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PDF versionRaimon Panikkar, 'apostle of inter-faith dialogue,' dies
'Overcoming tribal Christology,' he said, is task of third Christian millennium
Aug. 31, 2010
Raimon Panikkar (photo by Ilvio Gallo)
Professor Raimon Panikkar, one of the greatest scholars of the 20th century in the areas of comparative religion, theology, and inter-religious dialogue, died at his home in Tavertet, near Barcelona, Spain, Aug. 26. He was 91.
Panikkar taught and lived in the United States from 1966-1987 and was known to generations of students here and around the world through both his lectures and his many books. What they heard and read were the arresting reflections of a multi-dimensional person, who was simultaneously a philosopher, theologian, mystic, priest and poet.
Panikkar was born the son of an Indian Hindu father and a Spanish Catholic mother Nov. 3, 1918. He received a conventional Catholic education at a Jesuit high school in Barcelona before launching his university studies in the natural sciences, philosophy, and theology, first in Barcelona and then in Madrid. Shortly thereafter, the Spanish Civil War broke out, and Panikkar was able to take advantage of his status as the son of a father who was a British citizen to go to the University of Bonn in Germany to continue his studies. When World War II started in 1939, Panikkar returned to Spain and completed the first of his three doctorates, this one in philosophy, at the University of Madrid in 1946.
It was around 1940 that he met Escriva de Balaguer, the founder of Opus Dei, with whom he had a close relationship. It was at Escriva's urging that he trained for the Catholic priesthood and was ordained in 1946. Panikkar continued to be associated with Opus Dei for about twenty years, breaking effectively with the organization only in the early 1960s. He was tight-lipped about this period of his life, saying only that he did not regret it. It is clear, however, when one compares the Panikkar of the 1940s and the early 1950s with the later Panikkar better known to the world as a pioneer of inter-religious dialogue, that he had moved a long way from his early roots.
In late 1954 when he was already 36, Panikkar visited India, the land of his father, for the first time. It proved to be a watershed, a decisive reorientation of his interests and of his theology.
He had entered a dramatically new world, religious and cultural, from the Catholic Europe of his youth. The transformation was aided by his meetings and close friendship with three monks, who like him were attempting to live and to incarnate the Christian life in Indian, predominantly Hindu and Buddhist forms: Jules Monchanin (1895-1957), Henri Le Saux, also know as Swami Abhishiktananda (1910-1973), and Bede Griffiths, the English Benedictine monk (1906-1993). All four of them, in different ways, discovered and cherished the riches and the deep spiritual wisdom of the Indic traditions, and attempted to live out and express their core Christian convictions in Hindu and Buddhist forms. To some extent this multiple belonging was made possible by their embrace of Advaita, the Indic idea of non-dualism, which sees the deep, often hidden, connections between traditions without in any way minimizing the differences between them.
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One of Panikkar's many striking sentences looking back on his life's journey asserts: "I left Europe [for India] as a Christian, I discovered I was a Hindu and returned as a Buddhist without ever having ceased to be a Christian." A wealth of meaning lies in that assertion. Christianity in its historical evolution began as a Jewish tradition and then spread to the Greco-Roman world, acquiring along the way Greek and Roman cultural expressions which have given it a certain form and character. Panikkar, having grown up and having been trained in a traditional Catholic and neo-Thomist environment, had a profound knowledge of, and respect for, that tradition. This knowledge prepared him for discussions with some of the great minds of 20th-century Catholicism: Jean Danielou, Yves Congar, Hans Urs von Balthazar, and others. He was also invited to take part in the Synod of Rome and the Second Vatical Council. But Panikkar did not confuse or conflate historical contingency with spiritual truth. In Hinduism and Buddhism Panikkar found other languages, in addition to Biblical Hebrew, Greek philosophy, and Latin Christianity, to express the core convictions (the kerygma) of the Christian tradition.
That was the main thesis of The Unknown Christ of Hinduism, which Panikkar originally presented as a doctoral thesis to the Lateran University in Rome in 1961, based as it was on a close textual comparison between Thomas Aquinas and Sankara's interpretation of a canonical Hindu scripture, the Brahma-Sutras. Christ and his teaching are not, so Panikkar argues, the monopoly or exclusive property of Christianity seen as a historical religion. Rather, Christ is the universal symbol of divine-human unity, the human face of God. Christianity approaches Christ in a particular and unique way, informed by its own history and spiritual evolution. But Christ vastly transcends Christianity. Panikkar calls the name "Christ" the "Supername," in line with St. Paul's "name above every name" (Phil 2:9), because it is a name that can and must assume other names, like Rama or Krishna or Ishvara.
This theological insight was crucial for Panikkar because it provided the basis of the inter-religious dialogue that he and Abhishiktananda and Bede Griffiths were both advocating and practicing themselves. Far from diluting or in any way watering down core Christian beliefs and practices, such dialogue, in addition to fostering inter-religious understanding and harmony provided an indispensable medium for deepening the Christian faith. Such dialogue provides an insight and entry point into other, non-Christian names and manifestations of Christ. This was particularly important for Panikkar because together with other Asian theologians he saw how historical Christianity had attempted, especially during its colonial periods, to convert Christ into an imperial God, with a license to conquer and triumph over other Gods. This for Panikkar is the challenge of the post-colonial period inaugurated in the mid-to-late twentieth century and continuing into our present and the future. In his words, "To the third Christian millennium is reserved the task of overcoming a tribal Christology by a Christophany which allows Christians to see the work of Christ everywhere, without assuming that they have a better grasp or a monopoly of that Mystery, which has been revealed to them in a unique way."
