Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Volume 10 Article 5

1997 In Memoriam: Richard De Smet, S.J. (1916-1997) Bradley J. Malkovsky

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Recommended Citation Malkovsky, Bradley J. (1997) "In Memoriam: Richard De Smet, S.J. (1916-1997)," Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies: Vol. 10, Article 5. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.7825/2164-6279.1151

The Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies is a publication of the Society for Hindu-Christian Studies. The digital version is made available by Digital Commons @ Butler University. For questions about the Journal or the Society, please contact [email protected]. For more information about Digital Commons @ Butler University, please contact [email protected]. Malkovsky: In Memoriam: Richard De Smet, S.J. (1916-1997)

In Memoriam Richard De Smet, S.. J. (1916-1997)

Bradley J. Malkovsky University of Notre Dame I'

THE PASSING AWAY of Richard De before his death. During his final years Smet . on 2 March 1997 marks the loss of Father Richard had been working on a one of the twentieth century's giants in historical project dealing with the encounter Hindu-Christian dialogue~ A Belgian by of Vedanta and Christian theology since the birth, Father De Smet, as he was generally time of Roberto de Nobili (17th century), a known, or simply Father Richard, was a study which he unfortunately was never able Jesuit priest and professor who established to complete. himself in India from the 1950s onward as a Father De Smet's interest in Indian leader in the philosophical encounter of thought was first kindled by an article on Hindu and Christian thought. His greatest "Brahman and Atman" he read as a sixteen­ area of expertise was in Sankara's Advaita year-old in Belgium. This discovery Vedanta, and much of his life's work was eventually led him to take up seriously the devoted to reconciling what he considered to study of Hindu doctrine and spirituality and be the authentic teachings of Sankara with to enquire as to the possible significance of Christian thinking on ontology and Vedanta in particular for Christian theology. liberation. A product of his time, the young Catholic Father De Smet first arrived in India in scholar would first have to immerse himself 1946 and spent most of the next half century in the works of St Thomas Aquinas (13th in Pune as professor of philosophy and century), whose influence on Catholic Indian studies at De Nobili College. During systematic theology is comparable to that of that time he published few books but over Sankara on Hindu metaphysics. De Smet, six hundred articles and book reviews, under the influence of "transcendental almost all of them in English (his mother Thomism" and the modern turn to the tongue was French), which have appeared in subject, soon recognized not only parallels Hindu and Christian academic journals, in the theological methods of Sankara and Festschrifts and encyclopedias. Although his Aquinas, but he 'also uncovered doctoral thesis, "The Theological Method of convergences in their respective doctrines of Sankara" (Rome, 1953) was never formally divine simplicity and fullness, in their published, it has enjoyed a wide understanding of the ontological relationship dissemination among indologists East and between the divine and the world, and in West and has convinced many that Sankara their teaching of liberation through divine was essentially a theologian, not a knowledge. De Smet also readily philosopher. Father De Smet also co-edited acknowledged differences of emphasis in the and contributed to Religious Hinduism systems of Sankara and Aquinas as well as (Allahabad: St Paul, orig. 1964), a single­ outright disagreement. volume summary and Christian appraisal of Father De Smet grew in his regard of the salient teachings of Hinduism. This book Sankara, and his reading of the great acarya was thoroughly revised by De Smet not long sensitized him to new ways of articulating

Hindu-Christian Studies Bulletin 10 (1997) 3-4 Published by Digital Commons @ Butler University, 1997 1 .... .' Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies, Vol. 10 [1997], Art. 5 4 Bradley J. Malkovsky

the interior presence of the Creator to the locales, and he frequently found himself creature. A few years prior to his death he engaged in discussion with Muslims, Jains, wrote, "From SaIikara I learned to focus on Parsis, and Sikhs. the non-dualistic creative presence in me - De Smet's contribution to the Church in and in all creatures - of the absolute India was enormous. For many years he was Brahman as my constant Ground and Cause the President of the Association of Christian and thus supreme Sak~in and Atman." But it Philosophers of India. He frequently appears that Father De Smet saw it as his attended ecumenical meetings with main theological task as a Christian representatives of other Christian Churches. theologian to open non-dualistic thought to He lectured at both Catholic and Protestant the possibility that the highest Brahman was institutions of higher learning and conducted capable of love, causation, and grace, but in retreats for Christians of different such a way that the simplicity, plenitude, denominations. He was a participant in the and transcendence of the divine were famous Cuttat meetings of the 1960s, which thereby in no way compromised. De Smet, were devoted to promoting a true spiritual accordingly, read SaIikara as a realist rather encounter between Hindus and Christians. than as an acosmic illusionist. Father Father De Smet counted among his friends Richard was convinced of the compatibility such contemplative scholars as Swami of non-dualistic divine presence with an Abhishiktananda (Henri Le Saux) , Raimundo interpersonal free presence of the divine Panikkar, Dom Bede Griffiths, and Sister culminating in love. The second mode of Sara Grant. He influenced many other divine presence implied the first, he said. Christian students of Vedanta worldwide. Father De Smet had close ties with A Festschrift is in preparation (to be people in many countries, but none more published by E. J. Brill) which will than in India. Deep and lasting friendships posthumously honour Richard De Smet. with Hindus were forged especially through Fittingly, all of the contributions seek to contact at philosophical and indological offer new perspectives on SaIikara, and the societies. He was a life member of the contributors are Hindu, Buddhist, and Indian Philosophical Congress and Indian Christian. It is expected that a De Smet Philosophical Association. Invitations to archive will soon be established in Pune lecture on both Christian themes and where future scholars will have access to the Vedanta took him to Hindu universities in writings, lecture materials, unfinished Varanasi, Nagpur, Ahmadabad, Madras, research projects, and voluminous Delhi, and ,elsewhere. He dialogued with correspondence of this gentle and good­ swamis at institutes and ashrams in various natured man of God.

http://digitalcommons.butler.edu/jhcs/vol10/iss1/5 2 DOI: 10.7825/2164-6279.1151