Welcoming Other Religions

Pierre-François de Béthune is a monk of the Benedictine monastery of Clerlande in Belgium, where he was prior from 1989 to 2005. He was the first Secretary General of Dialogue Interreligieux Monastique/Monastic Interreligious Dialogue from 1985 to 2007, and in that capacity was a consultor to the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue from 1995 to 2010. One of his books, Interreligious Hospitality: The Fulfillment of Dialogue, was published by Liturgical Press in 2010.

• ContentsForeword   viiIntroduction   xiiiI. The History of a Breakthrough   1The Situation Prior to the Mid-Twentieth Century   1A Turning Point: Vatican II   4Four Kinds of Dialogue  6The Pioneers of the Dialogue of Religious Experience   9Two Emblematic Figures   13Henri Le Saux—Abhishiktånanda (1910–1973)   13Thomas Merton (1915–1968)   18II. Theological Interpretation   26Theological Reflection and Spiritual Experience   27Raimon Panikkar (1918–2010)   28Serge Beaurecueil (1917–1998)   33Interreligious Dialogue and Hospitality   35Evangelical Hospitality   39New Paths for Theology   42Changing the Way We See Things   43Accepting Poverty   46Sharing Unconditionally   48 III. Interreligious Prayer   51The Testimony of Tibhirine   51The Day of Prayer for Peace in Assisi, October 27, 1986   53Trans-religious Meditation   58Enomiya Lassalle (1898–1990)   58The Dialogue of Silence   60IV. A New Conversion to the Gospel   64Vincent Shigeto Oshida (1922–2003)    65A Lectio Divina of Other Religions  71Preparing a Welcoming Dwelling   72Welcoming with Respect and Confidence   74Hoping for a Blessing   76Evangelical Universalism   78

"The author's experience in daringly crossing the theological and ecclesiastical boarders of his own faith in order to enter into the inner sanctuary of another religion—without intruding impolitely but allowing himself to be welcomed as a humble learner—is an art that the Son of God taught us when he took our flesh in silence and mystery. This Son later received God's visible and audible confirmation of his ministry when he humbled himself before John, the most revered Asian Guru of the time, and became his disciple. This is an aspect of Jesus' life that is seldom witnessed to. Fr. Béthune—whose writings I have always read with spiritual profit, and whose experience as described here is an encouragement to those of us Asians who yearn to be or have already been baptized in the Jordan of Asian religiousness—offers us a valuable theological catechesis on the discipline of dying into and rising from the faith of our neighbors."Aloysius Pieris, SJ, Tulana Research Centre, Sri Lanka