INTERCULTURES AND INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE

The second volume of Cultures and Religions in Dialogue focuses essentially on intercultural and interreligious dialogue as a path to survival, as described in the introduction to the first volume, where we developed the various aspects of the pluralism on which true dialogue is founded, inasmuch as culture gives verbal expression to religion and religion opens the horizon to dialogue. “The peoples and religions of the world cannot live in isolation.” For Panikkar, the raising of barriers is cultural and human suicide. He neither believes in nor hopes for a universal religion. Panikkar deeply believes in dialogue and the mutual benefit of any encounter in which the two sides listen to each other. He regards dialogue as indispensable both throughout history and in the present. Beginning with figures such as Ramon Llull, on the cusp between the Middle Ages and the modern world, the book goes on to “narrate” examples of modern-day dialogue: the Buddhist-Christian dialogue on the human condition and the quest for humanization; the Hindu-Christian dialogue, with its principles of nonduality and love, and, lastly, the intercultural challenge of the Buddhist, Hindu and Christian experience.
The book consists of two parts: the first focuses on the intercultural and religious dialogues, recognizing that the two subjects are intrinsically connected.
The second part outlines a few significant examples of religious dialogue: a Buddhist-Christian dialogue; a Hindu-Christian dialogue on the possible presence of love, in a non-dualistic attitude, between the author and a follower of Vishnu who considers himself a monist; and a brief intercultural study on love in the Hindu, Buddhist, and Christian traditions: bhakti – karuna – agape.

INDEX of ORIGINAL TEXTS in VOLUME VI, Part 2

The Intrareligious Dialogue: Original text: The Intrareligious Dialogue, Paulist Press, New York 1999.

“Some Observations on Interreligious Dialogue”: from a lecture delivered by Panikkar in Montserrat (Barcelona) in November 2004, according to the notes taken by Pierre-Franç de Béthune, published in in DIM/MID International Bulletin, n. 2 (2004), Louvain-la-Neuve, p. 17-21.

The Encounter of Religions: The Unavoidable Dialogue: re-edition of The Encounter of Religions: the Unavoidable Dialogue, Jñanadeepa, vol. 3, n. 2, Pune 2000), inaugurational article Begegnung der Religionen. Das unvermeidliche Gespräch of the new magazine «Dialog der Religionen», München 1991.

“Human Dialogue within Religious Inter-independence”: speech held at the Pio Manzù Research Centre, Rimini, Italy, originally published in Il fuoco nel cristallo [Fire in the Crystal], n. 21, Rimini 2001, pp. 136-141.

“For a dialogue of civilizations”: reworking of “Per un dialogo delle civiltà”, a conference at Città di Castello, Italy in August 1983.

“Â¥nyatå and Pleroma: The Buddhist and Christian Response to the Human Predicament”: original edition in J.M. Robinson (ed.), Religion and the Humanizing of Man, Council on the Study of Religion, Waterloo, Ont. 1972, pp. 67-86.

“Advaita and Bhakti: A Hindū-Christian Dialogue”. Original text: “Advaita e Bakti. Lettera da Vrindabran”, Humanitas, vol. X, Brescia 1965, p 991-1001; then it appeared in Myth, Faith and Hermeneutics, chapter IX, Paulist, New York 1979.

“Bhakti – Karunå – Agape An Intercultural Challenge”: Original text “Bhakti Karunå – Agape. An Intre-Cultural Challenge”, in M. Zlomislic, D. Goicoechea, S.K. Tebbutt, R. Kaushik (ed.), Bhakti – Karunå – Agape with Raimon Panikkar, Global Academic Publishing, Binghamton University, New York 2003, p. 39-53.