Interfaith Discourse

Jessica Kingsley Publishers, due 2016
Explores the relationship and dialogue between religion and atheism, focusing upon Christian, Islamic, Buddhist and other, e.g. Pagan, traditions in their encounter with secularism and atheism. It explores such issues as faith and reason, science and religion, gender and sexuality, 'texts of terror', and the use and abuse of arguments, evidence, and concepts.

This paper, “Hindu View of Christ”, by Dr. Anand Amaladass, S.J., friend and academic colleague, was presented at the International Conference, ‘Hinduism and Christianity: Prospects for Inter-Religious Dialogue’, at the Edoardo Agnelli Centre for Comparative Religious Studies, Turin, 20th-21st November 2003. It is included in my book, ‘The Unknown Buddha of Christianity’ – ML.  ¶ The title ‘Hindu View of Christ’ can be understood in different ways. In the first part an attempt is made to present what well-meaning Hindus have said and written about Christ – their admiration, their assessments and critiques concerning Jesus. The ‘Hindu View of Christ’ could also mean how Jesus assumes newer significance when he is interpreted using Hindu metaphors and categories. So in the second part, it is shown how Jesus appears to people of an Indian cultural milieu outside the Judeo-Christian context.

This paper, concluded on Aug. 11, 2020, is a summary of my work with Professor Gift Siromoney on the invention of the Brāhmī script, up till the time of his death in 1988, as well as my independent discovery, decades later, of where and when the invention took place. In my paper, I challenge those scholars who argue that the origin of the Brāhmī script pre-dates the Mauryan dynasty!

L’étude retrace les difficultés d’accès au concile Vatican II (1959-1965) pour les interlocuteurs juifs, qui contactent le Vatican au sujet du schéma De Judaeis. 
Ces difficultés s'expliquent par la forte asymétrie des relations, les juifs étant en position d'entrants. Vu les effets de segmentation dans ces réseaux, l’apport du moment conciliaire réside in fine moins dans les transferts d’idées entre représentants de groupes religieux distincts, que dans de nouvelles pratiques d’échange. Les relations entre représentants juifs et ecclésiastiques s'autonomisent des voies d'accès et des modes de discussion diplomatiques, pour donner naissance à une diplomatie interreligieuse. L'article se concentre ici sur les voies d'accès dont disposent ces interlocuteurs (mémorandums et discussions avec le Secrétariat pour l'Unité des Chrétiens, dont les théologiens chargés de la "question juive" étaient principalement des convertis) et revient sur les difficultés inhérentes à ce type d'échanges.

Cet article a été approuvé et publié par le comité de lecture des Éditions du CTHS dans le cadre des actes du 140e Congrès national des sociétés historiques et scientifiques tenu à Reims en 2015.

Durch das Jüdische Jahr" führt Monat für Monat durch den jüdischen Jahreskreis. Rabbinerin Dalia Marx stellt den Charakter, die Feste und Gedenktage jedes Monats vor, beschreibt wenig bekannte religiöse Traditionen, Gebete und häusliche Bräuche und fragt, welche Bedeutung sie für unser modernes, durch eine Vielfalt von Kulturen und Identitäten geprägtes Leben haben können. Perspektiven aus Geschichte und Gegenwart, aus West und Ost, Israel und der Welt verflechten sich zu einem vielfarbigen Gewebe jüdischen Lebens und eröffnen einen eigenen Zugang zum Reichtum religiöser Traditionen.
Aus dem Hebräischen übersetzt und bearbeitet von Rabbinerin Ulrike Offenberg.
https://www.hentrichhentrich.de/book-durch-das-juedische-jahr.html

This short paper is adapted from notes for a talk presented at the Richmond Islamic Center, for their non-Muslim Neighbors, on April 16, 2022/Ramadhan 14, 1443.
The aim of the talk, and hence the paper, was to present the message of Islam clearly and succinctly to an audience of non-Muslims and to do so in a way that was sincere and authentic to the message and, at the same time, not meant as ”preaching”.
It is meant to be educational and, at the same time, an open invitation.
And with God alone is every success.

