Christian – Zen Dialogue: Sacred Stories as a Starting Point for Interfaith Dialogue

By Jijimon Alakkalam Joseph

This book is an attempt to contribute to interfaith-dialogue initiatives spearheaded by the Catholic Church with Zen, one of the major and fast-growing spiritual traditions in East Asia. In recent years, the Catholic Church has emphasized the importance of interfaith dialogue in its missionary activities and has encouraged all to take part actively. The number of conferences organized, discussions held, and articles written on interfaith dialogue has escalated. However, interfaith dialogue remains mostly in the realm of specialists. The majority of ordinary believers/laity have not yet become part of interfaith-dialogue activities. Many are unaware of such activities because often they don't take place where ordinary people spend their daily lives. Others shy away because interfaith-dialogue activities are too specialized. But Joseph's experience growing up in a multireligious context in India taught him that the participation of ordinary believers is necessary if interfaith dialogue is to achieve its intended results.

Christian - Zen Dialogue focuses on narratives of faith in Christianity and Zen. Can these sacred stories--gospel stories of Jesus and Chan/Zen stories (Kōans)--be a starting point for dialogue between the two faiths? The book focuses on two aspects: First, what model of interfaith dialogue can help Catholics and Zen followers of all walks of life engage in faith dialogue while remaining in their own life situations? Second, how can they make use of the common elements found in their narratives of faith as the most appropriate starting point for dialogue between them? To achieve the intended results, Joseph applies the hermeneutic phenomenological approach of Paul Ricoeur.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fortress Press
• Release date: Sep 7, 2021
• ISBN: 9781506470788

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Praise for Christian – Zen Dialogue

This book explores the possibility of using narratives of faith as a starting point for interfaith dialogue between Christianity and Zen. I am sure this work will stir and provoke thought. This book is timely and relevant because it provides a general framework that could open novel ways of entering into interfaith dialogue in the modern world.

—Chan Tak-Kwong, professor of theology and religious studies, Academia Catholica, Fu Jen Catholic University

In the face of the emerging world, through their distinct spiritual stories, both traditions—Christianity and Zen—can contribute dialogically to recover the sense of sacredness and mystery (through their ultimate-orientation) that is missing in our public and political domains, to evoke compassion (through their human-centeredness) that is needed amidst suffering in the world and to realize the interrelatedness of the cosmos (through their nature-inclusiveness) to protect our planet. The work is conceptually rich and well organized.

—Dr. Jude Lal Fernando, assistant professor and coordinator of the M.Phil. in Intercultural Theology and Interreligious Studies Programme, Irish School of Ecumenics, School of Religion, Trinity College Dublin

When the divine intervenes, language becomes symbol, pointing the way to transcendence. As a consequence, it is a real challenge to use biblical stories and koans in Zen Buddhism as a means of religious dialogue. The author has chosen a good and challenging way for interfaith dialogue.

—Marian Kao, OSU, professor emerita, department of philosophy, Fu Jen Catholic University

[The author’s] analysis and examination of those stories are diligent and well thought-out and reflect the awareness of the richness and challenges of the Indian multireligious context of his upbringing. Methodologically speaking, the book is thought-provoking for its arguments of a hermeneutic of religious stories involving common believers. Interpreting and sharing insights from Koans and parables can indeed pave concrete ways of fostering Christian-Zen dialogue.

—Paulin Batairwa Kubuya, SX, undersecretary of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, Vatican

Instead of arguing over whose sacred story is true, if religions listen to the religious experiences expressed in each other’s stories, it will lead to the realization that every experience springs from and leads to the same Ultimate Mystery. This book offers a unique insight into Christian and Zen sacred stories; it is a valuable resource for those who are interested in interreligious dialogue.

