If Schillebeeckx had been Asian, how would he have responded to the phenomenon of religious pluralism? This book attempts to answer that question, beginning with a dialogue with the Vatican Declaration Dominus Iesus and discerning how Schillebeeckx's methodology has been applied in Asian theology. Employing the hermeneutical-critical method, Schillebeeckx asserts that the Word of God did not come "down to us, as it were, vertically in a purely divine statement"--it must be interpreted! In today's context of so many religions, so many cultures, and so many poor, God's Word invites the church to be a "sacrament of dialogue." Through dialogue the church will be "challenged by other religions and challenge them in return." Christianity will then be "put in its place, as well as given the place which is its due."

Edmund Chia is a Malaysian who served from 1996 to 2004 as Executive Secretary of Interreligious Dialogue for the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences. He then joined Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, where he last served as Associate Professor and Chair of the Doctrinal Studies Department. Since 2011 he has been on the faculty of the Australian Catholic University in Melbourne. He holds an MA in human development, an MA in religion from the United States, and a PhD in intercultural theology from the Netherlands. Fr. Schillebeeckx witnessed his doctoral defense.