Needless-to-say, such striking ideas carefully and rigorously argued and dramatically expressed got the attention of religious thinkers and secular institutions around the world. Panikkar was invited to teach in Rome and then at Harvard (1966-1971) and the University of California, Santa Barbara (1971-1987). He was now, as Leonard Swidler, occupant of the Chair of Catholic Thought at Temple University, called him, "the apostle of inter-faith dialogue and inter-cultural understanding."
Conversant in a dozen or so languages and fluent in at least six, he traveled tirelessly around the world, lecturing, writing, preaching, and conducting retreats. His famous Easter service in his Santa Barbara days would attract visitors from all corners of the globe. Well before dawn they would climb up the mountain near his home in Montecito, meditate quietly in the darkness once they reached the top, and then salute the sun as it arose over the horizon. Panikkar would bless the elements — air, earth, water and fire — and all the surrounding forms of life — plant, animal, and human — and then celebrate Mass and the Eucharist. It was a profound "cosmotheandric" celebration with the human, cosmic, and divine dimensions of life being affirmed, reverenced, and brought into a deep harmony. The celebration after the formal service at Panikkar's home resembled in some respects the feast of Pentecost as described in the New Testament, where peoples of many tongues engaged in animated conversation.
At the center of these celebrations, retreats, and lectures stood Panikkar himself and his arresting personality. People who heard or encountered him could not help but be struck by this physically small man who packed a punch and who managed to combine the quiet dignity of a sage, the profundity of a scholar, the depth of a contemplative, and the warmth and charm of a friend in his sparkling personality.
Not surprisingly, universities around the world, Catholic and non-Catholic, invited him to give lectures. To mention just a few among hundreds delivered, he was invited to give the William Noble Lecture at Harvard in 1973, the Thomas Merton Lecture at Columbia in 1982, and the Cardinal Bellarmine Lecture at the University of St. Louis in 1991. The most prestigious invitation, however, came from the University of Edinburgh, where Panikkar delivered the Gifford Lectures in 1989. These have recently been published by Orbis Books as The Rhythm of Being. Panikkar thus joined the select company of William James, Karl Barth, Albert Schweitzer, and Reinhold Niebuhr to mention just a few of the most famous Gifford lecturers. He was in fact the first Indian and the first Asian invited to give these lectures.
Some of Panikkar's other well-known books are The Vedic Experience; The Intrareligious Dialogue; Myth, Faith, and Hermeneutics; The Silence of God; The Cosmotheandric Experience; and The Invisible Harmony. Jaca Books in Italy is bringing out his collected works (Omnia Opera) in some 30 volumes, and Continuum Books in England and the Untied States is planning an English edition. There is also a helpful Web site www.raimonpanikkar.org.
Ours is a new era in world history, where thanks to globalization and the increasing communication between cultures and religions it is vital that there be a well-developed Catholic theology of religions. Panikkar was one of the pioneering and paradigmatic theologians of this new era. He has left us a rich and many-sided legacy from the liturgical and pastoral to the theological and sapiential. It behooves us who follow him to notice, absorb, and extend that legacy.
[Joseph Prabhu is a professor of philosophy and comparative religion at California State University, Los Angeles.]
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Apparently Panikkar
Apparently Panikkar reconciled himself with the Church a few months before passing, through the good labors of His Excellency Romá Casanova, bishop of Vic, who also celebrated his exclusively-catholic funeral...
May he rest in peace.
Why are you assuming that he
Why are you assuming that he needed to be reconciled?
BC in AZ, I agree. I have not
BC in AZ, I agree. I have not heard or read anything that indicated that he was outside the Church and was in need of being reconciled.
Panikkar has always been in
Panikkar has always been in good standing with the church, that is what he told me in June 2009. He has never renounced his Catholic tradition. This however, does not mean that he renounced at the end other traditions part of his complex religious identity.
I admire Raimon Panikkar's
I admire Raimon Panikkar's inter-faith dialogue. He is a pioneer... he was deeply enriched by his immersion with Hinduism and Buddhism yet fully living his Christian tradition and vocation. We are losing one of great spiritual thinkers of our times...The challenge is - to continue what they - Bede Griffith, Wayne Teasdale, Raimon Panikkar had started...although they can never be replicated.
Even reading this
Even reading this appreciation causes vibrations of Pentecost. "Overcoming tribal Christology" as a task for this no longer new century - this man has truly read the signs of our global times. Thank you, Professor Prabhu.
I don't see any mention of
I don't see any mention of his marriage here.
I was struck by the same
I was struck by the same sentence as the previous contributor, Joan Krebs.
