Book Review- Inter-Faith Dialogue and World Community

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Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Volume 5 Article 12

1992

Book Review: "Inter-Faith Dialogue and WorldCommunity"

David C. Sco

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Recommended CitationSco, David C. (1992) "Book Review: "Inter-Faith Dialogue and World Community","Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies: Vol. 5,Article 12.Available at: hp://dx.doi.org/10.7825/2164-6279.1065
http://digitalcommons.butler.edu/jhcs?utm_source=digitalcommons.butler.edu%2Fjhcs%2Fvol5%2Fiss1%2F12&utm_medium=PDF&utm_campaign=PDFCoverPageshttp://digitalcommons.butler.edu/jhcs/vol5?utm_source=digitalcommons.butler.edu%2Fjhcs%2Fvol5%2Fiss1%2F12&utm_medium=PDF&utm_campaign=PDFCoverPageshttp://digitalcommons.butler.edu/jhcs/vol5/iss1/12?utm_source=digitalcommons.butler.edu%2Fjhcs%2Fvol5%2Fiss1%2F12&utm_medium=PDF&utm_campaign=PDFCoverPageshttp://digitalcommons.butler.edu/jhcs?utm_source=digitalcommons.butler.edu%2Fjhcs%2Fvol5%2Fiss1%2F12&utm_medium=PDF&utm_campaign=PDFCoverPageshttp://digitalcommons.butler.edu/jhcshttp://www.hcstudies.org/mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]://dx.doi.org/10.7825/2164-6279.1065mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.hcstudies.org/http://digitalcommons.butler.edu/jhcshttp://dx.doi.org/10.7825/2164-6279.1065http://digitalcommons.butler.edu/jhcs?utm_source=digitalcommons.butler.edu%2Fjhcs%2Fvol5%2Fiss1%2F12&utm_medium=PDF&utm_campaign=PDFCoverPageshttp://digitalcommons.butler.edu/jhcs/vol5/iss1/12?utm_source=digitalcommons.butler.edu%2Fjhcs%2Fvol5%2Fiss1%2F12&utm_medium=PDF&utm_campaign=PDFCoverPageshttp://digitalcommons.butler.edu/jhcs/vol5?utm_source=digitalcommons.butler.edu%2Fjhcs%2Fvol5%2Fiss1%2F12&utm_medium=PDF&utm_campaign=PDFCoverPageshttp://digitalcommons.butler.edu/jhcs?utm_source=digitalcommons.butler.edu%2Fjhcs%2Fvol5%2Fiss1%2F12&utm_medium=PDF&utm_campaign=PDFCoverPages


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Research Library, which, besides the proceedings of the abovementioned symposia, haspublished also major monographs, text-editions and translations, including Anand Amaladass' own thesis: Philosophical Implicationsof Dhvani: Experience of Symbol Language inIndian Aesthetics (1984). Dr. Oberhammer,before devoting himself to Indian studies,studied philosophy at the Jesuit College inInnsbruck at a time when Karl Rahner was atthe height of his fame. Many of Karl Rahner'spupils began imitating his very style and language, something which made them difficult toread in their native German. t is all the moreadmirable that Dr. Amaladass was able notonly to read Dr. Oberhammer's difficult Rahnerian prose but to translate it into lucid English - making it much easier to follow than inits original German. The pieces which are collected in Philosophy o Religion n HinduThought are certainly worthwhile studying, especially for scholars engaged in Hindu-Christian Dialogue. They deal with important issues,are based on thorough familiarity with Indiantexts and treat more often than not little knownaspects of Indian religious systems or rarelymentioned Indian thinkers. They are amplydocumented and contain substantial extractsfrom Sanskrit texts.While the eight papers contained in thework have originally not been written with aview to form parts of a single book, one canidentify a central concern in all of them: salvation. Some, like Manifestation of SalvationNo.2) and Transcendence as Salvation inEarly Nyaya No.4) directly address the issue,others like Experience of Transcendence in

