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Interrupting the Conversation on Kenosis and Sunyata: Buddhist and Christian Women in Search of the Relational Self

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Interrupting the Conversation on Kenosis and Sunyata: Buddhist and Christian Women in Search of the Relational Self Interrupting the conversation on kenosis and sunyata: Buddhist and Christian women in search of the relational self Author: Karen Bautista Enriquez Persistent link: http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:104404 This work is posted on eScholarship@BC, Boston College University Libraries. Boston College Electronic Thesis or Dissertation, 2011 Copyright is held by the author, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted. Boston College The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Department of Theology INTERRUPTING THE CONVERSATION ON KENOSIS AND ŚŪNYATĀ: BUDDHIST AND CHRISTIAN WOMEN IN SEARCH OF THE RELATIONAL SELF a dissertation by KAREN BAUTISTA ENRIQUEZ submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2011 © copyright by KAREN BAUTISTA ENRIQUEZ 2011 Abstract Interrupting the conversation on kenosis and śūnyatā: Buddhist and Christian Women in search of the Relational Self by Karen Bautista Enriquez Professor John Makransky, Dissertation Director The purpose of this dissertation is to contribute to Christian theological anthropology by bringing in the “interruption” of another religious tradition, Buddhism, in order to see how key Buddhist doctrines such as emptiness and practices of meditation may inform aspects of the Christian feminist discussions of kenosis in the spiritual life, and the search for a relational self. It also seeks to enhance Buddhist-Christian dialogue by bringing the “interruption” of feminist voices from both the Buddhist and Christian traditions into conversation with each other in order to see what they might offer, not only towards the search for “right relationship,” but also towards bringing about the re- integration of doctrine and spiritual practices for more effective action in the world today. In the first part of the dissertation, I lay out the background of these two concepts of kenosis and emptiness within their respective religious traditions including the Buddhist-Christian dialogues around these two concepts. I then look at how Christian feminists (Sarah Coakley and Mary Grey) as well as Buddhist feminists (Anne Klein and Rita Gross) critique the traditional interpretations of these concepts and how they reconstruct such concepts in their articulation of a relational self and in their argument for the importance of practice and its relationship with doctrine. In the second part of this dissertation, I focus on the comparison between these Buddhist and Christian feminists and how they can mutually learn from each other. I argue that Buddhist feminist discussions on emptiness and meditation enhances and deepens the Christian feminist articulations of kenosis and how an empowered self can be found through a kenotic spirituality. I also demonstrate how such a dialogue can bring us back to the rich resources within the Christian tradition, such as the image of Mary and Marian devotions. Furthermore, I show how this feminist comparison contributes back to Buddhist-Christian dialogue by including the voices of women and their concern for suffering and the importance of praxis in our interreligious encounters today. Acknowledgements First of all, I would like to thank the members of my dissertation committee: John Makransky (my dissertation director), Catherine Cornille, and Mary Ann Hinsdale. Their patience, thoughtful comments, and advice during the whole dissertation process have been invaluable. Moreover, their support and encouragement during my studies at Boston College have inspired me to become a better teacher and scholar. I would also like to express my gratitude to James Keenan, S.J. who continually reminded me of my capabilities as a scholar and led me to my doctoral work at Boston College, and to Francis Clooney, S.J. who opened my eyes to the richness of comparative theology and steered me toward this area of specialization. I would also like to mention the support that Dean Candace Hetzner and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences has given me particularly during my research year in Nepal and in my last year of dissertation work. Finally, this work would not have been possible without the “communities” that have become my family in Boston and in Boston College. First, to the Filipino community - especially to Mia and Joel Cruz-Obillo, Rafa and Ene Carandang, Peter Pojol, S.J., and Randy Bustamante – for helping me find a “home away from home” through the comfort of your friendship. Second, to the Comparative Theology area, particularly to Christian Krokus, Bede Bidlack, and Bagus Laksana, S.J., who started the program with me and continue to be constant companions and colleagues. Third, to Leah Weiss-Ekstrom, Kevin Johnson, and Glenn Willis – my “Buddhist-Christian dialogue partners” - our weekly formal (as well as informal) conversations and gatherings have embodied for me the empowering relationships and