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Reviewed by:
  • The Meeting of Opposites? Hindus and Christians in the West by Andrew Wingate, and: Jesus and Buddha: Friends in Conversation by Paul Knitter, Roger Haight
  • Erik J. Ranstrom
Andrew Wingate, The Meeting of Opposites? Hindus and Christians in the West. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books (Wipf & Stock), 2014. Pp. 216. $28.00, paper.
Paul Knitter and Roger Haight, Jesus and Buddha: Friends in Conversation. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2015. Pp. 253. $26.00, paper.

Interreligious dialogue is a reality that is in danger of losing its raison d’être. Increasingly, it is used as a cipher for an agenda that is neither religious nor dialogical. The syncretistic and pluralistic overtones of the phrase have moved dialogue away from the mutually enriching, although challenging, exchange between specifically committed, positional communities of faith and practice and toward the promotion of a neo-liberal universalism. With this trend in both theory and practice, it is heartening to come across two recent books that seek to communicate both from within historical religious traditions and also across them: Knitter and Haight’s Jesus and Buddha and Wingate’s The Meeting of Opposites?

Jesus and Buddha: Friends in Conversation is co-authored by two eminent and pivotal scholars in the field of interreligious theology from the progressive Catholic side. It is a rigorous but amicable theological dialogue covering classical areas of interest in the Buddhist-Christian conversation. The chapters feature each scholar’s presenting a position on a given topic (e.g., nature of spirituality, nature and purpose of dialogue, Ultimate Reality, word and silence in religious experience, etc.), as well as a response to the other’s position, with a final summary statement at the conclusion. Within these dynamic exchanges, there are often novel and nuanced outcomes that move beyond initial polemic distinctions. For instance, Haight finds in the Buddhist critique of substantial being a resource for rethinking along Buddhist lines the classical Christian doctrine of creation ex nihilo and in retrieving a Thomist understanding of God as Pure Act, albeit with a decidedly Buddhist “hue.” With this [End Page 200] example, we see that dialogue with Buddhism can help Christians avoid the error of idolatry.

Yet, there is an asymmetry that limits the reciprocity between Buddhist and Christian in the book. While Haight models a willingness to become informed by Buddhist insights in constructive conversation with his own Christian tradition, Knitter rarely extends the same interest in reconfiguring his Buddhist position. In fact, what seems to be operative for Knitter is a kind of Buddhist superiority. This factor may be due to the development in Knitter’s own thinking, as he has moved from a Christian theological inclusivism to a pluralist, postmodern theology—and in recent years to a more decidedly Buddhist normativity. Perhaps it is more difficult for Knitter to embrace or, better, reembrace the Christian theological tradition, when he has already consciously moved away from it in significant ways, than it is for Haight, who was never a Buddhist, to embrace learning from Buddhist insights. It is true that Knitter enthusiastically agrees with much of what Haight has written, yet when there is a disagreement or dissonance between the traditions, it frequently comes down to what Christianity should learn from Buddhism, rather than vice versa. This lack of reciprocity and the inconsistency between Knitter’s and Haight’s receptivity toward the other’s tradition lurk in the background of the book, at least for this reviewer.

Whereas Knitter and Haight in their own ways attempt a constructive, systematic theology informed by religious differences, Wingate compiles data of practical, on-the-ground encounter between largely nonacademic Hindus and Christians in The Meeting of Opposites? Hindus and Christians in the West. In this respect, his book provides a balance to the academy’s propensity to limit dialogue between religions to dialogue between religious intellectuals. Wingate begins the book with a compelling argument about the future of cultural encounter in the West. Hinduism and India will become a major factor in the Western landscape in the coming years. The danger of focusing too exclusively on the dialogue with Islam and Muslims is the neglect of this relationship, which is projected to grow in size...

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