Harvey Cox burst onto the religious-publishing scene in 1962 with his provocative book, The Secular City. His assertions about the consequences of the modern secular world for religion changed forever the way that theologians and clergy approached their tasks of God-talk in late modernity. Always prescient about the religious scene, Cox virtually predicted the "turn east" that many American religious seekers took in the late '60s and early '70s. His books on world religions (Many Mansions), Pentecostalism (Fire from Heaven), and fundamentalism and liberation theology (Religion in the Secular City) have all provided trenchant commentary on the changing face of American religion.

In this exciting collection of twenty essays, Sharma and his contributors honor Cox's seminal contributions to the study of religion. The first section of the book includes essays on Cox's life and work at Harvard, where he is Victor S. Thomas Professor of Divinity, and his work as a liberation theologian in the Third World. The second section features theologians such as Leonardo Boff, James Cone, Hans Küng, Jürgen Moltmann, and Richard L. Rubenstein, who use Cox's themes of interreligious dialogue, grassroots theology, and religion and secularization as the starting points for their own essays on these themes.

Contributors to the volume include: Cornel West, Harvard University; Arvind Sharma, McGill University; Robert McAfee Brown, Emeritus, Pacific School of Religion; John C. Cort, Nahant, Massachusetts; Jorge Pixley, Seminario Teológico Buatista, Managua, Nicaragua; Rodney Peterson, Boston Theological Institute; Victor Wan-Tatah, Youngstown State University; Frank D. Macchia, Southeastern College of the Assemblies of God; William Hamilton, Sarasota, Florida; Robert N. Bellah, Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley; Eldin Villafane, CUTEEP, Boston; Jürgen Moltmann, Tübingen; Hans Küng, Tübingen; James H. Cone, Union Theological Seminary; Leonardo Boff, Brazil; Margaret Guider, Weston Jesuit School of Theology; Arthur Green, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Satianathan Clarke, United Theological College, Bangalore; Richard L. Rubenstein, University of Bridgeport; Iain Maclean, James Madison University; William Martin, Rice University; Anne Foerst, MIT; and Elinor W. Gadon, Institute of Integral Studies.

Arvind Sharma is Bicks Professor of Comparative Religion at McGill University in Montreal and the editor of A Dome of Many Colors, published by Trinity Press International.