Correspondence More about what Christian scan learn from Buddhism
KENNEDY, ROBERT E. & JR., JOHN B. COBB & GALLIGAN, ANDREW
CORROSPONDENCE Christianity & Buddhism In his insightful article, "When Christianity and Buddhism Meet" [January 12], John W. Healey ponders the question, "What does my Christianity add to my...
...CORROSPONDENCE Christianity & Buddhism In his insightful article, "When Christianity and Buddhism Meet" [January 12], John W. Healey ponders the question, "What does my Christianity add to my Buddhism...
...Healey writes beautifully of how it has affected him and also of what if has done for John Keenan...
...Humbling though this may be to Christians, it does offer us, nonethe-less, a grace-filled opportunity: It chal-lenges us to live most intently a Christ-like life among our Buddhist brothers and sisters, to pray with at-tention, and to work for justice with diligence...
...we are to foster dialogues of ex-perience whenever possible...
...You follow me...
...Indeed we are to join hands with those of other faiths and work for justice and peace...
...Buddhism encourages that nonattachment to our own views...
...Doing this, we must remember that the material needs of our neigh-bors are our spiritual needs, and that the return to the marketplace and to the corporal works of mercy must be done right now-today...
...Before we speak we are to listen respectfully and allow our-selves to be changed by what we hear...
...A better way might be: Come, let us reason together...
...There is no question but that Catholics are in the lead in this impor-tant venture...
...Does the Cardinal Prefect have no regard for the cardinal virtues of pru-dence and justice...
...Both Healey and Keenan en-courage Christians in ways that no one since Gregory of Nyssa should find objectionable: Christians are not only to teach all nations but be taught by all nations...
...Doe's it make no difference what all our ecumenical partners think of this type of "due process" that summarily declares that one of our elder brothers is now cast out of our community of brotherly love because he sought to explicate the word of God in a way that could be understood by those who "had never appreciated the mystery of Christ...
...Of course we are not to accept "relativism" or an uncritical reading of Buddhist thought...
...Trust the process John Healey's "When Christianity and Buddhism Meet" is a fine example of a growing genre of Christian writing...
...Similarly, Bede Griffiths, a Benedictine scholar long resident in India, believed that the integration of Buddhism and Christianity is the work of the next thousand years...
...But I think Harry Truman had it right when he asked, "Why use explosives if ant powder will do...
...ROBERT E. KENNEDY, S.J...
...Jersey City, N.J...
...Overkill in Rome Not having read Tissa Balasuriya's book, I haven't a clue as to whether his theology is orthodox or heterodox [editorial, January 31...
...It is not difficult to agree with Healey's assumption that right now Buddhism seems to add to rather than receive from Christianity...
...What the Buddhists make of this is not for us to decide...
...In their recent thirty-fourth General Congregation, Jesuits urged one an-other and all Christians to acknowl-edge, preserve, and promote the spiritual goods found in other reli-gions...
...Claremont, Calif...
...Buddhism, more powerfully than any other religious tradition, challenges us to rethink, reimagine, and reexperi-ence our Christian faith...
...That leads in a quite kataphatic direction instead...
...In my case the Buddhist doctrine that all that is is to be understood as dependently co-arising encourages the rethinking of God as the supreme instance of such co-arising, that is, as the creative synthesis of all that is possible and all that is actual...
...We are to recognize that the core of religion is its capacity to lead people to a deeper religious experi-ence...
...We learn from the other what we are able to hear and appropriate...
...To be so open engenders a grateful responsiveness to the gifts Buddhism offers, among them a deepening and watchful silence that can lead us to insight...
...JOHN B. COBB, JR...
...Let us trust that process even when we cannot know where it will lead us...
...It is certainly possible that at this point in history, Buddhism, like Judaism and Islam, asks little from Christianity and there is little Christianity can offer Buddhism...
...Catholics often find a point of contact in the apophatic mys-tical tradition and see Buddhism as enabling them to realize its meaning more deeply...
...Healey's reference to John P. Keenan's "courageous" if not com-pletely successful attempt to read Christology through a Buddhist lens recalls his own experience that Buddhist practice helped him "come home in a new way to [his] Christian faith...
...There are no rights and wrongs here...
...Believing that his practice of Zen Buddhism has significantly influenced his Christian faith, Healey concludes that it will be a while before Chris-tianity adds to Buddhism...
...Re-member that Peter was rebuffed when he asked about Jesus' plan for another disciple: "What is that to you...
...ANDREW GALLIGAN Tracy, Calif...
...Perhaps in this transforma-tion we will live more deeply into Christ...
...Today it is best to stand loose to any particular conclusions...
...That can either render the historical particularities of Christian faith of secondary impor-tance or bring them to the fore with new power...
...Because we are meeting Buddhism at a time when the modern world in which we have lived is crumbling, we are open to transformation in the en-counter...
Vol. 124 • March 1997 • No. 5
