Contributors

Melanie Barbato is a postdoc scholar based at the Institute for Religious Studies and Inter-Faith Theology at the University of Münster/ Germany and the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies/ UK. She is researching interreligious communication with a focus on Christianity and Indian religions. She is associate editor of the journal CrossCurrents. Her current research is on Interreligious Dialogue and Diplomacy as well as on Interreligious Art.

Sharon A. Bong is Senior Lecturer in Gender Studies at the School of Arts and Social Sciences, Monash University, Malaysia. She is author of The Tension between Women’s Rights and Religions: The Case of Malaysia (2006) and former Coordinator of the Ecclesia of Women in Asia, an academic forum of Catholic women theologizing in Asia. She is also a forum writer, Asian region with the Catholic Theological Ethics in the World Church; research associate with the Forum for the Study of Sexuality, Gender, Race and Religion; and patron for the Catherine of Siena Virtual College.

Deepra Dandekar (Ph.D.) is a scholar of contemporary history, and works as a researcher at the Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient on an independent project funded by the DFG on vernacular history-writing and religious minorities in India. Having worked at multiple projects in the University of Heidelberg, and the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, Dandekar has published on oral history, migration, gender, and religious conversion, arguing for the role played by the articulation of faith in producing community, identity, and dignity in colonial, and postcolonial South Asia. Her recent-most monograph titled Baba Padmanji: Vernacular Christianity in Colonial India (2021) has been published by the Pathfinder Series of Routledge, and Dandekar is currently Editor-in-chief of the international peer reviewed academic journal Nidan: International Journal for Indian Studies published from the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa.

Elif Emirahmetoglu is a PhD student at the University of Münster, Germany. She received her Bachelor's degree (2009) in Islamic Theology, Master`s degree in Islamic Philosophy (2010) and History of Religions (2014), both in Turkey. She also studied Prostestant Theology at the University of Münster (2013) and Religious Studies at the University of Cardiff (2014). Currently, she works on a comparative PhD project on the concept of human beings in Islamic mysticism and Buddhism. In 2017-2018, she involved in the international project of „Shin Buddhism, Christianity, Islam: Conversations in Comparative Theology" which was a cooperation between the University of Münster, Ryukoku University and Georgetown University. Related to the doctorate project, she also made a research stay at the Institute of Buddhist Studies and the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, Kalifornien (2018). Since June 2020, she has been a research assistant at the Berlin Institute of Islamic Theology of Humboldt University.

Jude Lal Fernando (PhD) is a Lecturer and Research Fellow at the Irish School of Ecumenics, Trinity College Dublin, and lectures on “Religions and Ethics in a Pluralist World” and “Armed Conflict, Peace Building and Development in Guatemala, Niger Delta and Sri Lanka.” He also teaches “Peace and Conflict in South Asia” in Dublin City University and “World Religions and Interfaith Dialogue” at Carlow College, Carlow. His first monograph, A Paradigm for a Peace Movement: Thich Nhat Hanh and Martin Luther King Jr. (2007) explores the potential in Buddhism and Christianity for peace building. His two main areas of expertise are “Religion, Conflict and Peace” and “Armed Conflicts, Geopolitics and Human Rights.” Fernando is a founding member of the Irish Forum for Peace in Sri Lanka (IFPSL).

Aruna Gnanadason, CSI, has an MA in English Literature, Bangalore University, and Doctorate of Ministries DMin, from the San Francisco Theological Seminary, USA. She served the World Council of Churches in Geneva, Switzerland, directing its program on women in church and society, and the work on justice, peace, and creation. She is recipient of three honorary doctorates. She has authored several books, edited many and has published numerous articles in renowned national and international journals. She now lives in Chennai and offers her services as a freelance writer, speaker, and editor to the churches in India and globally.

