The Silencing of Leonardo Boff/Many Mansions/The Mystery of Christian Uniqueness
Donders, Joseph G.
THEOLOGY IN THE VERNACULAR THE SILENCING OF LEONARDO BOFF The Vatican and the Future of World Christianity Harvey Cox Meyer Stone. $9.95. 208 pp. MANY MANSIONS A Christian's Encounter with...
...Does not the trinitarian formula as found in Matthew's Gospel open a wide road to togetherness and diversity at one and the same time...
...Eight of the writers come from the West, four from Asia (and none from Africa...
...Harvey Cox shares that ideal...
...But that is also why it is a pity that these authors rarely refer to the foundational texts of our Western biblical tradition...
...The authors speak about three bridges that have been crossed: the historico-cultural, the theologico-mystical, and the ethical-practical...
...Catholicity means cultural inclusiveness...
...The liberation theology that Boff champions raises the latter issue...
...That is, authentic pluralism represents a commitment to the other...
...Rather, pluralism is itself an issue of justice...
...Every religion, they argue, is culturally bound and limited...
...Most of these others are not only poor...
...12.95 paper...
...216 pp...
...THE MYTH OF CHRISTIAN UNIQUENESS Toward a Pluralistic Theology of Religions John Hick and Paul F. Knitter Orbis...
...Cox claims, could go even further...
...For the approach of liberation theology is so different from the theology and spirituality we have been accustomed to that accepting it would mean a plurality of beliefs and theologies-a plurality that the prefects of Rome are not willing to accept...
...For Balasuriya...
...Secondly, from the mystical standpoint, no religion can express the fullness of either the divine or the human mystery...
...Hindus, Buddhists, Eastern (Russian) Christians, and believing Marxists...
...They have been relatively blind to indigenous Indian and imported African religions in their own countries...
...Most Latin American theologians, coming from a situation in which the Hispanic Catholic tradition is pervasive, ignore the issue of religious pluralism...
...For one thing, the liberational interest in indigenous folk religion he argues, should enable theologians to develop interest in the religious beliefs of other religious traditions...
...And he lives up to it in the two books under review, both of which address what Cox calls the most debated issue in modern theology: the question of religious pluralism...
...The globalization of our ever shrinking world took most of us by surprise...
...The first part of Many Mansions offers a moving account of Cox's encounters with Jews, Muslims...
...According to Harvey Cox, that was what Leonardo Boff said to one of his friends when he returned from his studies in Rome to his native country...
...The essays in John Hick and Knitter's anthology derive from a conference held in Claremont, California in 1986...
...One form requires that we rethink the place of Christianity within the pluralistic context of world religions...
...Pluralism, these three books agree, does not represent the resolution of anything and should not be entertained as an end...
...The intention is to develop a Christian theology of religions and religious pluralism...
...Finally, a just world can only be gained in a common struggle...
...For there is a vast difference between the academic and the liberationist approaches to religious pluralism...
...But the contribution liberation theology might make to interreligious dialogue...
...In The Myth of Christian Uniqueness, Paul Knitter, quoting Cox, refers to the practical advantages of this soteriocentric approach...
...Within the Catholic church this issue takes two forms...
...Cox warns that liberation theology too, not just the Roman prefects, has some way to go in taking religious pluralism seriously...
...Reflecting upon these experiences...
...After detailing the thrilling and chilling tale of how the prefects in Rome framed and censored Boff-and Brazilian liberation theology-COx asks what this unwillingness to accept a local theological expression means in a church called to be one, holy, catholic, and apostolic...
...Cox suggests, will be silenced again...
...Does not the old Yahwist epic about the origin of the whole world imply the need for a liberational praxis...
...We have to step "beyond dialogue," bridging our differences in view of action for a just and peaceful society...
...then there will be no place for other religious expressions either...
...The questions raised by The Silencing of Leonardo Boff reach beyond the age-old struggle between the friars and prefects...
...Cox comes back to the current importance of liberation theology for ecumenical relations among diverse traditions...
...And oneness has to do with our one divine parental home with its "many mansions...
...Cox cites the Sri Lankan liberation theologian Tissa Balasuriya, a Roman Catholic priest...
...The authors do not propose to deny the uniqueness of Christianity, but to interpret it in a way that goes beyond both exclusivism (outside Christianity there is no salvation) and inclusivism (all valid insights found outside Christianity are anonymously Christian...
...Joseph G. Denders "When I get backto Brazil I am going to write the kind of theology people can read the way they read a newspaper...
...The conflict...
...Friar Boff was silenced and...
...If there is noplace for liberation theology in that house...
...228 pp...
...Is the theme of unity in diversity really as new as these authors suggest...
...The interpretation of these four traditional notae ecclesiae in Boff s theology makes for interesting reading...
...18.95...
...As Tom Driver notes in a postscript to The Myth of Christian Uniqueness, it is thus no wonder that the discussion of this phenomenon meets no small amount of iner-tial resistance...
...Holiness does not refer to the church as an institution, npr to some exceptional persons in the church, but to the people, who consequently have to be taken seriously in their inspiration, aspirations, and devotions...
...Apostolicity means faithfully continuing the work and ministry of Christ and his apostles, taking.the side of the poor...
...In much of his work Boff has lived up to that ideal...
...In this regard...
...Again, on this priority, these books agree...
...24.95...
...The struggle for the coming of that reign-which obviously includes people who are not Christian-provides the setting for a "wider ecumenism...
...Cox argues, is symptomatic of the church's unwillingness to take on a world migrating from the certainty and security of local traditions and beliefs to the larger global culture embracing the whole of humankind...
...the purpose of Jesus' life was to introduce God's reign of justice and peace-of which he himself was the chief model...
...That is, in the light of this "Kingdom-centered" Christology, the whole meaning of the discussion with people from other religious traditions shifts...
...The other form involves coming to terms with pluralism within the church itself...
...It is in Asia that liberation theologians and grassroot communities could not avoid the issue of a pluralistic society...
...the fact is we tolerate their misery-and hence the justice (or Kingdom) issue should prevail over any other concern...
...MANY MANSIONS A Christian's Encounter with Other Faiths Harvey Cox Beacon...
Vol. 116 • January 1989 • No. 2