Hinduism: The Testimony of ParamasamhitaNo.5) or The transcendental structure ofhuman bondage (samsara) according to

P a ~ i l a s v a m i n No.6) implicitly deal with it.The rest, such as The Structure of Traditionand Revelation (No.1), Man as the Place ofRevelation No.3), God-Experience in Yogic Meditation (No.7), The Use of Mantra inYogic Meditation: The Testimony of thePasupatas No.8) offer substantial investigations of issues closely linked to salvation. Thisshould come as no surprise to the student ofreligion, least of all to the student of Indian religions, in which salvation is and has remainedthe central issue, towards which all reflection isdirected and which gives religion its verymeaning.Several of the papers were presented asintroductions to symposia organised by the Indological Institute Vienna. Having made such asuccessful translation of Dr. Oberhammer'scontributions, Dr. Amaladass might perhaps bepersuaded to try the others as well. Such worknot only removes the linguistic barrier betweenthose who publish in German and those whoread only English but also fosters interculturaland Hindu-Christian dialogue in and by itself.The translation has provided in the appendix to the book a brief C V of GerhardOberhammer and a bibliography, which showsthe wide range of Dr. Oberhammer's scholarship.

Klaus K KlostermaierUniversity of ManitobaWinnipeg, Canada R3T 2N2

Inter Faith Dialogue and World Community. Ch. Sreenivasa Rao (ed).The Christian Literature Society, 1991, xxxix 284p., Rs. 75.00 paper.

THE PRESSURES OF contemporary historythrow together people of various faith traditions, cultures and ideologies. At the sametime, people of all faith traditions cultures andideologies are seeking new forms of communityin the search for freedom, justice, dignity andself-respect. In this context the great religioustraditions, with their visions for the future of

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humanity, are in interaction today as perhapsnever before. They are also faced with thepromise of abundance as well as the threatswhich science and technology bring. Certainly,there can no doubt about the timely relevanceof the International Seminar on Inter-FaithDialogue for National Integration and HumanSolidarity conducted at the Madras ChristianCollege in January 1986, of which the contentsof this book are the fruit. The participants inthe seminar included a remarkably wide spectrum of persons - religious leaders, philosophers, theologians, social scientists, educatorsand others -who have been and are being nurtured by one or another from among the majorreligious traditions of the world, but Christianswere present in greatest number. Among theparticipants were a number of experiencedpractitioners of inter-faith dialogue, e.g. BedGriffiths, Karan Singh, Gopal Singh, StanleySamartha, S Vahiduddin, K Klostermaier,R.R. Raghavachar, Pema Rigzin, Wesley Ariarajah, to mention a few of the more wellknown. Indeed, the over all variety is indicativeof the immensity of the problem of religiouspluralism in the world today.

The collection of articles is divided intofive seemingly arbitrary sections which do notappear to reflect a prior well thought throughconceptual framework which would give amuch needed structure to the seminar, butrather an attempt, after the fact, to break upthe mass of material into manageable units.The belated dedication of the volume to thememory of the late Bishop A.J. Appasamy andthe inclusion [Appendix II] of the text of a lecture on the good bishop delivered by the General Secretary of the Christian Li terature Society half a decade after the original seminar washeld adds to the lack of coherency of the collection. Nor does the lengthy rambling Introduction by the editor of the volume help in this regard. Here the author attempts to trace thebirth of inter-faith dialogue to the conflictsand challenges between Christianity and Hinduism for supremacy, during the 19th and early20th centuries. In the process the author dilates on, among other things the beginnings ofChristian missions, the negative reactions ofHindus and the vigorous activities of the missionaries in return, how in the process of

