Many Mansions: A Christian's Encounter with Other Faiths

by Harvey Cox

The Harvard Divinity School professor recounts meetings with Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, and Marxist men and women, and what they have taught him about the relationship between Christianity and other great religious traditions of the world.

Genres: Religion, Christianity

214 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Harvey Gallagher Cox Jr., Ph.D. (History and Philosophy of Religion, Harvard University, 1963; B.D., Yale Divinity School, 1955) was Hollis Professor of Divinity at Harvard, where he had been teaching since 1965, both at HDS and in the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences, until his retirement in 2009.

An American Baptist minister, he was the Protestant chaplain at Temple University and the director of religious activities at Oberlin College; an ecumenical fraternal worker in Berlin; and a professor at Andover Newton Theological School. His research and teaching interests focus on the interaction of religion, culture, and politics. Among the issues he explores are: urbanization, theological developments in world Christianity, Jewish-Christian relations, and current spiritual movements in the global setting. His most recent book is When Jesus Came to Harvard: Making Moral Decisions Today. His Secular City, published in 1965, became an international bestseller with more than 1 million copies sold. It was selected by the University of Marburg as one of the most influential books of Protestant theology in the twentieth century.

Reviews

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book a fascinating theological journey by a serious Christian honestly looking at other religious traditions and trying to understand what a dialog between equals might look like.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written in 1988, "Many Mansions" works through the paradox Bible scholar, Harvey Cox, identifies in the introduction. That is, "the paradox of the great world faiths is that they both create a dream of a single human family and threaten that dream." He suggests incorporating a "personal narrative" and discussion about Jesus, which is generally avoided, into any dialogue as a way to understanding. He then applies this to his in-depth discussion of "a Christian's encounter with other faiths." Harvey Cox is an academic, and his writing is consistently accessible whatever one's knowledge of the Bible, offering historical and cultural context. I especially appreciate his personal stories, his encounters with people around the world of all ages, always coming away with new insights into his and others' beliefs. Chapter after chapter, I was swimming amidst so many ideas and still able to reach my own new understanding. The chapters on searching for a Soviet Christ and Marxism were among the most compelling to me. Finally, he places the "future" of religion squarely on us, our responsibility to enter the discussion, wrestling with past and present thinking, to shape it. This is a daunting task; it seems to me, though, his approach serves as a guide to all the thorny issues of the present we can no longer ignore.

[Dave · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two things work against this book for me.
First and foremost, it is 30+ years old. A LOT has happened in the world of religious studies and theology since then. To paraphrase one example, he says that religion and science are coming closer than ever to agreement. Given the current extreme right’s creationism and its deliberate re-writing of science text books to reflect their POV, I just do not see a "coming together" of the two.
Second, taking a long hard look at all of the world’s religions is a noble idea, but Cox is so locked into his christian POV that it distorts much of his thinking. IMHO. Granted the book’s subtitle declares that that is his perspective. So I accept that, BUT I just wish that I could find a book that truly seeks to find common ground between all the various faiths. As long as we cling to the concept that my religion is right and yours is wrong, we will never achieve religious peace.