—Maria John P. Selvamani, dean, Academia Catholica, Fu Jen Catholic University

Christian – Zen Dialogue

Christian – Zen Dialogue

Sacred Stories as a Starting Point for Interfaith Dialogue

Jijimon Alakkalam Joseph SVD

Fortress Press

Minneapolis

CHRISTIAN – ZEN DIALOGUE

Sacred Stories as a Starting Point for Interfaith Dialogue

Copyright © 2021 Fortress Press, an imprint of 1517 Media. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Email [e-mail] or write to Permissions, Fortress Press, PO Box 1209, Minneapolis, MN 55440-1209.

Scripture quotations are from The New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition for India, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Cover image: © iStock 2020; Zen garden by Studio Doros

Cover design: Alisha Lofgren

Print ISBN: 978-1-5064-7077-1

eBook ISBN: 978-1-5064-7078-8

While the author and 1517 Media have confirmed that all references to website addresses (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing, URLs may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared.

Dedicated to my parents, whose Catholic faith I inherited,

and to all my teachers who

helped me understand Zen

Time comes into it.

Say it. Say it.

The universe is made of stories,

Not of atoms.

—Muriel Rukeyser

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

List of Abbreviations

Part One

1. Interfaith Dialogue: Focus on an Experience-Based Starting Point

The Urgency of Interfaith Dialogue

Forms/Models of Interfaith Dialogue

Focus on Religious Experience

From a Theology of Dialogue to a Spirituality of Dialogue

2. Stories: Carriers of Experience

Significance of Stories

Stories in Spiritual Traditions

New Testament Literature and Literary Types

Zen Literature and Literary Types

Functions of Gospel Stories and Kōans

Stories as Carriers of Experience

Stories as Classics

3. Interpreting Stories: The Hermeneutic Phenomenological Approach

Self and Narrative

Language as Discourse

Discourse as Text and the Need for Hermeneutics

Part Two

4. Stories: The Ultimate-Oriented

Describing the Ultimate

The Trinity: The God Experience and Demonstration

Satori: The Enlightenment Experience and Demonstration

Spirituality of the Ultimate-Oriented Stories

5. Stories: Human-Centered

The Problem of Evil/Suffering

Approaches to the Problem of Suffering in Christianity and Buddhism

Compassion in Jesus’s Mission and Mahāyāna Buddhism

Salvation/Liberation in Christianity and Buddhism

Spirituality of Human-Centered Stories

6. Stories: Nature-Inclusive

Burden of Guilt

Christianity and the Otherworldly Eschatology

Zen and Iconoclasm

Nature Imageries in Gospel Stories and Kōans

Spirituality of Nature-Inclusive Stories

Part Three

7. Interpretation of the Spirituality of Sacred Stories

Emergence of the New World

Appropriation of the New World

Chinese Glossary

References

Index

Acknowledgments

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all who have helped me accomplish this milestone in my life. I would like to thank Professor Chan Tak-Kwong 陳德光 for offering useful guidance and pertinent suggestions and for remaining strongly supportive throughout. My sincere thanks to Professor Gao Ling-Xia 高凌霞 and Professor Lu Kai-Wen 呂凱文 for their insightful comments and encouragement. My thanks to Professors Aloisius (Luis) Gutheinz, SJ, and Teng Wei-Jen 鄧偉仁 for their comments and corrections.

My special gratitude goes to the Cardinal Yu Pin Foundation for Catholic Studies (于斌樞機：天主教學術研究人員培育基金管理委員會) and Fu Jen Academia Catholica for providing the funding and support for my research. I would like to thank my fellow researchers for their feedback, cooperation, and friendship. In addition, I would like to express my gratitude to both the teaching and nonteaching staff of the Department of Religious Studies, Fu Jen Catholic University. I would also like to thank in a very special way Dr. Jude Lal Fernando for taking a keen interest in my work and motivating me to publish it.

Finally, I express my gratitude to all my confreres of the China Province of the Society of the Divine Word (SVD) for their unfailing support and continuous encouragement throughout my years of research. This accomplishment would not have been possible without them.

While many minds have therefore contributed to the contents of this research, the final responsibility for the arguments and interpretations in this work rests with me. If, after reading this book, people who engage themselves in interfaith dialogue come away with a new appreciation of the work they are doing and with new insights into novel ways of doing interfaith dialogue in the world today, then this work has served its purpose.