Hans-Peter Grosshans (born 1958) is full Professor (chair) of Systematic Theology, Ecumenical Theology and Philosophy of Religion at the Faculty of Protestant (Evangelical) Theology at the University of Muenster in Germany. He is Dean of his faculty and as well Director of the Seminar of Systematic Theology and Director of the Institute for Ecumenical Theology of his faculty. At the University of Muenster Hans-Peter Grosshans is member of various interdisciplinary research networks, especially 1. of the Centre of Theory of Science and 2. of the - within Germany - unique Cluster of Excellence on “Religion and Politics”. Hans-Peter Grosshans is active member in many national and international academic societies. Among others he is: Vice-president of the “European Society for Philosophy of Religion” (ESPR); Member of the “Académie Internationale de Philosophie des Sciences“ (AIPS); Board member of the “European Academy of Religion”; Executive Board member of the Inter University Center (IUC) in Dubrovnik (Croatia): Board member of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Religionsphilosophie. Hans-Peter Grosshans has been guest professor at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina and at the Sabah Theological Seminary in Kota Kinabalu in Malaysia. He is permanent Honorary Guest-Professor at Zhejiang-University in Hangzhou, China, and permanent Lecturer at the Inter University Center (IUC) in Dubrovnik (Croatia). He is editor of the book series “Dogmatik in der Moderne” (Dogmatics in Modern Times) and the chief-editor of the review journal “Theologische Rundschau” (Theological Review), both published by Mohr Siebeck in Tuebingen (Germany).

Esther-Maria Guggenmos, Privatdozentin in Religious Studies at the University Erlangen-Nürnberg, is directing the Asia department at the KAAD, Bonn. Until March 2019, she stayed at the KHC Erlangen (www.ikgf.fau.de) completing her habilitation on the topic of the relation between Buddhism and divination (habilitation award, FAU 2019). Trained in Religious Studies, Sinology, and Theology at the universities of Münster and Ghent and at Fujen University, Taiwan, Guggenmos has specialised in Chinese Buddhism, processes of cultural exchange, and religious aesthetics (ww.religionsaesthetik.de). She regularly engages in academic exchange across Asia and has conducted extensive historical as well as field research in East Asia.

Francesco Gusella is an historian of South Asian Art with a special focus on visual and material culture in the early modern age. He received his PhD at the Italian Institute of Oriental Studies (Rome) after extensive fieldworks in India and Portugal (ICS – Lisbon). He previously studied at the University of Naples “L’Orientale” and at the Jadavpur University of Kolkata. He currently holds a postdoc position at Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics” - University of Münster, with a comparative project on floral iconographies between the Portuguese Empire and the Islamic courts of South Asia.

Adrian Hermann is Professor of Religion and Society and Director of the Department of Religion Studies at Forum Internationale Wissenschaft, University of Bonn. His work focuses on the global history of the concept of “religion,” the use of non-fictional media in contemporary religious movements, and the religious history of the globalized world. He is the author of "Unterscheidungen der Religion" (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 2015) and is currently working on a monograph on Philippine independent Catholicism around 1900.

Norbert Hintersteiner is Professor of World Christianity and the Study of Theologies Beyond Europe at the University of Muenster, Germany (since 2013). His research interests focus on Christianity in Asia, crosscultural and intercultural theologies, comparative theology, and interreligious translation in the Indo-Persian world.

Esther Hornung Doctorate in Theology (Social Teachings and Church History), Faculty of Catholic Theology at Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU); M.A. in History, Free University Berlin. Academic posts till 2015: Research associate at Protestant Theological Faculties at Ruhr Universität Bochum (RUB) and Free University of Berlin. Participation in research projects on migration and glocalization; and on perception of sex- and gender-differences in religious symbol systems. Areas of interest: Evangelicalism and Fundamentalism; global (church) history and glocalization, US-American and modern Korean (church) history, and gender studies.