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struggle and competi tion the two religions gottransformed into Universal Religions. Thereader will also find here some possible solutions offered by Religious leaders and Philosophers of the World to the grievous problem ofReligious Pluralism in the Modern World,ending with a brief outline of Hick's Theory ofPluralism. Indeed, the rather disparate character of the Introduction seems symptomatic ofthe wide ranging variety of articles which contributes to the lack of coherency of the collection. One also experiences a numbing sense ofdej vu as one reads through Inter-Fa ith Dialogue-A Hindu Perspective, Inter-Faith Dialogue - A Catholic Christian Perspective,Inter-Faith Dialogue-A Sikh Perspective,Religion and Religions - n Islamic Response, Ecumenical Issues in Dialogue.There is also a pall of doctrinaire dullness resulting from, among several things, the recitation of oft repeated cliches which seem to bearlittle specific relationship to the particular realities of our present several situations. Perhaps part of the problem lies in the day - fiveyears - in getting the papers published aftertheir initial presentation.This is not to say, however, that there areno new perspectives and concerns to be foundin the collection. A case in point is StanleySamartha's article on Inter-Religious Relationships in the Secular State. Basically,Samartha argues that to reject religious beliefsas unsecular is to empty public life of its moraland social base. Rather, in pluralistic societiesit is necessary to reject the secular tolerancewhich is indifferent to all religious values.Likewise, it is wise to repudiate the religioustolerance which affirms that all religions are

the same when in actual fact they are distinct,different, even 'unique.' Only when differentreligions are recognised as distinctive and different responses to the mystery of Truth candialogue become a genuine relationship between different communities of faith and openup possibilities of mutual enrichment in thelarger life of the nation. There is need for botha commitment that requires sharing one's faithwith one's neighbours and a tolerance thatmakes mutual enrichment possible. Interfaithdialogue helps us hold together in balance bothcommitment to our particular faith and open-

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ness to those of our neighbours. There areother examples of well-researched and precisely argued articles that explore the centralelements of the theme of the seminar in a creatively realistic manner.Other valuable reflections are to be foundin the piece on The Contribution of religionto the Harmony-Conflict Process by the socialscientist Ram Singh. Countering the commonlyheld belief that for peace and prosperity peoplecommunities must function harmoniously,Ram Singh argues that harmony and conflictboth are necessary to keep a society vitally stable. The Thai Buddhist savant, Saeng ChanNgarm, has some refreshingly relevant thingsto say in his article on The Human Groundsfor Religious Unity and Harmony. The sameis true of the piece on Theological Elitism byDaniel White. But each of these is an individual piece and there is no dialogue among them.Maybe it is too much to expect from an anthology of this type that it have any Significant degree of interactive coherence. Even if this beadmitted, there still are serious questions withregard to various understandings of the elements in the title of the volume. There is fairlywide spread throughout the articles a degree ofbasic, underlying assumption of what is involved in inter-faith dialogue. Karan Singh,in his article, states what is by other authors awidely assumed, if not explicitly stated, understanding of dialogue as an interaction of religious groups in order to solve/settle problemsin a harmonious fashion. He even distinguishestraditional categories of internal and externar dialogue, and accepts the wider scope ofdialogue beyond the specifically inter-faith toinclude dialogue between religion and ideologies, between religion and science. But how arewe to understand the term world community?

There is of course, no gain saying the factthat the contemporary historic context in whichthe participants in the seminar met was one ofincreasing conflict and tension. This seemseven more pronounced now in the early yearsof the final decade of the 20th century. Bothwithin nation states and in the internationalcommunity old structures that held communities together are disintegrating and newgroupings are forming. The energy crisis has