Jijimon Alakkalam Joseph SVD

Fu Jen Academia Catholica

Fu Jen Catholic University, Taiwan

February 2021

Introduction

This book is an attempt to contribute to interfaith dialogue initiatives spearheaded by the Catholic Church—the spiritual tradition / religion I belong to—with Zen, one of the major, fast-growing spiritual traditions in East Asia.¹

Spiritual traditions have always been an integral part of human history and have influenced every aspect of human existence—cultural, educational, political, social, and the list could go on—and our worldview both positively and negatively. No one can deny the lasting impressions Indigenous spiritual traditions have left on many parts of the world: Hinduism in India, Christianity in the West, and Islam in Arab countries. Confucianism, Taoism/Daoism, and Buddhism have influenced East Asian countries. A plethora of writing deals with the contributions spiritual traditions have made, especially to philosophical and theological advancements of humanity. Spiritual traditions—with their unique understandings, explanations, and interpretations of the ultimate, humans, and the world—build, break, and bridge humanity. Religious ideologies build the identity of insiders and create tensions with outsiders. Despite tensions, religions have coexisted peacefully and continue to do so in many parts of the world today.

Our age has witnessed a growing interest in religious plurality for many reasons. First, the religious other is no longer an abstract figure. They are at our doorstep. We live, work, and cooperate with them. The religious other demands attention, interest, and appreciation. Second, there is an increasing knowledge of religions’ influence, beauty, and vitality. Religious pluralism, if taken positively, offers us a unique opportunity for enrichment. Third, geographic expansion of religious traditions has slowly changed the way spiritual traditions interact with each other.

However, intolerance still overshadows religious harmony in many parts of the world. Religions cause us to fight wars, shed blood, and divide people. Religious fanaticism challenges the very existence of humanity; with its brutal and extremely dangerous executions, it has taught the adherents of different spiritual traditions to be sensitive to the other and to question their own religious beliefs and has compelled them to enter into meaningful dialogue with those from other traditions. In a religiously pluralistic world where everyone focuses more on differences in order to protect and promote one’s own identity, we are becoming increasingly aware of the need to search for what unites us. Slowly we are rediscovering the power spiritual traditions have to bridge humanity with the ultimate, with the other, and with the world. The new dictum to be is to be interreligious clearly expresses the urgency and necessity of interfaith dialogue in the contemporary world.

This urgent necessity has influenced the way we do religious studies. Confessional, apologetic, and transcendental ways of dealing with spiritual traditions that are meaningful only to insiders slowly give way to phenomenological, functional, and existential approaches that are attentive to the presence of the religious other. In religious studies, more and more scholars prefer functionalistic and/or polythetic definitions of religion to essentialist/monothetic definitions. This study takes the experiential and functional approach to religious studies because sharing one’s own spiritual experiences and the aspirations that lie beneath the surface differences of the doctrines and practices of various spiritual traditions motivates believers to apply their religious beliefs constructively to unite humanity.

In recent years, the Catholic Church has emphasized the importance of interfaith dialogue in its missionary activities and has encouraged all to take part actively in it. The number of conferences organized, discussions held, and articles written on interfaith dialogue have increased in recent years. However, on the whole, interfaith dialogue is still regarded as a domain reserved for specialists. The majority of ordinary believers / laity have not yet become part of interfaith dialogue. Many are unaware of interfaith dialogue activities because often these activities are held not in situations of their daily living. Many shy away because interfaith dialogue activities are too specialized. But my experience of growing up in a multireligious context in India has taught me that the participation of ordinary believers is necessary for interfaith dialogue to achieve its intended results.

This work focuses on narratives of faith (we call them sacred stories) in Christianity and Zen. Can these sacred stories—the Gospel stories of Jesus and Chan/Zen stories (Kōans, gong an)—be a starting point for interfaith dialogue between Christianity and Zen? We will focus on two aspects. First, what model of interfaith dialogue can help Catholics and Zen followers from all walks of life to engage in interfaith dialogue with each other while remaining in their own life situations? Second, how can we discover common elements in Christianity and Zen that can serve as the most appropriate starting point for interfaith dialogue between them?

