Thesis 1 Theology of Religions

Humans are religious beings animated by a divine dynamism that is in-built in them and
their world. They follow the path of religion, namely, through the world of concerns to
the world of faith in order to discover there a world of meaning (NA 1)

The theologies of religious experience are articulated as follows:

In an anthropo-theistic perspective it is a response (faith) to the divine initiative

(revelation) [Semitic traditions: Jewish, Christian, Islamic].

In a cosmo-theistic tradition it is the awareness of the abiding but non-manipulable

Presence in all things [Hinduism].

In an a-theistic world it is the outcome of the silence of God that prevents

absolutization of any being [Buddhism].

In a secular view it is the sense of mystery that fascinates and inspires commitment but
escapes all attempts at objectification.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Context:

The context of this thesis is the existential situation of everyday life.

The finitude of human life/ limitation of human life.(contingency of human life)

Therefore it necessitates dependence on God

Introduction

This thesis is focusing on very sensitive issue of multi-religious country like India where
all religious groups claims the authenticity of their religion and deny others.

The thesis tells us that no any group or religion possesses the total of the mystery of God
because divine dynamism is at work in all human and in his or her world.

All religions are derived from same God, they are only difference in ways of expression
of their belief and understanding of their religion.

This thesis has developed under the principle of one people, one goal and one creator.

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The thesis begins with a note from the document Nostra Aetate that mainly focuses on the
relation of the axial religions of the world in leading the faithful to God experience.

There is a divine dimension at work in the world. Religion is the response to this divine
dimension.

Religion is that which deals with way of life, speaks of beliefs, customs and morals, norms
for right living and believing.

The path of religion and the world of concerns is actually human openness to the divine
dynamism and response to this dynamism, what we call act of faith. And this encounter
with divine is called religious experience.

People have understood and articulated their religious experience in a different ways and
forms conditioned by the place, cultures and circumstance.

Thus we have several religious traditions with specific identity of their own, built on the
religious experience as their common identity.

Crux:

This thesis underlines the fact that [all people] across ages, across eras, across cultures, have
experienced and continue to experience an inner yearning of the divine.

This inner longing and dynamism has been made tangible by the reality of religions in the world.
The different religious traditions have articulated their experience of God in different ways.

Central thrust of this thesis is

(1) to recognize this inner yearning for the divine that is present in all of us,

(2) to examine how this faith experience is articulated in other religious traditions

(3) (as NA 1 points out) to ponder and reflect over what we share in common ( i.e. the good
spiritual, moral & human values) and thus to foster a sense of Unity and fellowship.

1. Humans are religious beings animated by an in built divine dynamism.

Human beings basically as religious beings.

There is a divine dynamism at work in the world.

We are animated towards that mystery by divine dynamism, that is salvation.

Augustine speaks about the restlessness of the heart.

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Teilhard: We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings
having a human experience

Karl Rahner would say that the very experience of human finitude reveals human
dependence on the divine.

Human constantly strives towards something which he can never reach, but that is
inescapably present to them.

Rudolph Otto (says) In every person there is this sense of the sacred. Thus there is this
inner churning in each of us that makes us tend to the divine.

2. They follow the path of religion, namely, through the world of concerns to the universe of faith
in order to discover there a world of meaning (NA 1)
Human beings are also meaning seeking beings.
We search for meaning in this life and this world, which leads us to religious experience.
Encounter with the divine which leads them to the path of religion.
This encounter with the divine is what we call religious experience.
Religious experience

Human beings are a bundle of possibilities seeking "the Beyond"- God, though no one has ever seen God
(1 Tim 6:16).

Which means no single person or group possesses the totality of the mystery of God.

Yet, in search of meaning and fulfilment of life the human beings generally base themselves on their
encounter with the divine which leads them to the path of religion. This encounter with the divine is
what we call religious experience.