The author explores the differences in the ways of knowing God, with a particular focus on the rational proofs of God’s existence as perceived by noteworthy authors from Christian and Hindu traditions. He deepens the study with insights put forth by Raimundo Panikkar in his seminal work on the encounter between both religions. A possible blend of the two traditions is proposed.

This dissertation focuses on the theme of ecumenism as it is embodied in the career of the American Protestant church leader, Douglas Horton. The chapters delineate stages in the development of Horton's ecumenical commitments. First, as a student at Hartford Theological Seminary, Horton partakes of the ecumenical ethos that permeates the seminary community in the aftermath of the 1910 Edinburgh Conference. Second, while serving as a Congregational pastor, Horton brings contemporary German theology to the awareness of a wide American audience through his translation of Karl Barth's The Word of God and the Word of Man. At the same time, his concern for a world torn asunder by war and economic depression draws him into the emerging ecumenical movement. Then, after a series of pastorates in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Chicago, he becomes the leader of the Congregational Christian Churches as they negotiate union with the Evangelical and Reformed Church to form the United Church of Christ. Next, as Dean of Harvard Divinity School, he presides over the inclusion of the first Roman Catholic onto the faculty and advocates for the development of a center for the study of world religions. During this period he also works to secure the advances made under his leadership in the United Church of Christ and in the Faith and Order movement. Finally, he is an active interlocutor in wide ­ranging theological conversations with the Roman Catholic hierarchy as a Protestant observers at the Second Vatican Council.

Muslim religious leaders and scholars lectured on the higher goals of peace in Islam by defining the goals with scripture and hadith, with prophetic sayings and actions, and with attempting to demonstrate that peace is a pillar of the faith. Ironically, with the rise of violence in Muslim global communities, we have witnessed a surge of publications, podcasts, social media, and organizations dedicated to peacemaking. Muslim religious leaders (imams) and scholars ('ulama) recognize their important roles they play in reinforcing pluralism within Islam worldwide.

Religious communities play an important role in fostering justice and peace in societies. Religious belief can form an inspirational basis for peace and highlights the need for dialogue to build peace. A key issue for careful reflection is how religious identity interfaces with ethnic and national identity. Do these different facets of our identity complement or challenge or compete with each other? The complicated interplay of identities is reflected in the growing interaction between religion and politics, with many conflicts and tensions carrying consequently the imprint of religion. The “politization” of religion and the “religionization” of politics are flip sides of the same dangerous coin. However, the real tension in our world is not between religions and beliefs per se, but between aggressive, intolerant and manipulative ideologies. Such ideologies are used to legitimize the use of violence, the exclusion of minorities and political domination. The primary victims are often religious minorities, living in a context of a different majority culture. This study was commissioned in order to identify how best to ensure that religious minorities in Myanmar enjoy the same freedoms of belief as the majority religion, and to provide ACT Alliance members with a resource to inform strategy and program development.

This summer (2019), I came across Paul Carus’s article, “Buddhism and Christianity”, in ‘The Monist’, vol. 5 (Chicago: The Open Court Publishing Co., 1894-95), pp. 65-103, and realized that much of his thinking and attitude, more than a century ago, reflects very much my own present approach to the study of the relation of Buddhism to Christianity. In his opening remarks, he says:

¶ "The idea of a Buddhistic origin of Christianity has been suggested more than once; but it is incumbent upon us to state that some of the men who must be regarded as the most competent to judge this matter are either extremely reticent or scorn the suggestion as quite impossible. While it is true that Arthur Lillie and Rudolf Seydel, who have done most to make the theory popular, introduce many vague speculations, we cannot regard a refutation of some of their vagaries as sufficient to settle the subject. No argument has as yet been offered to dispose of the hypothesis, which possesses, to say the least, a great probability in its favor. It is our intention here to enumerate some of the most salient facts so as to show them in their full importance, in the hope that specialists will give us more light on the subject” [p. 66].

¶ Curiously, Rev. Dr. Charles Aiken did not include this important Carus article in the Fifth Section of the bibliography, listing ‘Authors Comparing Buddhism with Christianity and Treating of Their Alleged Relationship’, located in his magnum opus, his published doctoral dissertation, 'The Dhamma of Gotama the Buddha and the Gospel of Jesus the Christ' (1900).

