Every time (and in the lifespan of a publishing house this may happen only a few times) we decide with an author to publish his Opera Omnia it is always a moving experience.
The author, in fact, draws up the structure of his own work: an Opera Omnia is therefore a new work, a work in itself. It becomes his own novel, the author’s offer to his readers. It is completely different from an Opera Omnia compiled after the death of an author by a committee of experts, involving an enormous philological effort to grasp the hermeneutic that the author would have carried out on his own work. Such would be, at best, an accurate collection of his writings, but not what the author himself intends to propose today to the reader.
The Opera Omnia is therefore a work in itself, a new creation, a new work.
For Panikkar, the above applies in a very special way. This work touches on many of what we usually define as disciplines: Philosophy, Theology, Anthropology, Culture of Peace, Theology of Religion, Spirituality, etc., though for Panikkar there is no clear-cut distinction between them.
Panikkar has not only produced a vast number of works, but throughout his life he has constantly revised and re-edited many of his writings (the best example being The Unknown Christ of Hinduism). This means that his works are updated as his thought evolves.
Certainly, some of these remain datable and definable as the author’s earlier writings, but in many cases Panikkar has continued to review the writings throughout his life.
Panikkar’s works cannot be considered merely as a meditated result of his studies. It is hermeneutic of an experience. As he himself says in the Foreword to his Opera Omnia:
“I did not live for the sake of writing, but I wrote to live in a more conscious way and also to help my brothers with thoughts not only from my own mind but also arising from a superior Source…”
For Panikkar, knowledge and experience go hand in hand; they are an act that is undertaken, a knowledge that is experienced, placed at the disposal of the reader who is given a task that is more than intellectual.
The Opera Omnia, then, is not simply the collection of Panikkar’s works, but the actual legacy of his entire journey.
Philologists may study the various editions of individual texts, but what Panikkar publishes in his Opera Omnia largely represents the stage of his journey today, which the reader can appreciate in its maturity.
Marking the stages of this “journey”, however, are the introductions that Panikkar made for the most important editions and has kept. These introductions represent not so much a surpassing or change of horizons but rather the addition of new insights. In an Opera Omnia this is extremely precious.
In this Panikkar has an entirely non-Western attitude, because he avoids above all historicizing himself, i.e. his knowledge and his exploration.
In general, when compiling their Complete Works authors tend to publish the subjects that emerge in the debates following the publication of each new text, adding their answers to the various counter-arguments.
Panikkar’s dated introductions, on the other hand, testify to the evolution process in his works and relative debates.
In the choice of the material and the organization of the structure Panikkar availed of the valuable assistance of Milena Carrara, who translated and edited many of his books and is in charge of editing his Opera Omnia.
The decision to begin with the volume on Mysticism is somewhat symbolic, because it shows Panikkar’s concern for bringing to light, through his writings, his own experience, and mysticism is the full experience of Man.
I trust that this Opera Omnia will not merely generate further studies, but also experience – and to begin the work with the volume on Mysticism is the very best omen.

SANTE BAGNOLI
President Editoriale Jaca Book
Milano, 2008