communities that I write about i in this dissertation. Finally, to Erik Ranstrom who has been by my side from the beginning of this dissertation and who, with much patience, diligence, love and understanding, helped me get to the finish line. Words can never express how much that means to me. Thank you! ii Table of Contents Introduction 1 Chapter One: Background on kenosis, śūnyatā, and the Buddhist-Christian dialogues 23 Background on the doctrine of Kenosis 24 Background on the doctrine of śūnyatā 37 Background on Buddhist-Christian Dialogues on kenosis and śūnyatā 59 Chapter Two: Christian Feminists on Kenosis: The Example of Sarah Coakley and Mary Grey 81 Sarah Coakley Coakley’s re-interpretation of kenosis 89 Kenosis and contemplation 96 Mary Grey Grey’s re-interpretation of kenosis 118 Kenotic spirituality and the individual self 124 Kenotic spirituality and the community 136 Chapter Three: Buddhist feminists on śūnyatā: The example of Anne Klein and Rita Gross 149 Anne Klein Emptiness and the search for a relational self 156 Emptiness and meditation practice 162 Rita Gross A Feminist Analysis of Key Buddhist Concepts: on no-self, emptiness, and Buddha Nature 185 The importance of meditation 197 The Great Bliss Queen: A Buddhist Feminist Retrieval 209 Chapter Four: Comparing Christian and Buddhist Feminists critiques and reconstructions of kenosis and emptiness: mutual learning through comparison and dialogue 229 What Christians can learn from Buddhism Kenosis and the self 235 Kenosis and the ethical life 247 Kenosis and the spiritual life 260 A Christian response to the Buddhist feminist discussions on emptiness and the search for a relational self 285 Conclusion 305 iii Introduction I. The importance of “interruption” The title of this dissertation, “Interruption the conversation” may seem disconcerting for the reader at first glance. The notion of “interruption” is usually understood as something rude or inappropriate, or something that breaks a pattern or train of thought with negative connotations. And yet “interruptions” can also be seen as having a positive value. For example, they are necessary in order to move one out of patterns and habits that hamper growth and allow for new ones to emerge. Furthermore, they enable us to see things from a new perspective or notice aspects previously unnoticed. Henri Nouwen, writing on the spiritual life, says that interruptions are “invitations to give up old-fashioned and outmoded styles of living” that opens us to “new unexplored areas of experience.”1 They are important because they are part of the way that is constantly calling one to conversion, to a new way of seeing the world, to new realities and new possibilities. One could also argue that interruptions are just as necessary within the life of the Church today for her “old-fashioned and outmoded styles of living” are being deemed as constantly irrelevant or distanced from the contemporary world we live in. This, for example, is what Lieven Boeve observes as he looks at the situation of the Churches in Europe and concludes that “an ever-increasing gulf exists between contemporary culture and the Christian faith.”2 Given this gulf, he wonders “[t]o 1 Henri Nouwen, Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life (New York: Image Books/Doubleday, 1975) 53. 2 Lieven Boeve, Interrupting Tradition: An Essay on Christian Faith in a Post Modern Context (Louvain: Peeters Press, 2003) 6. 1 what extent can the Christian faith still offer meaning to contemporary men and women and the communities to which they belong?”3 For Boeve, the solution lies in recontextualizing the tradition itself and having a dialogue with the postmodern context. For this to happen, however, the interruption of “the other”4 is necessary so that we do not just continue on as we did but that we allow ourselves to truly have an encounter, a real dialogue with the other. This allows Christianity to say something meaningful to that context while allowing that context to say something relevant back to Christianity. Moreover, Boeve argues that the necessity for interruption and recontextualization is not only due to our current context; rather, interruption itself is a theological imperative. As a matter of fact, interruption is also capable of pointing the way in which God reveals Godself in history and the way in which Christians bear witness to this reality in narratives and practices. God’s interruption constitutes the theological foundation for a continuous and radical hermeneutic of the context and the tradition. Just as (and because) every concrete encounter with the other/Other is a potential location for God to reveal Godself today, it is only in concrete narratives and practices that the interrupting God can be testified to in today’s context.5 In other words, to be a Christian, to follow Christ and to believe in God is to allow oneself to be interrupted by the other, and through dialogue, find God in and through the other. This theological foundation for interruption is developed in Boeve’s book, Interrupting Tradition where he depicts an “interrupting God” and Christ as “God’s 3 Boeve, Interrupting Tradition, 7.
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