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 Loy‚s Questionnaire 21, An Informal Survey 22, Koun Yamada‚s 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 O‚Murchu 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 O‚Leary 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 ŒArabi 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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