Articulation of divine experience has been in different ways- based on Place-culture worldviews etc

Religious experience has 4 aspects

1. Awareness (of what the ultimate reality is),
2. Encounter (an experience of the ultimate reality,
3. Relationship (which demands a response)
4. Context (all experience is based on context)

Religious experience in connection with the universe of faith and the pluriverse of beliefs.
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We live in a world charged with divine presence. This openness to divine dynamism refers to the fact
of religion built on the universe of faith.

Faith is common to every human person constituted by - cosmic - human divine dimension.

When the faith is expressed in dogmas, doctrines, community, art, symbols, law, etc. we have the
pluriverse of beliefs. Hence, the articulation of faith that is historically conditioned expresses itself in
beliefs that have the capacity to evoke the core religious experience.

In the divine dynamism, there are both individual as well as communitarian aspects.

Both these individual and community aspects of the divine begin to have dialogue with the concerns
of life.

The concerns are Questions about ones - What is teh aim of our life? - What is moral good? what is
sin? Whats the meaning of suffering and pain - beginning and end about liberation/salvation
about meaning in life.

In this dialogue we are to deal with a universe of faith in order to discover the meaning of life.

There are two ways of looking at this universe of faith are

a) The basic faith element in all the human beings
b) The faith understanding of an individual is given by a particular religion

As we transcend this world of concerns we realize some divine power, which reveals itself through
the world of concerns. This is the universe of faith. (Faith is the openness of our being to the
divine).

In the universe of faith we discover the world of meaning: we are one human community, our origin
and destiny is the same Ultimate.

3. In an anthropo-theistic perspective it is a response (faith) to the divine initiative (revelation)

[Semitic traditions: Jews, Christian, Islamic].

In the Anthropo-theistic perspective- The Semitic tradition understood core religious

experience from an anthropo-theistic perspective. God reveals Himself in history and human
responded to the revelation in personal relationship.

Hence in the case of Semitic traditions it is a mediated experience.

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The Semitic traditions are: the Jewish tradition they believe in a personal God who
establishes a covenantal relationship with human beings (gen 9: 9- 11).

The Jews too believe in a personal God who establishes a covenantal relationship with all
humans (Gen 9:9). This special relationship gives Jews a unique mission to bring the Rn of
this one living God to the whole of humankind. (Ex 24). The Torah for the Jews is the
embodiment of Gods word & his presence.

Muslims the core experience is the mediation through the prophet and surrender in faith
through the prophet. They are faithful to single- minded monotheism. Revelation through
Mohammad has come to an end. The Quran is the final and complete revelation.

The Christian tradition the root of religious experience is God revealing himself in and through
the person of Jesus Christ. The Scripture says the living God has been disclose of us in varied
times and nowhere more fully than in Jesus Christ (Heb 1: 1ff). Christ experience is
authenticated by the living community(the church).

In the OT too the Israelites encountered a liberator God, a God of history; and
therefore their trust in Yhwh was a faith response to that encounter.

4. In a cosmo-theistic tradition it is the awareness of the abiding but non-manipulable Presence

in all things [Hinduism].

Hindu world view, in contrast to the Semitic world view, presents rel. experience as the
awareness of the abiding presence of the divine mystery in the Cosmos.

Therefore it upholds mystical experience., the experience of God within oneself leading to
ultimate union with the divine.

The core experience finds its expression in cosmic symbolism, son, moon, tree, water etc.

The idea of God is not so much a personalistic God, as it is spoken of as reality-consciousblis(Sat Cit Ananda). Therefore divine can be spoken of as Transpersonal.

And believes that the cosmos is the abiding presence of God therefore non-manipulable.

The Purusasukta a foundational hymn from the Rig Veda (X90) speaks of the whole reality as a
cosmic person.

The Hindu idea of revelation & faith is also different from ours.

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Divine is Brahma (creator), Vishnu (preserver), Shiva (ultimate gatherer). Allegiance to each (Ista
Deva) lead to intra pluralism. The cosmos is the body of God and we are part of it (Vasudhaiva
Kudumbakam).

