Like the great Japanese master Dôgen, Panikkar also seems to have a propensity for rewriting many of his previous works from scratch. This is the case of his graduation thesis in theology, which was originally written in 1961 and published in London in 1964, and later taken up again at several stages, producing revised and reworked editions in various languages, of which this is the most recent. The relationship between Christianity and Hinduism is, in fact, a central theme throughout the lifelong study and experience of the author, to which he has dedicated many other works testifying to his experiential exploration. In his own words, “I can only be free of a certain Christianity or Hinduism (and the same goes for a certain type of Buddhism or secularity) by striving to be a better Christian or a better Hindu and a better citizen of the world.” This is a book written “with my own life and my own blood.”
The history of the title itself is illuminating. Originally it was intended to be a subtitle, but on the suggestion of Bede Griffiths the expression “the unknown Christ of Hinduism” became central, just as the intrareligious experience and knowledge which it expresses is central: “the most positive way to overcome a tradition consists not in leaving it behind as if it were just any kind of association, but rather in living out the said tradition more deeply (authentically), that is, ‘transmitting it’, and thus transforming it …”. This, therefore, is the transformational dynamic inherent in the open relationship between a traditum and a tradendum.
The central theme of this book is, in fact, an intrareligious and Christian reflection, which ponders whether in order to be Christian one has to be spiritually Semitic and intellectually Greek. To be Christian, note. Moreover, it is by no means certain that humanity has left behind its infantile conception of the relationship between its own religion and that of the others, meaning that one considers one’s own religion to be the only true one and all others to be false; this applies equally to Christians. This here is Pannikar’s testimony, wholly and completely Christian, in perfect analogy with St. Paul’s speech at the Areopagus, but in this case directed to Hinduism; it presents, in fact, the guidelines for a possible path towards an ecumenical Christophany: “Christians are faced with an alternative: either they will bring their own conception of Christ to other peoples and religions or they will have to recognize the unknown dimension of Christ, striving for mutual ‘fecondation’– which is an act of love.”
The book is divided into three chapters. The first presents the encounter between Hinduism and Christianity on an ontological and existential level, because the true encounter between religions essentially takes place on an existential level: “the encounter between religions must be a religious act…”. Neither doctrinal similarities nor variously authentic doctrinal syntheses will suffice. Christ becomes a tangible symbol of a “place of encounter” which has at the same time a “Christian base” and “Hindu base”.
The second chapter considers the “encounter” between Hinduism and Christianity in the context of historical and sociological dimensions. We come to see that “there is no single analogy which can adequately illustrate the relationship between Hinduism and Christianity in all its complexity”, and that the two religions are inseparable but, at the same time, each one is “a world in itself.”
The third chapter, “God and the World”, explores certain doctrinal and intellectual questions posed by the relationship “of the complex whole of two historical traditions which are still alive today”, using the example of the comment to a passage of the Brahma-sutra (I, 1,2). The aim is to find an interpretation of this passage “which remains faithful to the meaning of the text and which is non extraneous to the Christian tradition”, seeking to comprehend possible homeomorphisms.
Panikkar’s intention is to raise a theme that belongs neither to the East nor to the West but is able to demonstrate to both their reciprocal inadequacy regarding a living reality that does not merely consist in concepts and traditions.
Thus Christ appears as “the complete symbol of reality”, so that throughout the book the term “Christian” expresses not a monopoly of prerogatives reserved for followers of “Christianity” but the richness of a reality which belongs to everybody. Christ is the unknown Christ of Hinduism but he is also the Christ of whom Christians are still only partially aware.
translation from Italian