Accordingly, I argue that (1) among various forms of interfaith dialogue suggested by the Catholic Church—namely, dialogue of life, of deed/action, of specialists/theological exchange, and of sharing of religious experience—the form best suited to dialogue between Christianity and Zen is the sharing of spiritual experiences expressed mainly through sacred stories; (2) since sacred stories are one of the best carriers of spiritual experience, a comparative study of Gospel stories and Kōans helps us discover the common elements (the spirituality of sacred stories as they are called in this book) they contain; and (3) the hermeneutic phenomenological interpretation of the spirituality of sacred stories helps the Catholic Church understand itself better by understanding other spiritual traditions and serves as one of the best starting points for interfaith dialogue between Christianity and Zen. That summarizes the basic structure of this work (comparative), the data chosen (Gospel stories and Kōans), and the methodology applied (the hermeneutic phenomenology of Paul Ricoeur).

This book comprises three parts. The first part deals with the background of this study and the motivation, the rationale, behind the choice of sacred stories from Christianity and Zen for research and of hermeneutic phenomenology as the methodology. Spiritual traditions can be studied in various ways depending on the definition of religion one accepts. The functional and experiential approach to the study of spiritual traditions emphasizes the importance of spiritual experience that lies at the very foundation of all spiritual traditions.

The second part, the kernel of the study, compares Gospel stories and Kōans. While comparing stories that speak of the ultimate, human, and nature, I have deliberately eschewed differences and focused on common elements.

The third part, the conclusion, contains the application of hermeneutic phenomenology to the spirituality of sacred stories. The spirituality of sacred stories opens a new world that lies in front of the text, and the appropriation of this new world could serve as one of the best starting points for an experience-based interfaith dialogue between Christianity and Zen—two spiritual traditions that share very little in common doctrinally. Focusing on sharing stories of one’s own spiritual experiences can also encourage ordinary believers to engage more in the interfaith dialogue activities of the Catholic Church.

1 Throughout this book, the Japanese term Zen and its Chinese equivalent Chan / Ch`an will be used interchangeably.

Abbreviations

AG Ad Gentes

CCC Catechism of the Catholic Church

DH Dignitatis Humanae

DIM Dives in Misericordia

DM Dialogue and Mission

DN The Divine Names

DP Dialogue and Proclamation

GS Gaudium et Spes

LG Lumen Gentium

LS Laudato Si’

MV Misericordiae Vultus

NA Nostra Aetate

NMI Novo Millennio Ineunte

NT New Testament

OT Old Testament

RH Redemptor Hominis

RM Redemptoris Missio

SD Salvifici Doloris

Part One

1

Interfaith Dialogue

Focus on an Experience-Based Starting Point

Nothing ever becomes real till it is experienced.

—John Keats

The practice of dialogue is as old as humanity itself. However, using dialogue systematically as a tool to draw out wisdom from and to share insights with the other has its beginning in ancient Greece. Today the practice of dialogue influences almost all areas of human life. We hear about dialogue as a literary technique, science in dialogue with religion, dialogue in business communication, dialogue of cultures, dialogue of and among civilizations, and so on. In recent years, interfaith dialogue has made its entry into the scene. Today, more than ever, humanity needs interfaith dialogue.

The Urgency of Interfaith Dialogue

For millennia, spiritual traditions have influenced almost every aspect of human life and the world, both positively and negatively, constructively and destructively. However, in recent times, spiritual traditions—which supposedly espouse peace in the world and love among humans—are so commonly connected with intolerance and violence, either falling victim to or sanctioning it (Muggah and Velshi 2019). Amid this growing religious intolerance and violence, interfaith dialogue has become not only an indispensable agent for world peace, unity, and justice but also critical to the survival of humanity. The Swiss theologian Hans Küng summarizes the crucial role interfaith dialogue plays in the emergence of the new world order as follows: No peace among the nations without peace among the religions. No peace among the religions without dialogue between the religions. No dialogue between the religions without investigation of the foundations of the religions (2007, xxiii).