Manfred Hutter full professor of Comparative Religions at the Institute of Oriental and Asian Studies, University of Bonn, Germany. 1984: Doctorate in Catholic Theology & Religionswissenschaft (Dr. Theol), University of Graz, Austria. 1990: Habilitation in Comparative Religions at the University of Graz. 1991: Doctorate in Comparative Indo-European Linguistics (Dr. Phil.), University of Graz. Since 2000: Full Professor of Comparative Religions at the University of Bonn, Germany. Research areas and topics: Religious history and religious interactions in mainland Southeast Asia between Buddhism, Hinduism and Christianity; Non-Islamic Religions of Iran; Recent books: Iranische Religionen. Zoroastrismus, Yezidentum, Bahā’ītum, Berlin: de Gruyter 2019, vii + 233 pages.; Religionsfreiheit Thailand, Aachen: Missio 2020, 44 pages (=Länderberichte 48).

Claudia Jahnel is Professor for Intercultural Theology and the Body at the Ruhr-University Bochum. From 2008 to 2017 she worked as Head of the Dpt. For Mission Intercultural at „Mission EineWelt - Center for Mission, Partnership and Development“ of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Bavaria.
Her field of research includes Postcolonial Theologies, Religion and Migration, African Culture, Religion & Body, Religion & Development, Liberation Theologies in Latin America, Intercultural (Migration) Churches in Germany, Intercultural Body-Theologies.

Assaad Elias Kattan studied theology at the University of Balamand (Lebanon), the Aristotle’s University of Thessaloniki (Greece), and the University of Erlangen (Germany). He earned his doctoral title in theology from the University of Marburg (Germany). Since 2005, Kattan has been holding the chair of Orthodox theology at the Centre for Religious Studies of the University of Münster. Kattan has authored four theological books and two collections of short stories in Arabic, Qasim Schneider in Beirut (2013) and When the Dragon Got Bored (2015). He was chosen in 2012 by the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome to be the Sir Daniel and Countess Bernardine Murphy Donohue Chair in Eastern Catholic Theology. Kattan was the first Orthodox lay theologian to hold this title.

Madlen Krüger has studied Religious Studies and Indology at the University of Leipzig (Germany) and JNU New Delhi (India). She received her PhD at the Center for Religious Studies at the Ruhr-University Bochum with a focus on Theravāda Buddhism in South and Southeast Asia and the relation between religion and politics. She is currently working as a Post-Doc Researcher at the Institute for Religious Studies and Inter-Faith Theology at the University Muenster (Germany). She is working in the DFG- project on religious plurality in Myanmar. She has been pursuing research on Religious Plurality in Myanmar at the WWU in Münster (2015-2020) and is currently working as a Post-Doc Researcher on Religions, Diplomacy and Peace at the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research / FEST in Bochum (Germany).

Albertus Bagus Laksana teaches at Sanata Dharma University in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. He received his PhD in comparative theology from Boston College (2011) with a focus on Muslim‒Christian encounters. Previously he was educated at the Weston Jesuit School of Theology, Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 2011–12 he was a postdoctoral fellow at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles. His research interests and publications include topics in Muslim‒Christian comparative theology (especially the role of pilgrimage, saints, and sacred space) and theology of religions, mission studies, theology and culture, and Asian theologies. He is also the managing editor of Basis, a journal of culture and religion, based in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

Gudrun Löwner, born in Bochum, Germany, in 1958, studied Protestant theology and comparative religion in Bochum, Wuppertal, Heidelberg, and Geneva. She got her PhD from Heidelberg University on “Religion and Development in Sri Lanka.” She taught at Heidelberg and Wuppertal University. Her areas of research are Buddhism, India, and art. For her intensive academic work and social work in India, she was awarded in 2008 the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. Presently she teaches in Bangalore.

Jamal Malik acquired the degree of Doctorate from Heidelberg (1989) and completed his post-doctoral work at Bamberg (1994). In 1998 he was appointed Head and Chair of Religious Studies at the University of Derby. Since February 1999 he is Chair of Religious Studies – Islamic Studies at University of Erfurt. Areas of interest are Social History of Muslim South Asia and Muslims in the West with a focus on education and mysticism. His books include The Colonization of Islam (1996) and Culture of Dawa (2021).