Aiken does, however, make brief, scornful mention of Carus elsewhere in his dissertation:

¶ "There are some, indeed, who would have us believe that Buddhism is a religion of enlightenment, the enemy of ignorance and superstition. This judgment is not warranted by the facts. On the contrary, Buddhism is a system that appeals only to the ignorant and the superstitious. I do not now speak of the emasculated Buddhism of writers like Dr. Carus, which is nothing more than a polite agnosticism under the thin veil of Buddhist terminology; but I have in mind the historic teaching of Buddha” [p. 310].

Sad misjudgments from such an exalted member of the Church.

I hope to get around to writing a brief, appreciative commentary on Carus’s important article.

Room for Religion: the future sustainability of religion by means of models and contemplation about religious education and meditation rooms
Both religious education, as well as build forms of sacred space, seems to increasingly diversify in recent years. This phenomenon can be considered as a symptom of contemporary religion, in the way it manifests itself in an increasingly individualized and pluriform society. In this essay, the concrete forms and concepts of meditation rooms are explored for the benefit of a more clear terminology and typology instead of a terminology that mixes up concepts like monoreligious, interreligious and multireligious. These models are compared with models of religious education. This comparison shows that religious education, as well as meditation rooms, indeed seems to diversify on the basis of a transformed society. Boundaries have become more fluid as can be regarded for example in more fluid borders or no borders at all between domains in the living space such as kitchens, living areas, sleeping areas and so on. A more traditional understanding of a living
space consisting of well-defined areas with a specific purpose seems outdated as well as the idea of a monofunctional space for religion (exclusive liturgical use) or monoreligious religious education. Religion is not one specific domain that can be confined in one specific concept or form that satisfies all societal needs sufficiently.

This study looks into Myanmar and Singapore, holding the latter as the role model
for the former. Even though both countries are homelands to minority Muslims, the
situation of Muslims and other minority groups in Myanmar is not as contented as
that of the Muslims in Singapore. Singapore has upheld the religion and Asian
values despite her achievements in modern developments. Singapore’s steps
towards maintaining racial harmony within the minority groups and between
government and the minorities can be emulated by Myanmar. Through qualitative
analysis of the historical accounts and library materials, the paper unveils that the
present plight of the Muslims and the Rohingya like minorities in Myanmar only
started with the coming of military junta into power in 1962. Racial and nationalist
movements initiated by the military government eradicated the Muslim identity
depriving them from the rights of citizenship. The findings also suggest ways on
how Muslims in Myanmar can ignite their dying flame of patriotism, learn to
re-integrate with others and contribute towards national pride and nation building.
Adding onto this analysis, the multi-religious policies of Singapore and its founder
Lee Kuan Yew are analyzed from archives and media materials in order to set
an example for Myanmar policy makers.

“Part II: J. Edgar Bruns’ Christian Buddhism!” is the third, and concluding, section of “Buddhist Influence in the Gospels: Two Catholic Views – Part I: Charles Francis Aiken” and the “Interlude: How Crypto Buddhism Won the West!” ¶In contrast to Catholic priest Rev. Dr. Aiken, whose published doctoral dissertation was an all out effort to deny that there was any Buddhist influence whatsoever on Christianity, Catholic priest Rev. Dr. J. Edgar Bruns, simply demonstrated that there was, indeed, massive Buddhist influence on Christianity. Of course, even Bruns did not comprehend the real genetic links between Buddhism and Christianity.

Amidst on-going conflict that has divided people in Mindanao for hundreds years, some recent interfaith dialogue initiatives have started seeding peace by narrowing the gap between Muslims and Christians. This study examines these initiatives and the perspectives of Muslims and Christian as majority and minority groups involved. Findings indicate that interfaith dialogue is quite successful in eliminating hatred and stereotypes at the interpersonal level as well as building positive relationships between interfaith participants, but significant transformation at the societal level, especially in eradicating structural violence and cultural domination, remains undone.
The power disparity between the Muslim minority and Christian majority groups in the Philippines adds to the complexity of dialogue, in that dialogue should not perpetuate the asymmetrical relationship and cultural domination existing in society. Extra-awareness and sensitivity is needed to create an equal and liberative interfaith dialogue.
Keywords: interfaith dialogue, majority-minority relationship, Muslim-Christian relationship, asymmetrical dialogue, Mindanao Philippines.

