Panel: RELIGION IN DIALOGUE. TRANSFORMATIONS, CHALLENGES, AND CHANCES



871.3 - ›RELIGION IN DIALOGUE‹: STRETCHING ITS BOUNDARIES

AUTHORS:
Telser A. (Postdoc Assistant, Research Centre "Religion and Transformation in Contemporary Society", University of Vienna ~ Vienna ~ Austria)
Text:
Religious people of any faith tradition can engage others of various convictions about a diverse range of issues that interests or troubles them. Using the word dialogue is commonly refrained to the interaction between humans who are gifted with a logos understood as reason, language, understanding, etc. It is through (dia) this logos that any sort of exchange is possible whether it is friendly and seeks understanding or dismissive and hostile. In our age, theology has become that seemingly impossible venture of holding together ›logos‹ and ›theos‹. To make things even more complicated, this undertaking rests upon the belief that being created in the ›image of God‹ can be acknowledged through (dia) this logos quality. Yet, if all of creation is ›run through‹ by God (John Scotus Eriugena), the gift of logos should in principle allow some form of dialogue with all of creation. Is it conceivable that the prevalence and beauty of the theological discourse on the ›Incarnation‹ of God in Jesus the Christ has cast an unintended and long-unnoticed shadow over the rest of creation (with some exceptions) while God is continually ›bursting forth‹ from all its pores (creatio continua)? This paper attempts to widen the concept of theological dialogue to include part of created reality that seems incapable of dialogue. The main argument rests on a ›complementary hermeneutic‹, as it is rudimentarily applied by R. Wall Kimmerer and the developing plant studies. It raises the question of whether the three elements demanded for interreligious dialogue, as proposed by David Tracy, can be applied analogously to first attempts at an ›intercreational‹ dialogue: »a self-respect (which includes, of course, respect for, even reverence for, one's own tradition or way); a self-exposure to the other as other; and a willingness to risk all in the questioning and inquiry that constitutes the dialogue itself.« - RELIGION IN DIALOGUE WITH NATURAL SCIENCES AND ECOLOGY -