Back
to Main Dialogue PageFrom: Rivers@gnn.com (Dennis Rivers)
To: dlature@comcast.net
Subject: new understandings of Jesus
Dear Dale,
I was happy to read your post about creation spirituality. I believe you would be very encouraged by the writings of Raimundo Panikkar, a Roman Catholic priest & theologian who also considers himself a Buddhist and a Hindu. I was a student of his in the 1970's at the UC Santa Barbara Dept. of Religious Studies.
He makes a very similar point to the one that you make. We Europeans have used the best thoughtforms (Plato & Aristotle, etc) of our culture to try to understand the meaning of the Incarnation. But on reflection most people would admit that Plato & Aristotle really have nothing to do with the life of Christ. They just happen to be our most astute thinkers so we are bound to use their thinking as we struggle to understand what may be the most significant event in human history.
Similarly, my dear friend Raimundo gently argues, Hindus and Buddhists and Africans, and people of every culture, must necessarily use the most profound thought forms of THEIR cultures as they try to comprehend the meaning of Christ. It would be (and is) a mistake to demand that they use European thought forms. To this argument I would add that from our conduct, it is not clear how deeply we have understood the life of Christ, no matter how many thick books Western culture has produced on the subject. Our bloody history should make us humble.
I look forward to checking in with your web page every now and then to keep up with the evolution of your thoughts on the meaning of the spiritual life. Thanks for all your work (I assume it was yours) in putting the Internet Theological Seminary together.
Many Blessing,
P.S. Attached is a letter I wrote to all my friends in January that touches on the topic of my personal christology.
====================================================================
Personal thoughts on the death of Ken Saro-Wiwa and his compatriots.
====================================================================
A friend wrote to me last week it was just a note, really. He shared a few thoughts on the nature of a truly transformational church... he feels he has finally found one one true to the Holy Spirit and the living presence of Jesus... I don’t begrudge him his happiness its just that I can’t join in right now.
After the murder of Ken Saro-Wiwa the Nigerian writer, nonviolent campaigner for justice, ecology and the survival of the Ogoni people I find myself sobered by the requirements for joining such a church, what it sometimes takes to be faithful to that Spirit.
Its definitely not a church that anybody owns. Ken Saro-Wiwa’s courage and love and faithfulness remind me of what those beautiful words can actually mean, and it is a good deal more meaning than my little life can hold right now.
I suppose what makes me some sort of Christian after, and in spite of, and perhaps because of, all my Hindu, Jewish and Buddhist wanderings is my belief that Jesus calls on us to be crucified by the contrast between what is and what ought to be. To bear that contrast within our own hearts to offer ourselves to be living bridges through which the world might find its way toward compassion and finally to know and experience that there is a mysterious Love available to us a mysterious Love that is even more powerful than the wounds we are called to bear.
As I measure my life against this standard I know that I have failed. But I also have a deep sense that it is better to fail at this than to succeed at anything else. I feel that the Web of Being loves me for trying to do the impossible, and that the impossible will actually become more possible because of our irrational faith in Love.
Along the way, there are times Oh Jesus, there are a lot of times when I have nothing to offer You but my tormented restlessness...
But I also have a deepening sense that that is OK. In a world of unredeemed suffering one's anguish can also be one's offering.
Perhaps God is also lamenting the unjust death of one of His sons so that when we lament and cry out in protest we draw near to the Heart of God as we might by our lamenting draw close to a neighbor who had just lost a child.
Dennis Rivers -- January, 1996
Back
to Index for Agreeing, Affirming, Positive Notes
Back
to New Media Communications Home Page
Back
to Internet Theological Seminary Table of Contents