Swami Vivekananda lives even today through his words that shake the reader to one’s very foundations. He is fulfilling his prophecy: ‘It may be that I shall find it good to get outside of my body—to cast it off like a disused garment. But I shall not cease to work! I shall inspire men everywhere, until the world shall know that it is one with God.’  His words are not mere articulations of thought, but they represent the most radical of ethos transmitted through powerful spiritual energy that transforms all who receive them and continues to grow as part of their personalities, and finally engulfs them in an ocean of holy poise, and elevates those who show endeavour, to the fulfilling knowledge of non-difference and to the realisation of Self. To Swamiji, it was Sri Ramakrishna, who staged the World’s Parliament of Religions at Chicago in 1893.

This study stages an analysis of religious politics in Dar es Salaam and Tanzania from below. At its heart is an original account of Muslim political mobilisation in Tanzania that foregrounds the everyday lives of urban actors in Kariakoo, a super-dense market district at the centre of Dar es Salaam.

Under British colonial rule, Kariakoo was Dar es Salaam‟s principal African residential neighbourhood; the beating heart of the city's lively cultural scene and the cradle of Tanganyika‟s African nationalist movement. Today, Kariakoo has grown into one of the most important commercial districts in the East African region. In 2012 and 2013, it was also the site of episodes of Muslim mobilisation which led to clashes with state police and armed forces.

Drawing on rich data derived from fifteen months of ethnographic fieldwork in the neighbourhood, I ask what the everyday life of Kariakoo reveals about religious politics in Tanzania. More specifically, I use it to investigate the intersections between Muslim mobilisation, informal livelihood practices developed by urban users in response to escalating conditions of economic precarity, and popular discontent concerning entrenched inequalities and uneven development along religious lines.

By drawing together several innovative research trajectories in the fields of religious and urban studies, I am able to hold together the notions of the religious and the urban in a manner that spotlights just how integral religion is to Kariakoo as an urban ecology. The subsequent discussion reveals the remarkable dynamism of Muslim social practices and modes of affiliation when considered as numbering among the everyday livelihood practices that are employed by urban users in Kariakoo.

This study brings a more nuanced explanatory frame to bear on the contemporary realities of Muslim activism and religious politics in Tanzania and beyond than those that prevail in much academic and media commentary.

This article applies Alan Race's typology of Christian thought in relation to the salvation of non-Christians to that of the Islamic tradition and uses the exegesis of Muhammad Asad as an example. It argues that Asad's exegesis of the relevant qur'anic verses places him firmly into the pluralist camp as defined by Race.

This study of why Buddhist missionary outreach went “underground” when it reached the West – the five Greek kingdoms of the West mentioned by the Buddhist king Aśoka in his 13th Rock Edict – is key to understanding some startling facts about the origins of Christianity. The whole affair can be expected to engender in many researchers a serious case of Cognitive Dissonance. This study is an “Interlude” between the two Parts of a much longer essay, including “Buddhist Influence in the Gospels, Part I: Charles Francis Aiken” and “Part II: J. Edgar Bruns”.

Dr. Christian Lindtner:– Gematria is a word, a concept that is searched for in vain in the usual conversational lexicons and encyclopedias; and if one finally finds something under gematria in Bible manuals and the like, then the definitions one encounters are both inadequate and misleading.  ¶ Nowhere is it said that gematria is in a way a key to understanding important parts of both the Old and New Testaments.  ¶ It is therefore necessary to say a little bit at the outset about this immensely important concept, about which future research will have much more to announce.  ¶ Gematria is derived from the Hebrew ‘gmtry’, which in turn is an imitation of the Greek γεωμετρία (geometria), which literally means surveying. Hence our own geometry.

[Western writers sometimes refer to Ramadan as "the Muslim Lent." There are deep resemblances between Ramadan and Lent (and some differences). But Ramadan is the Holy month of fasting for Muslims, from sunrise to sunset, where they do not eat food or drink water for 30 days. Even deeper still, there is a claim by some Muslim Clerics that Jesus fasted during Ramadan. If this is true, that would mean Islam is the continuation and preserver of authentic Christianity. Therefore, I want to investigate if there is any validity to this claim.]

