Friday, October 28, 2005
DIALOGUE DISCUSSED BY FR. JAMES V. SCHALL, S.J.
at a link sent in by a reader. The following part of the third section speaks most specifically to the aspects of dialogue and unity in diversity that I have a tendency to focus on. I think that this is where interreligious dialogue is walking us into a watered down version of the faith because our dialoguers tend to focus on the technique spelled out in the first paragraph below and ignore the reality of the second. I also tend to believe that those who worship the Cosmic Christ want it that way, and are using dialogue as a means to an end that will be the opposite of what the Church stands for.
The danger in the "dialogue" format as it has developed in recent times is, no doubt, the relativist temptation. The conversation is merely for the sake of conversation. Nothing will ever really be resolved. No conclusions will ever be arrived at as that would stop the dialogue. It is a kind of public relations show to demonstrate good will or perhaps public etiquette. But to hope for anything more is really naive. Too there is the "world parliament of religion" school of thought that wants to incorporate all religions, including particularly Catholicism, into a kind of political super-church. This world organization, under the protection of the UN, will harness or pacify the disruptive forces said to be found in religion of any species. Religion, as the ancient Epicureans taught, is useful to keep the masses busy, but it is at best a myth.
The Catholic position, for its part, has generally been that it is open to any truth wherever and however formulated, provided that it can be put in proper context. No doubt this approach will seem "condescending" to many but the very nature of the Church is itself a claim to truth. Any mitigation of its essence would, no doubt, be an admission that it did not believe in itself. In this sense, Catholicism is not a "religion," but a revelation. Religion is what men seek to offer to the gods, while revelation is bound by what is handed down. Its essence is loyalty to what is revealed. Its impact is to explain itself to mankind in terms both of itself and what man has understood by itself. Catholicism does not stand for what man holds about God but about what God holds about man.