further complicated the process and in doing sohas manifested sharply not just the inter-dependence but an almost one-sided dependence of certain parts of the world on raw ma-terials produced in other parts. The economiccontrol and political use of these resources hasthrown out of gear the older relationshipswithin and between communities of nations.However, fresh criteria for new human relationships that go beyond economic and political structures have yet to emerge. Surely valuesthat sustain personal life within the community, giving a sense of freedom and participation in larger communities need to be defined.Virtually none of the contributors to the present volume-Wesley Ariarajah, RussellChandran, Stanley Samartha, and Ram Singhbeing notable exceptions - seem to recognisethat unless justice and peace are transformedinto a concrete sharing of power in the community of nations, there are signs that we maywitness merely a rearrangement of old positions and relationships. Indeed, one wouldhave thought the theme of the seminar becomes particularly significant insofar as thesearch for values and criteria involves not onlythe religious or transcendental dimensions - ofwhich there is ample detailed discussion - butalso the more mundane socio-economic, political dimensions of world community - to whichdistreSSingly little attention is paid. The termworld community is ambiguous at best, and islikely to be misunderstood. The peril of thisambiguity, distortion, confusion has not beenadequately addressed by any of the participants.Perhaps it was not suffiCiently recognised andarticulated by the organizers, or the participants.True, the absence of clear-cut definitionsneed not necessarily be a hindrance for seekingcommunity provided there is genuine strugglet discern resources and recognise responsibilities for living together. Indeed, one would havehoped that greater attention would have beenpaid to the business of identifying responsibilities and restating resources that are available inthe long histories of the several religious traditions in terms of meeting these responsibilities.While this process is part of the ongoing lifeand continuing search for renewal within eachcommunity of faith, the crucial factor in the

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contemporary situation, symbolised by this international, interreligious seminar, is thatwhether we like it or not we are thrown together in this task. Sometimes even those of uswho live daily in multi-religious contexts forgetthe implications of this togetherness. Thesearch for new patterns of relationships is notthe prerogative of anyone particular community of faith.However, despite its shortcomings, thereis much to be gained in terms of fellowship andinsight from such dialogue meetings and thepublication of their proceedings. Both themeetings and the sharing of wisdom need to beencouraged, pressing forward towards the ful

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fillment of the vision of a world communitycharacterised by peace with justice which is aguiding light for all religious communities. Inthis quest, there are things to be learned fromthe present undaunted attempt to shed lightfrom the various religious traditions on the articulation of this vision in the expectation offurthering the struggle for its achievement. Weare in the debt of both the participants and theeditor.

David C ScottUnited Theological CollegeBangalore

The Role o PramiiQas in Hindu Christian Epistemology. K.P. Aleaz.Punthi-Pustak, Calcutta, 1991, 154p.TH AUTFlOR STATES his objective asdiscovering the six IndianpramiiIJas as an authentic aspect of Indian Christian Theologicalmethod vis-a-vis the Christian pramiiIJas asunderstood by some Indian Christian theologians. (p.3) He finds that the earlier attemptsin this direction do not take into account thesix pramiiIJas of Indian philosophy and theirpossible use as Christian pramiiIJas As the title of the book stands, the project itself islaudable and one would expect a breakthrough in a theological method buildingupon the earlier attempts.In the process of inculturation there wasa stage where equivalents of Christian tradition were sought in Hindu tradition, to adapt,if not adopt fully, for the enrichment of theIndian Christian theology. And in that sense itis valuable to look into the six traditionalsources of knowledge - pramiiIJas fromwhich Christianity could gain some insightinto its own tradition. So the author examinesthe six means of knowing and appeals to theChristian community that these should beused in theological reflection. But as such it

does not offer any further reflection on thepossible gains through this method.t is high time to go beyond this stage andsee what response the metaphors of one tradi

tion evoke in another tradition, with a view todevelop an inter-cultural and inter-religiousconcept of pramiiIJas as a precondition forthe meeting of cultures and religions, so thatdialogue between traditions is possible without losing their identity. But the author tendsto be descriptive rather than addressing himself to the larger issues of Hindu-Christianepistemology while dealing with the role ofpramiiftasAny theological method takes into account revelation, reason, and experience. Evenwithin a particular religious framework, forexample in Hinduism, revelation is differentlyinterpreted, depending on the specific tradition one comes from - as in the case of theVedantins. Tradition is always a complexwhole. In Christianity what is meant by religious tradition depends on the core of the basic beliefs which have their point of referenceto scriptures, teaching authority, saints andenlightened leaders of this tradition, liturgy

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies, Vol. 5 [1992], Art. 12

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Book Review- Inter-Faith Dialogue and World Community

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