Christianity in the Crucible of East-West Dialogue:
A Critical Look at Catholic Participation
by
James Arraj
Christianity in the Crucible of East-West Dialogue
takes you into the heart of this dialogue where mystics, metaphysicians
and meditation masters of different traditions are beginning
to meet for the first time. It explores these fascinating worlds
like that of the Sanbo Kyodan Zen School where many of today's
Catholic Zen masters have come, and that of Abhishiktananda,
the Benedictine monk Henri Le Saux, who plunged deeply into
Hindu mysticism.
But it focuses in a special way on how this interior dialogue
is being short-circuited by misunderstandings on part of the
some of the Catholic participants who appear to be disconnected
from their own deep wisdom traditions. The book goes on, following
the footsteps of Jacques Maritain, to look at some of the metaphysical
foundations of East-West dialogue that provide a way to avoid
these problems.
Table of Contents
A Short Orientation 11, Introduction 13, Enlightenment
Experiences 14, Metaphysical Experiences 15, Christian Mystical
Experiences 15, The Structure of This Book 17
Part I: A Pilgrimage Through East-West Dialogue 19, Chapter
1: Buddhist-Christian Dialogue 19, The Sanbo Kyodan 20,
David Loys Questionnaire 21, An Informal Survey 22, Koun
Yamadas Questions to Christians 22, Ruben Habito 23, Hugo
Enomiya Lassalle 27, Willigis Jäger 29, Elaine MacInnes
32, Patrick Hawk 34, Chwen Jiuan Agnes Lee and Thomas Hand 35,
Robert Kennedy 37, Roger Corless 40, Maria Reis Habito 40, A
Closer Look at the Sanbo Kyodan 42, Thomas Merton 45, Donald
Mitchell, Robert Jonas, James Grob 49, Heinrich Dumoulin 51,
Hans Waldenfels 53, Ichiro Okumura 53, Kakichi Kadowaki 54,
A Buddhist-Christian Dialogue at Naropa Institute 55, The Ground
We Share 56, David Hackett 57, Modern Attempts to Renew the
Christian Contemplative Life 59, Centering Prayer 59, John Main
61, Vipassana Meditation and John of the Cross 61, Hans Küng
62
Chapter 2: Hindu-Christian Dialogue 67, Modern Hindu-Christian
Dialogue 67, The Current State of the Hindu-Christian Dialogue
in India 68, Abhishiktananda 69, Jacques Dupuis on Abhishiktananda
73, Bettina Bäumer 75, Sara Grant 77, Abhishiktananda Through
Advaitan Eyes 78, Anthony de Mello 79, Bede Griffiths 80, Wayne
Teasdale 85, Kundalini Yoga 87, Philip St. Romain 89, The Personal
and the Impersonal 90, Duality and Nonduality 91, Concepts Eastern
and Christian 92, Core Experiences and the Culturally Conditioned
Nature of Language 92, The Christian Life of Prayer and Eastern
Ways of Meditation 93
Part II: A Crisis in Catholic Theology 96, Chapter 3: Theology
Without a Net 96, Christian Mysticism 96, Christian Metaphysics
97, Christian Theology 98, Theology Without a Net 101, Ivone
Gebara 102, Tissa Balasuriya 105, Michael Morwood 107, Diarmuid
OMurchu 110, Daniel Maguire 111, John Dourley 113, Conclusion
117
Chapter 4: Religious Pluralism 121, Salvation Outside
the Church 121, Anonymous Christians 123, Jacques Maritain and
the First Act of Freedom 124, Two Fundamental Principles 126,
Paul Knitter 130, Joseph OLeary 137, John Keenan 144,
Jacques Dupuis 147, Dominus Iesus 149
Chapter 5: What Kind of Dialogue? 156, Catholic Pluralism
157, Christian Philosophy 159, The Nature of Theology 162, Two
Kinds of Mysticism 165, Louis Gardet 166, R.C. Zaehner 167,
Jan van Ruusbroec 168
Part III: A Metaphysical Dialogue 172, Chapter 6: Islamic
Metaphysics 172, Hadi ibn Mahdi Sabzawari 173, Toshihiko
Izutsu 173, Historical Background 174, Mulla Sadra 175, Fazlur
Rahman 180, Creator and Creation 182
Chapter 7: A Dialogue with Nonduality? 187, Ippolito
Desideri 187, Geshe Rabten 188, Dzogchen 190, A Dialogue with
Nonduality 191, Toshihiko Izutsu 192, Ibn Arabi 193, Chuang-tzu
194, David Loy 196
Chapter 8: The Metaphysics of St. Thomas and Enlightenment
203, Zen Enlightenment and the Intuition of Being 205, A
Christian View of Enlightenment 209, The Loss of the Affective
Ego 210, Philosophical Language vs. Liberation Language 211,
Western No-Self Experiences 212, The Loss of the Affective Ego
and Individuation 215, The Loss of the Affective Ego and Christian
Mystical Experience 215, Philip St. Romain 216, Bernadette Roberts
218, St. John of the Cross and the Loss of the Affective Ego
220, On the Nature of the Loss of the Affective Ego 225, The
Spiritual Unconscious 226, Enlightenment and the Experience
of No-Self 227
Summary and Conclusions 229, Christian Mysticism and
Metaphysics 229, Catholic Theology 230, Christian Enlightenment?
232, Bibliography 235, Index 247
James Arraj and his wife Tyra are the directors of www.innerexplorations.com
<http://www.innerexplorations.com/>
An extensive
website where Christian metaphysics and mysticism meet Eastern
religions, Jungian psychology, and a new sense of the earth.
James has a doctorate in theology specializing in Christian
spirituality from the Gregorian University in Rome, and is the
author of more than a dozen books.
They live deep in a forest far from paved roads and power lines
near Crater Lake, Oregon. There they raised their children,
built their own house, grow salads in a solar greenhouse, and
create books and videos with the electricity from their solar
panels.
INNER EXPLORATIONS, VOLUME IV: EAST-WEST CONTEMPLATIVE DIALOGUE
contains Christianity in the Crucible of East-West Dialogue,
as well as God, Zen and the Intuition of Being, 345pp. ISBN
0-914073-03-6. Trade paper, $18.00.
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