1. RE: Nondual Week: Panentheism & Interspirituality – What’s
Jesus Got to do With It? | Mike Morrell – January 31, 2012 –
want to follow up yesterday’s Ken Wilber interview with this
blast from the past – something I wrote for the previous
iteration of TheOOZE
It would be difficult to improve on that BLAST!
Let me offer a strategic note re: interreligious dialogue
If one accepts that, formatively, in most traditions,
belonging precedes desiring which precedes behaving which is
last followed by believing …
If those desires are largely formed by practices which engage
us participatively and holistically …
If so much of the early stages of the journey within most of
our great traditions thus entails evaluative attunement to
reality via participatory praxes prior to any interpretive
indoctrination via conceptual map-making and is thus much more
nonpropositional than propositional …
Then there is an INTERFAITH BONANZA that awaits us if we would
only [BRACKET] the [propositional elements] of our interfaith
exchanges, at least at the start, to lead with the
nonpropositional (practices)…
Then, when we do begin to engage the propositional elements of
our respective traditions, there is yet a further INTERFAITH
BONANZA to be enjoyed if we would only [BRACKET] our
[Christology], at least at the start, to lead with our
pneumatology (the Spirit)!
Now, some might offer the objection that many doctrines are
inextricably intertwined with certain practices and that may
well be true but, for all sorts of reasons (some listed
above), the converse is manifestly not true.
If we’d approach interfaith exchanges in this manner, we’d
have so much to celebrate in the way of belonging, desiring
and behaving and even regarding some rudimentary shared
beliefs regarding the Spirit! And this could help pave the way
for a more fruitful dialogue regarding the propositional
elements of our faiths, which are not unimportant.
Importantly, even the term inter-religious dialogue reveals a
certain rationalistic, dualistic hegemony in its emphasis on
the dia-logical. I now prefer the term inter-faith exchange
because it goes beyond the logical and propositional, but not
without them, to include the more robustly relational and
nondual approaches to such human value-realizations as
solidarity and compassion.
Finally, I don’t advocate this approach only for the academic
and theological guilds but feel strongly that we need to
popularize it and make it more accessible, perhaps through
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2. storytelling vehicles like The Shack. In a country and a world
so torn apart by destructive polarizations that are grounded
in religious differences, this strategy for engaging the
religious-other could be a viable route to more peace, less
war.
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