Haila Manteghi has studied Islamic Studies in Spain, University of Alicante, and at the University of Exeter, England. Since 2016, she works at the University of Muenster as a Postdoc researcher, focusing on the works of the Spanish Jesuit, Jerónimo Xavier (1549-1617) in Mughal India and their impacts among the Catholic missionaries and Muslim clerics in Safavid Persia.

Sébastien Peyrouse is Research Professor of International Affairs, at the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University, Washington, DC). His main areas of expertise are political systems in Central Asia, Islam and religious minorities, and Central Asia’s geopolitical positioning toward China, India, and South Asia. He is the author of Turkmenistan: Strategies of Power, Dilemmas of Development (2011), and the co-author of The “Chinese Question” in Central Asia: Domestic Order, Social Changes, and the Chinese Factor (2012) and of Globalizing Central Asia: Geopolitics and the Challenges of Economic Development (2012). He has also co-edited China and India in Central Asia: A New “Great Game”? (2010) and Mapping Central Asia: Indian Perceptions and Strategies (2011).

Peter C. Phan is the inaugural holder of the Ignacio Ellacuría Chair of Catholic Social Thought at Georgetown University and is the founding Director of the Graduate Studies Program in Theology and Religious Studies. He has earned three doctorates: Doctor of Sacred Theology from the Universitas Pontificia Salesiana, Rome, and Doctor of Philosophy and Doctor of Divinity from the University of London. He has also received two honorary degrees: Doctor of Theology from Catholic Theological Union and Doctor of Humane Letters from Elms College. Professor Phan began his teaching career in philosophy at the age of 18 at Don Bosco College, Hong Kong. In the United States, he has taught at the University of Dallas, Texas; the Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, where he held the Warren-Blanding Chair of Religion and Culture; Union Theological Seminary, New York; Elms College, Chicopee, Massachusetts; and St. Norbert College, De Pere, Wisconsin. He is the first nonwhite to be elected President of Catholic Theological Society of America. In 2010 he was awarded the John Courtney Murray Award, the highest honor given by the Catholic Theological Society of America for outstanding achievements in theology.

Daniel Franklin Pilario is a professor and present Dean of St. Vincent School of Theology, Adamson University in Quezon City, Philippines. He received his licentiate and doctorate in theology at the Katholieke Universiteit Louvain, Belgium, in 1998 and 2002, respectively. His work Back to the Rough Grounds of Praxis (2005) won the Jan en Marie Huyge Prijs of the Academische Stichting Louvain in Belgium. He also works in the Editorial Board of theological journals like Concilium, Hapag, Asian Christian Review, and Adamson University Journal. He is a member of the Congregation of the Mission, a founding member and former President of DAKATEO (Catholic Theological Society of the Philippines).

Jan Levin Propach has his doctorate in philosophy from the University of Augsburg. He is postdoc researcher at LMU (Munich) and visiting research fellow at Waseda University (Tokyo).

Herman G. B. Teule studied Semitic languages, theology, and religious studies at the Universities of Amsterdam and Louvain. He is currently Professor of Eastern Christianity at the Universities of Nijmegen and Louvain and head of the Institute of Eastern Christian Studies at Nijmegen.

Richard Fox Young holds the Timby Chair in History of Religions at Princeton Theological Seminary. An Indologist originally, Resistant Hinduism (1981), The Bible Trembled (1995), and Vain Debates (1996), all from the Indological Institute of the University of Vienna, are his most widely cited monographs on the encounter of Hindus and Buddhists with Christian missions in South Asia. Most recently, he has edited India and the Indianness of Christianity (2009) and contributed “Horton’s ‘Intellectualist Theory’ of Conversion, Reflected on by a South Asianist” to Beyond Conversion and Syncretism, edited by David Lindenfeld and Miles Richardson (2011).