>■1 1 *•”7’^ 1 f <• 3 -• m y Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019 with funding from Kahle/Austin Foundation https://archive.0rg/details/buddhisminterfaiOOOOabem BUDDHISM AND INTERFAITH DIALOGUE 1 »• *"t ! > y%~ '•»* ,5 ^ V V - -j “ I r» t, ■T B i } * i ♦ 3 Buddhism and Interfaith Dialogue Part one of a two-volume sequel to Zen and Western Thought Masao Abe Professor Emeritus Nara University of Education, Japan Edited by Steven Heine Associate Professor of Religious Studies Pennsylvania State University UNIVERSITY OF HAWAIT PRESS HONOLULU \ © Masao Abe 1995 except Chapter 5, 'The Problem of Self-Centered ness as the Root-Source of Human Suffering' {}R 15.4) © NCC Center for the Study of Japanese Religions 1989 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. Published in North America 1995 by UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI'I PRESS 2840 Kolowalu Street Honolulu, Hawai'i 96822 Published in Great Britain 1995 by MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world Printed in Hong Kong Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Abe, Masao, 1915- Buddhism and interfaith dialogue : part one of a two-volume sequel to Zen and western thought / Masao Abe ; edited by Steven Heine, p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 0-8248-1751-6 (cloth). — ISBN 0-8248-1752-4 (paper) 1. Buddhism—Relations. 2. Buddhism—Doctrines. 3. Buddhism and philosophy. 4. Philosophy, Comparative. 1. Heine, Steven, 1950- . 11. Abe, Masao, 1915- Zen and western thought. III. Title. BQ4600.A34 1995 294.3'372—dc20 95-6926 CIP Contents Editor's Foreword vii Preface xv PART ONE BUDDHIST APPROACH TO INTERFAITH DIALOGUE 1 Buddhist-Christian Dialogue: Its Significance and Future Task 3 2 A Dynamic Unity in Religious Pluralism: A Proposal from the Buddhist Point of View 17 3 There is No Common Denominator for World Religions': The Positive Meaning of this Negative Statement 40 4 The Impact of Dialogue with Christianity on My Self-Understanding as a Buddhist 52 5 The Problem of Self-Centeredness as the Root-Source of Human Suffering 63 6 Suffering in the Light of Our Time: Our Time in the Light of Suffering: Buddha's First Holy Truth 73 PART TWO BUDDHISM IN DIALOGUE WITH TILLICH'S THEOLOGY 7 Negation in Mahayana Buddhism and in Tillich: A Buddhist View of 'The Significance of the History of Religion for the Systematic Theologian' 89 8 Double Negation as an Essential for Attaining the Ultimate Reality: Comparing Tillich and Buddhism 104 V vi Buddhism and Interfaith Dialogue 9 A Response to Professor Langdon Gilkey's Paper, Tillich and the Kyoto School' 112 10 In Memory of Dr Paul Tillich 120 PART THREE BUDDHISM AND CONTEMPORARY THEOLOGY 11 Beyond Buddhism and Christianity - 'Dazzling Darkness' 127 12 Thomas JJ. Altizer's Kenotic Christology and Buddhism 151 13 Zen Buddhism and Hasidism - Similarities and Contrasts 159 14 The Interfaith Encounter of Zen and Christian Contemplation: A Dialogue between Masao Abe and Keith J. Egan 166 15 Interfaith Relations and World Peace: A Buddhist Perspective 177 16 Faith and Self-Awakening: A Search for the Fundamental Category Covering All Religious Life 182 17 God, Emptiness and Ethics 195 18 Responses to Langdon Gilkey 205 19 Spirituality and Liberation: A Buddhist-Christian Conversation (with Paul F. Knitter) 223 Index 244 Foreword Steven Heine In a remarkable career spanning four decades of teaching, lectur¬ ing, mentoring, and publishing in the West, including professor¬ ships at some of the major American universities, Masao Abe has had several important accomplishments. First, since the death of D.T. Suzuki he has served as the leading exponent and disseminator of Japanese Buddhism for Western audiences, and many of his most significant writings on Zen in comparison with Western philosophy and religion are included in the award-winning Zen and Western Thought (1985). Second, Abe has helped introduce and advance studies of Zen master Dogen, founder of the Soto sect in medieval Japan, through a series of translations with Norman Waddell published in The Eastern Buddhist journal in the 1970s and a col¬ lection of hermeneutic essays, A Study of Dogen: His Philosophy and Religion (1992). Third, he has been a leader in expressing and examining the texts and ideas of his predecessors and mentors in the Kyoto School philosophical movement, including a translation with Christopher Ives of Kitaro Nishida: An Inquiry into the Good (1990) and a collection of essays in remembrance of D.T. Suzuki, A Zen Life: D.T. Suzuki Remembered (1986). The fourth and most recent, and in many ways the most compelling, accomplishment has been Abe's participation in