Books A masterly lover of three religions
THE INTRA-RELIGIOUS
DIALOGUE By Raimon Panikkar Paulist Press, 160 pages,
$19.95 |
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By CLARENCE THOMSON
This revised classic is about the art of communicating ones
religious faith. With footnotes and references in Greek, Latin, Sanscrit,
English, French and German and scattered references to Arabic literature, this
is not dialogue for dummies. This is the master speaking. He is speaking from
his own pilgrimage from Christian to Hindu to Buddhist without ever ceasing to
be Christian.
It isnt the story of his journey, though. It is what he
learned. He codifies his learning into attitudes, rules for discourse and areas
that must be explored. He is keenly aware of the difficulty of the task he
addresses. His philosophical models encapsulate moral and intellectual
(especially epistemological) principles.
He compares talking to someone of another religious belief system
to talking to someone who speaks another language. The principles of discourse
apply to both with some symmetry. Any religion is complete as a language is
complete. Most likely you can say everything you really need to say in your
native tongue.
Your language is co-extensive with your understanding. If you
learn new things, you learn them in your language; you can grow, change and be
fulfilled in your own language. The same is true of your religion. It has
everything you need. You dont need another religion to express your
belief or work out your salvation. You are, at first blush, self-contained.
Sometimes hints of inadequacy creep in. With Times
man of the year having a French title -- entrepreneur -- we might
realize we have little gaps, but tinkering will suffice.
It isnt until we love someone with whom we wish to share our
deepest soul and who doesnt speak our language that we run into trouble.
It is the other that draws us out of our language, our self. Our language may
be obviously superior to hers in our estimation (English has half a million
words, French only 185,000, for example) and we may be specialists in our
language, but if we love her, we will learn her words. And we will learn what
her words mean to her, how they function in her life, what references, nuances
and conclusions support and are supported by her words. We will enter into her
world.
To enter anothers world is a religious experience. Pannikar
calls the talk between religions intra religious partially because
the real dialogue ends up being within our selves as well as between selves. To
enter anothers world is to relativize our own.
There are obviously more ways to say stick or red,
and we can both prove it by merely pointing. The task deepens and grows richer
when we talk of friendship, beauty or wisdom. It requires the kind of erudition
and humility that learning another language does, especially if we go into any
depth and learn the history, mythology, culture and cosmology in which the
language or religion functions.
Pannikar has written a treatise on how to communicate with other
religions. It is a treatise on dialogue, with all the effort, sensitivity,
erudition, imagination and especially humility that real dialogue requires.
Ive borrowed one of his fine models above, but he has five
of them, ending with the mystical model: silence. He is as careful as the
mountain climber he uses for one of the models (everyone approaching the summit
by a different path, and no one fully realized at the top). He explains with
erudition and clarity the philosophical, cultural and linguistic problems
involved. He deals with the problem of pluralism and cultural hegemony.
He even has a lovely description of how a parish can be thought of
as a subculture. It has its own history, its own dynamics and is unique. It
also fits into and is shaped by but not totally assimilated by the larger
culture. Parishes of every stripe must deal with these contexts and pressures
daily on some level with varying awareness.
Pannikar, while an obvious academic with intimidating scholarship,
places a great deal of emphasis on the moral and religious attitudes that are
necessary to understand the other. He makes it religiously clear
that to understand the other, we must share their viewpoint. We must enter into
their world and experience their truth. Then, after taking the chance that we
will be swallowed by their world, we discover our own truth more deeply in a
way that sometimes appreciates and sometimes appropriates their truth.
With an educated leader, this could be a fine resource for a group
trying to understand one another or two groups trying to reach out to each
another. His models are clear and helpful, and his learning inspires
confidence.
And perhaps most of all, the learned courtesy of this man who
loves three religions, and in them, all religions, is as refreshing as
love.
Clarence Thomson is a freelance writer and theologian who
teaches scripture in an ecumenical setting.
National Catholic Reporter, February 11,
2000
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