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Francis X. Clooney,
S.J.
Nineteen people (ten Vaishnavas and nine Christian) participated
in this conference at the Cathedral Conference Centre in southern
Massachusetts. The Centre, on the shore of a very beautiful lake,
provided a quiet and contemplative setting for what proved to be
a busy, but rewarding, weekend from Friday night until late Sunday
afternoon.
Several features distinguished the meeting as a rich
and complex event. It cer- tainly offered challenging opportunities
for scholarly discussion due to the fine opening papers by Klaus
Klostermeier and Tamal Krishna Goswami on the conference theme,
"The Destiny of the Soul". Dr. Klostermeier presented the Christian
perspective, touching upon a wide range of materials, diverse in
period and genre: Biblical sources; theological perspectives in
the early Church and Middle Ages, with special attention to the
De Anima of Thomas Aquinas; "medieval visions of soul and God" in
mystics such as Elsbeth Stagel and Angela da Foligno; challenges
from modern thinkers (such as Darwin, Freud, Jung); and, by way
of a single example, the writing of the German theologian Michael
Schinaus, an illustration of contemporary theological reflection.
His presentation concluded with synthetic reflections on the great
mass of material introduced only in the barest sketch, and with
an important plea to both Vaishnavas and Christians to rethink their
traditional teachings in the light of the contemporary sciences
without abandoning their timeless insights. Hearing this challenge,
we were reminded to pursue our discussions with a sense of contemporary
issues-a concern we came to share more vividly as the conference
progressed.
Tamal Krishna Goswami focused his presentation thematically
rather than his- torically, focusing on three key aspects of the
Vaishnava representation of the soul's destiny with God: consciousness
(sambandha), salvation (abhidheya), and the kingdom
of God (prayojana). He thereby gave us a strong sense of
the role of human responsibility with regard to this destiny, and
the journey there-with the help of the guru, the community of believers
and scripture; and his vivid presentation gave us many images of
the abodes to which devotees may rise after death. Listeners seemed
particularly impressed by the latter images, and the Christians
among us immediately began to explore whether and how this imagery
is accessible to people raised in the Biblical traditions.
The meeting was skilfully planned, so as to be able
to move forward at a reflective pace. As soon at the presentations
were done and we turned to a shared consideration of them, we also
began to ask how we wanted to structure our time and address the
many issues placed before us. The group interacted very well, and
there was no inclination to separate into smaller groups of Vaishnavas
and Christians. Despite the differences in background and occupation
among us, we worked well together, and found numerous meeting points
where our conversation could begin.
It was clear to us, without much being said on the topic,
that this was not the time nor place to pursue the truly scholarly
agenda placed before us by the papers; at best, we could provide
some inspiration and direction for that kind of research during
this weekend. Eventually, we identified five areas that we felt
we could talk about more or less immediately.
First, there were the metaphysical and epistemological aspects
of the question of the soul's destiny, such as might be considered
by a systematic theologian. While we implicitly agreed that they
were too complex for this group, on this weekend, we seemed to acknowledge
them as setting a realistic frame and set of boundaries for our
discussions.
A second area highlighted linguistic issues. While these too had
very technical angles, we had more success in opening some of these
up as immediately perti- nent-e.g., the delicate balance between
"real" and "metaphorical" descriptions of religious realities, the
tensions believers have in balancing a commitment to a faith language
that expresses things as they really are, with a recognition of
the manifold ways in which any human language can only indirectly
and more fluidly express what we-as communities, as individuals-really
mean and care about.
Our third and fourth areas of consideration focused respectively
on the social relevance and spiritual importance of beliefs about
the soul's destiny. How does it matter, here and now in today's
world, whether Christians or Vaishnavas think one way or another
about what happens after death? Do these apprehensions of life after
death distract us from this-worldly obligations which should take
precedence? Spiritual concerns matter too, in a different way: How
do our communities actually find strength in what they say about
the ultimate, liberated life after death? How do our discourses
about the destiny of the soul help us to live and grow spiritually,
now?
As our fifth area, we introduced a range of issues related to sin
and death. Although both our traditions recognise the reality and
weight of sin, we seemed to find it easier and more urgent to discuss
our attitudes toward death: How do our understandings of life after
death affect the way we deal with tragic accidents, painful diseases,
and even the sense we have of our own finitude?
These issues were thus inviting us into more personal reflections
on why we as individuals find it important to think, imagine and
speak in certain ways about life af- ter death. During increasingly
personal discussions, we began to share a little more deeply, by
sharing our individual views of how views of the destiny of the
soul shape our lives now: What kinds of hopes, expectations, desires
(in small or large ways) characterise how we act from day to day,
strengthened by hope about what is beyond the grave? A number of
us even took this opportunity to speak "from the beginning", telling
our life stories of search, faith, conversion. As one participant
observed, to hear these stories was itself a blessed moment, testimony
to the power of faith.
In light of the preceding developments, it was proven to be especially
wise that the planners understood how theological dialogue cannot
proceed fruitfully without the participants also drawing on the
communal and personal religious resources of their traditions. The
schedule therefore included four periods for shared worship, each
morning in the Christian tradition and each afternoon in the Vaishnava
tradition. These opportunities marked the wholeness of the meeting:
what was read, thought, said, shared, was always meant to be rooted,
as best we could, in the realities of religious commitment.
By the end of Sunday afternoon, we realised that we were still
only at the beginning of this interaction of the Hindu and Christian
traditions here in the West. To explore further our many shared
interests and values, and to face up more directly to the things
that distinguish and divide us, we need to proceed on all four levels
addressed at the meeting:
We need to foster philosophical and theological enquiries by which
members of both traditions come to understand the systems of belief,
and then compare and contrast them on a technical basis.
We need to keep talking in a creative fashion in order to find
a common ground and to understand the ways in which our beliefs
matter to us; how we are more or less successful in putting what
we believe into words that others can understand.
We need to keep sharing our personal stories, for it is these that
give flesh and blood reality, today, to our traditions and to our
contemporary encounters.
And we need to keep praying and worshipping together, respectfully
inviting one another into the depths of our traditions.
We can start anywhere, but as communities we must move forward
on all these levels. Do we really have a common destiny? None of
us wanted to take this merely for granted, but we all seemed to
thrill to God's grace running through us when we prayed and sang
together:
"When we've been there ten thousand years,
Bright shining as the sun,
We've no less days to sing God's praise
Than when we'd first begun."
Christian Perspectives
Vaishnava Perspectives
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