Syncretism Happens -- What Is Religion? -- Soft Boundaries -- When Syncretism Is a Good Thing -- ... And When It's Not So Good -- When It Should Have Happened, But Didn't -- The Problem of Labels: What Is It Now? -- Critical Openness -- The Last Taboo: Education about Religion -- An Intellectual Transformation
Summary
"The religious studies discipline has traditionally distinguished between two responses to syncretism: a subjective view, which treats syncretism as morally reprehensible, and an objective view, which treats it as a morally neutral phenomenon. William Harrison adopts a third perspective, the advocacy view, which claims that mixing religions is a good and necessary process. He cites countless examples--such as Islam's transformative encounter with Greek thought--from both history and recent years to show how religious traditions have gained theological and practical wisdom by borrowing key ideas, beliefs, and practices from outside their own movements."--Publishers website