In a fast-changing, globalized world, the adherents of various spiritual traditions (are forced to) search for new ways to understand, accept, and collaborate. Contemporary times have witnessed many attempts—academic and nonacademic—to bring spiritual traditions together to work for the well-being of humanity. One such initiative has been to focus on religious narratives of faith / sacred stories and how they interact with and contribute to a shared peaceful future.

Globalization has turned our world into a global village, and interdependency has become the way of existence. The pros and cons of globalization are much-debated topics (Osland 2003). Along with its positive contributions, globalization has made the small, weak, and vulnerable feel insecure. Consequently, everyone is becoming very conscious of their identity, and they vehemently protect and promote it both individually and collectively. We are also aware that our world is fast becoming pluralistic (multi-) in all its aspects. In such a situation, people tend to focus more on what differentiates and to overlook what unites them.

As recent history shows, more often than not, we tend to identify and categorize people based on their religious affiliations. In a world where people are becoming increasingly intersubjective and interdependent, spiritual traditions cannot fail to be sensitive to the religious diversity that exists both within and around: We cannot live in a world in which our economics and markets are global, our political awareness is global, our business relationships take us to every continent, and the internet connects us with colleagues half a world away and yet live on Friday, Saturday or Sunday with ideas of God that are essentially provincial, imagining that somehow the one we call God has been primarily concerned with us and our tribe (Eck 2001, 24).

The biblical data on interfaith dialogue are complex and ambivalent. In the Old Testament (hereafter OT), the relationship of Israel with surrounding faiths is one of self-assertion and aggression on the one hand and the Suffering Servant proclaimed as a light to the nations, on the other (Isa 42:6). In the New Testament (hereafter NT), people belonging to other faiths are derided as hypocrites, pagans, heathens, gentiles (Matt 5:47; 6:5, 7, 32; 18:17), and dogs (Matt 15:26) on the one hand and are praised as the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25–37), the centurion whose faith made Jesus marvel (Matt 8:5–13), and the Canaanite woman of great faith (Matt 15:21–28) on the other.

Until the Ecumenical Council Vatican II (1962–65), mission and dialogue were seen as being in opposition. The constant and unanimous teaching of the Christian tradition for nearly two thousand years was that outside the Catholic Church, there is no salvation.¹ Vatican II heralded a new era in the Catholic Church’s relationship with other spiritual traditions. The council encouraged dialogue and collaboration. Lumen Gentium (Vatican II 1964, hereafter LG), Ad Gentes (1965a, hereafter AG), Dignitatis Humanae (Vatican II 1965b, hereafter DH), Gaudium et Spes (Vatican II 1965c, hereafter GS), and Nostra Aetate (Vatican II 1965d, hereafter NA) contain the Catholic Church’s renewed and open attitude toward other spiritual traditions. The Catholic Church began to recognize and accept that other spiritual traditions contain elements which are true and good, precious things both religious and human, elements of truth and grace, seeds of the Word, and rays of that truth which illumine all humankind.²

The Catholic Church, particularly after Vatican II, saw the need for interfaith dialogue and incorporated it in its evangelizing mission. Pope John Paul II (1978–2005) believed that interfaith dialogue could promote respect and unity among religions and thus repair and transform our broken world. He expressed this belief very often in his teachings. In Redemptor Hominis (John Paul II 1979, hereafter RH), after stressing the importance of ecumenism, John Paul II invites Christians to come closer to adherents of the non-Christian religions through dialogue, contact, prayer in common, and investigation of the treasures of human spirituality (§6) because self-awareness of the Catholic Church after Vatican II is formed in dialogue (§11). The clear statement that inter-religious dialogue is a part of the Church’s evangelizing mission in John Paul II’s encyclical letter Redemptoris Missio (John Paul II 1990, hereafter RM, §55) recognizes the importance of interfaith dialogue in the