This is the fourth volume in the beautifully produced set of five, the first two of which were reviewed in an earlier issue of this journal (New Blackfriars, 2002, pp. 542–4). They originate in a series of dialogues which contributed to the EXPO 2000, Hanover (Germany), whose overall theme was The Human Person, Nature and Technology.
The dialogues involved philosophers and theologians from five religions, and what was meant by a world religion, and which were chosen, were identified as a problem in the earlier review. The religions chosen were Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and the set of contributors to each volume is different and comes from a wide range of national and religious backgrounds, making a rich input of perspectives. The intention was of promoting an encounter of persons, discussion of issues, and defusion of potential clashes between civilizations and religions. The editor points out the clear agenda of going beyond tolerance to recognition, and asking religions to clarify and shape their conversations and the basis of their co-existence, to give reasons for their truth claims and make them understandable to those who believe in other religions or are outside religions. The final volume will be on Philosophical Dialogue of the Religions instead of the Clash of Civilisations in the Process of Globalisation.
There is a dual emphasis in the texts on dogmatically neutral philosophies of religion and the confessional theology of religions, which, the editor asserts, would fail if it did not demonstrate the unity of humanity before God. It is suggested that there are three ways of finding commonality between religions : the investigation of the ethical/moral; the exploration of the common experience of mysticism and the ‘third and perhaps most difficult way’ of these volumes – seeing what religions have in common in their metaphysical statements about God, the human person, nature and technology. Almost all of these statements can be challenged for their assumptions and terminology from the diverse perspectives in religious traditions and philosophies and, in any book of varied voices, this becomes apparent.
The editor acknowledges at the outset the problems with the theme of the volume: ‘not all religions accept a soul that remains the same as the center of the person’ (p. vii), and ‘the progress of history and the idea of individual life after death appear to be two ideas that do not lie at the same level’ (p. 1). These problems permeate the book, and are never resolved enough for the reader to feel comfortable with the bringing together of these ideas. Individual authors also state quite clearly the limitations of the ‘isms’ about which they are asked to speak. For example in the case of Hinduism, ‘Hinduism is not a monolithic religion. . .has no fixed doctrines, no prophets, no holy book and no organised church acceptable to all the believers of that religion’ (p. 8). ‘Judaism’, like many other religions which developed over a long period is a complex phenomenon. ‘It not only developed diachronically but also diversified itself synchronically, given the wide geographical dispersion of the Jews, as part of their diaspora plight’ (p. 40). Similarly, there is ‘no single Buddhist doctrine’ (p. 75).
Specificity is identified in the chapter on the Zen Buddhist thought of Dogen (in which too much space is given to the thought of Plato, Aristotle and Kant), but others try a wide sweep which really cannot work with any accuracy and makes the volume seem uneven, even confused and confusing. Clarifications that might have been made in the discussion sessions are not accessible through the summaries and notes that are the written records of those conversations. I found statements that to me were inaccurate, or were contradicted elsewhere in the book or needed considerable qualification. The essays are also for the most part too wordy, and the English is often clumsy, presumably as a result of translation from the German, and the fact that German is not the first language of many of the contributors.
The volumes contain full details of the contributors (these vary between volumes) and of the contents of the other books in the series. There is an index of persons but no general index. Once more it needs to be said that women make up half of the human persons on which the volumes purport to focus, but their voices are notably absent from these dialogues. The contents of the volumes are potentially interesting presentations on the themes from their diverse perspectives.