continuing ideological encounter and dialogue with a number of highly eminent Western theolo¬ gians representing a wide spectrum of positions, including existen¬ tial, mystical, process, kenotic, liberation and feminist theologies, some of the records of which are contained in The Emptying God: A Buddhist-Jewish-Christian Conversation (1990) edited by John Cobb and Christopher Ives. Abe's involvement in interfaith dialogue extends and brings to fruition a basic trend pervasive in the works of Kyoto School think¬ ers Nishida, Nishitani Keiji and Hisamatsu Shin'ichi, who articu¬ late Buddhist and Zen thought in terms of the concepts and categories of Western philosophy, religion and mysticism, while also clearly and critically demonstrating the differences between the respective vii viii Buddhism and Interfaith Dialogue traditions. Nishida, the first to integrate German idealism, neo- Kantianism, and phenomenology with Japanese thought, was ex¬ ceptionally well-versed in Western texts but did not have the opportunity to travel to the West. Nishitani in the late 1920s studied in Germany with Heidegger, an influence that echoed throughout his career, and Hisamatsu lectured in America and engaged in a well-known dialogue with Paul Tillich when both were at Harvard University in the 1950s. Abe, like Suzuki, has spent years traveling back and forth between Japan and the West and has published extensively in English. In the past fifteen years Abe has actively sought out leading Western theologians for a direct exchange of ideas in informal conversations and dialogues as well as formal panels and conferences, including Thomas Altizer, John Cobb, John Egan, Langdon Gilkey, Paul Knitter, Hans Kiing and Marjorie Suchocki, all of whom are represented in this volume, in addition to Eugene Borowitz, Catherine Keller, Jurgen Moltmann, Schubert Ogden and David Tracy, among others. Inheriting the legacy of Hisamatsu's E.A.S. Society, founded in 1958 and committed to the dynamic involvement of Zen in world affairs, Abe feels that the creative, constructive encounter between traditions is crucial at this juncture of history. As the forces of modernization, secularization and technologization continue to undermine traditional forms of religiosity while fostering new, urgent, often overwhelming con¬ temporary crises, it is essential that Buddhism and Christianity, and East and West, meet and challenge one another in pursuit of a universal and unifying perspective. According to Abe, the Buddhist worldview based on the notions of selflessness, dependent origination, and the double negation of emptiness or absolute nothingness is inherently non-dogmatic and free from one-sidedness or bias and thus able to provide a dynamic and flexible paradigm for creating a vibrant and viable unity of world religions and the spiritual liberation of humankind. Yet Abe also fully recognizes that Buddhism cannot contribute to the ac¬ complishment of this demanding task if it stays isolated or aloof from other worldviews. Rather, it must wholeheartedly engage and learn from perspectives that criticize and/or complement it, es¬ pecially the Christian emphasis on a historical understanding of peace and justice which complements the Buddhist emphasis on monastic, meditative experience of the eternal now. Although Abe argues that Buddhist nondualistic ontology supersedes and com¬ pletes Christian monotheism, he shows that this flexible ontological Foreword IX vantage-point beyond any commitment to a fixed principle necess¬ arily encompasses and encourages the Christian ethical standpoint. This volume, which contains Abe's essays and papers previously published in journals or presented at lectures and conferences, is the first part of a two-part sequel to Zen and Western Thought. The second volume, forthcoming, titled Zen and Comparative Studies, is a collection of writings on the fundamentals of Zen religious ex¬ perience, Zen and Western philosophy, religion and psychology, current methodological and philosophical issues in Zen studies, and the relation between Zen and Japanese culture and spiritual¬ ity. In addition, a third volume, A Study of the Philosophy of the Kyoto School edited by James Fredericks, is currently in preparation and contains Abe's explication and interpretation of Kyoto School thinkers. The writings in this volume are divided into three parts. Part One focuses on how Buddhism approaches and contributes to interfaith dialogue, that is, on how Buddhism represents a meth¬ odological paradigm that serves as a basis for the possibility of dialogical exchange. In a pluralistic, ever shrinking world in which geographical and conceptual boundaries between