This third book of my studies on the relation of Buddhism to Christianity is now in print, as well as offered here in PDF form.  Its title is a purposeful inversion of the title of the late Indo-Spanish Catholic theologian Raimon Panikkar’s important work, ‘The Unknown Christ of Hinduism’. Do not think that my inversion of his book’s title is meant as an attempt to repudiate it. On the contrary, I consider that he and I only differ in emphasis and details – both aiming at real ‘Ecumenism’ – the kind where there should be no question of bitterness on any side. My emphasis has been to find historical facts behind the myth-making. Of course, one has to recognize that mythology is mythology, but trying to find what lies historically behind mythology is like looking through a darkened ‘mirror’.

The conclusion of my book, ’The Unknown Buddha of Christianity’, the heart of which has been the revelation of the remarkable part played by the Royal Library of Alexandria, Egypt, in the origin, first, of Mahāyāna Buddhism, then, Christianity!

Why would Christians write commentary on the Quran? First of all, Muslims have been commenting on the Bible since the emergence of the Quran itself, so writing about the scripture of another is nothing new. And much Muslim writing on the Bible has been of a highly polemical nature. However, Christian writing on the Quran seems uniquely appropriate because the Quran is a post-biblical text that comments on both the Bible and its custodians. This introduction to "The Quran with Christian Commentary" (Zondervan Academic, 2020) suggests a number of ways in which the content of the Quran seems to invite--even in some cases apparently to demand--a response to its claims from what it calls the "People of the Book" and the "People of the Gospel." http://amazon.com/dp/0310534720/

The expression ‘Mythicism’ has come to be used to identify the negative side of the debate whether ‘Jesus of Nazareth’ was or was not a historical person. This book examines five major types of challenges to Jesus’ historicity:  ¶ I. In the First Section, Robert M. Price’s article, “New Testament Narrative as Old Testament Midrash”, and Thomas L. Brodie’s book, ‘Beyond the Quest for the Historical Jesus’, reviewed by René Salm, reveal a layer of fictional mimetic dependence of many works of the New Testament on the Old Testament.  ¶ II. In the Second Section, Dennis R. MacDonald’s book, ‘The Homeric Epics and the Gospel of Mark’, reviewed by Richard Carrier, reveals a truly astonishing second layer of fictional mimetic dependence which Mark’s Gospel has on Homer’s ‘Iliad' and 'Odyssey’. As Mark’s is the earliest of the four Gospels, this mimetic dependence also extends to the other three.  ¶ III. In the Third Section, an examination of a book by John H. C. Pippy (‘Egyptian Origin of the Book of Revelation’) and of another, by D.M. Murdock (‘Christ in Egypt’), reveals a third layer of fictional mimetic dependence of the New Testament on ancient Egyptian religious writings.  ¶ IV. In the Fourth Section, ten very short reports by Christian Lindtner reveal an astounding fourth layer of fictional mimetic dependence of the canonical Gospels on Buddhist scriptures.  ¶ V. In the Fifth Section, Robert Eisenman’s book, ‘The New Testament Code’, reviewed by Robert Price, reveals a fifth layer of fictionalized mimetic dependence of the New Testament on a coded transformation of historical material from the writings of Philo of Alexandria, Flavius Josephus, and others.  ¶ In the Preface, Introduction, and Miscellaneous Concluding Remarks, Michael Lockwood reveals how these five mimetic layers are interrelated and how Lindtner’s overarching theory confirms and even surpasses the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer’s brilliant insight that Christianity came into being by its “grafting the doctrine of Buddha upon the mythological dogmas of Judaism.”  ¶ This book is a sequel to Lockwood’s earlier work, ‘Buddhism’s Relation to Christianity’ (2010).

This essay is an expanded version of the essay published in "John and Judaism: A Contested Relationship in Context," Resources for Biblical Study 87 (Atlanta: SBL Press, 2017) 265-311. It includes expanded sections on the Johannine situation, John's composition, and an extended bibliography.