There is interconnectedness between humans & the universe. Therefore ones actions affect the
cosmic rta.

When adharma increases divine will intervene in the cosmos through avatara.
The whole cosmos functions with a certain rhythm. This rhythm is maintained by `Yajna' the
cosmic sacrifice.

Here salvation is the liberation from the bondage that is attachment.

This is achieved through the practice of `Dharma' the right means of overcoming the bondage. Faith
response is through jnana marga, karma marga and bhakti marga.

HUMANKIND:

He/she is one of the many forms in which the Supreme Being is manifested in this universe.
The Upanishads express that the essential self and the vital essence in man is the same as
that of the whole universe.

According to the theology of Upanishads:(`know thyself'), the essential self or real self
(atman) is different from the empirical self (Jiva).

The ultimate nature of the real self is saccitananda.

In Hindu thought, body is understood to denote all kinds of limitations that are pronounced
by ignorance (avidya) of the nature of the true self.

Essentially man is God - Aham Brahmasmi.

HISTORY:

Hindus do not have the concept of salvation History and hence there are no privileged
moments in History.

For them the Golden age in the history of human being is the period in which all moral and
spiritual values are well established and universally accepted and acted upon. The concept of
history is understood in terms of true progress in modern and spiritual standards.

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The cosmo-theistic traditions believe in the cyclic view of history. Hence we have
the meaning systems like, theory of `karma', `Punarjanma', etc.

5. In an a-theistic world it is the outcome of the `silence of God' that prevents absolutization of
any being [Buddhism].

A-theistic tradition here religious experience is the outcome of the silence of God that
prevents absolutization of any being.

They deny a certain concept of God but they have a sense of mystery and wonder which cannot
be express by word.

Buddhism speaks of an existentially transformative experience based on the understanding of the

nature of the Reality. This experience is the enlightenment to Dhamma where one sees things as
they are rather than as they appear to be.

No denial of God, but silence about god, because: God is beyond human categories, Human
categories limit God who is a mystery;
6. In a secular view it is the sense of mystery that fascinates and inspires commitment but
escapes all attempts at objectification.

In the Secular view, religious experience is a sense mystery that fascinates and inspire.

They oppose religious dogma but not religion.

Secularism relies on reason and scientific knowledge to promote the material and cultural
progress of man.

However, it draws inspiration from the experience of mystery in order to work for universal human
values, social justice and promotion of material and cultural progress.

They are fully committed to making sense of time and history and respond to the signs of times
dealing with social issues.

Conclusion

India is a country with a pluralism of cultures and religions. In order to live peacefully and
enrich our religious experience we have to open ourselves to accept revelation of God in
other religions.

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As NA 2 tells us that we should reject nothing of the truth and holiness found in other
religions.

Kingdom is bigger than the church. Christ preached the kingdom

Mt. 7:21 tell us that not everyone who confesses the Lordship of Jesus will receive salvation but
those who do the will of the Father.
-

Pope Francis stresses in his letter on the consecrated life he invites us all, irrespective of rel.
belief, to foster a spirituality of communion, to be witnesses of communion.

To live the mysticism of encounter which entails the ability to listen to other, to seek out the
other,

Can we live in synergy with other vocations in the world? Be architects of a plan of unity. But
world situation Can be depressing religious fundamentalism in Indian (ghar wapsi, burning
churches, mother Teresa, beef ban,/ - beheading of 22 coptic Xtns in Syria?

Dialogue acc to Aloysius Pieris in 3 steps:Recognize that every religion has

1. core experience (Xt event)
2. collective memory (beliefs, tradition)
3. Interpretation (philosophies and theologies)
Therefore know the core exp of the other, - be willing to use the belief system of the other as
the other means to access their core experience.
Teach this to kids/adults at all levels.

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