proposes persons in the process of intellectual and moral struggle with their own traditions as important and potentially fruitful objects for comparative studies of religion. Such a refocusing on the perennial appearance of persons navigating the troublesome yet profound histories of their religious communities offers important opportunities for cultivating openness, humility, and respect between the academic study of religion and those working critically from within traditions.

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