"To the third Christian millenium is reserved the task of overcoming a tribal Christology by a Christophany which allows Christians to see the work of Christ everywhere, without assuming that they have a better grasp or a monopoly of that Mystery, which has been revealed to them in a unique way."
Yes truly a human being who has read the signs of our global times and has helped direct us to the task at hand.
As a Catholic immigrant from
As a Catholic immigrant from India in the early 70’s, and later contemplating the priesthood here in Los Angeles, I had the good fortune of having Fr. Panikkar as my pre-seminary spiritual director when he was at Santa Barbara, California. In the two years of my discernment, it was he who convinced me to study and minister here in the US. (I was considering returning to India and joining my archdiocese there.) He said: “…the United States, so entrenched in a utilitarian and pragmatic paradigm, is thirsting for the special depth of spirituality that we Indians have to offer.”
It was he who showed me that the priesthood was more than a narrow defensive pipeline of theological thought, but a great cosmic reality. The outstretched arms of a priest, being one with Jesus, embraces not only the whole church but also all creatures - indeed all of creation.
During my earlier student days in India I had met and discoursed with both, Swami Abshiktananda and Dom Bede Griffiths. It seemed providential that later here in the US, Fr. Pannikar closed that circuit for me and made me fully appreciate the immensity of God and my faith.
Dogmas and doctrines, while necessary for the crystallization of human thought, are mere ‘chinks’ or openings in the wall through which we get a glimpse of something grander, more majestic and profound that we can ever imagine. St Paul to the Corinthians refers to this as: “..now we see as in an image…" and "...but then we shall know as we are known.”
The psalmist by the Jordan and the sage by the Ganges cry out the same human aspirations:
Asato Ma Sad Gamaya; (From Untruth lead me to Truth)
Tamaso Ma Joytir Gamaya; (From darkness, lead me to Light)
Mrityor Ma Amritam Gamaya; (From death, lead me to Immortality)
Om Shanthi! (O Thou of Peace!)
-Brihadaranyaka Upanishad c 550 BC
I am very grateful that Divine Providence placed Fr. Panikkar in the path of my own journey. May his soul truly be fused with the Christ of the cosmos and be one with Him in worshiping the Father - Om Tat Sat
May you rest in peace and in the Divine Bliss, my dear friend.
Father Vivian Ben Lima
Archdiocese of Los Angeles
Dear Fr Vivian, Good to hear
Dear Fr Vivian,
Good to hear from you after many years.I was at your ordination and with you once at Panikkar's home in Santa Barbara. Do please get in touch
JP
We have lost a giant, perhaps
We have lost a giant, perhaps the greatest Catholic mystic theologian of our times, a man of immense spiritual depth, erudition, and global compassion. We were blessed to have such a great soul with us for 91 years.
I am one of the privileged
I am one of the privileged students of Raimon Panikkar. God grant him eternal rest. He was a true disciple of the Lord and had a tremendous influence on my understanding of what it is to be "Catholic" and a follower of the Lord Jesus. I feel sure there are thousands of his students who feel the same.
Rest peacefully, good and faith filled servant.
With the deepest feelings of respect and gratitude.
Rev. Wayne E. Killian
Coordinator of Catholic Campus Ministry
Lehigh University & Moravian College
One of the greatest spiritual
One of the greatest spiritual leaders of our time is no longer with us yet his spirit, thoughts and passion live on! Thanks be to God for all things but especially for the life of Ramon Panikkar!
It is a sad indictment on the
It is a sad indictment on the pitiful IQ and spiritual experience of the 'Church' that he needed reconciliation - evidence that 'they' just don't get it!
Thank God for this man's sharing of his giftedness and pioneering way.
The core question is whether
The core question is whether God became man in the historical Jesus Christ or not. It seems like what is really going on here is that we are trying to make up Christ in our own image. A new pentecost?-it sounds like a new religion to me.
It is not a new religion. It
It is not a new religion. It is original Christianity which proclaimed that Jesus was a human being, fully human, who consciously realized his divinity, that he was fully and substantially divine. You, like Benedict XVI in his "Jesus of Nazareth," understand Jesus as primarily a "god" who took human flesh but was still primarily a God, not a real human being like the rest of us. As Karl Rahner noted, most popular Christianty is Docetist, a heresy that vastly overempasizes Jesus' divinity by, in effect, denying the Scripture that says he was exactly like us in all ways except sin.
John, thank you for your
John, thank you for your comment. This "like us in all ways except sin (a big exception, yes?) is something that I struggle to understand. Both he and the BVM were not born with original sin, but we all were. I can't help but think that This is a huge intrinsic difference. And, of course, Jesus never experience intimate physical desire for another. Again, a huge difference. Well, as I have stated, it is a concept that I struggle to understand.
"both he and the BVM were not
"both he and the BVM were not born with original sin, but we all were" - The Scriptures say that Jesus was "like us in all ways but sin": what is harder when we are tempted or when we sin? What is harder intense suffering of watching a son tortured and killed or "without sin"? What is harder the experience of abandonment, the silence of the Father, or "without sin"?
What was your moment of "immaculate conception"? Was it not your baptism? At baptism all sin, including original sin, is taken away. After that any sin is a free choice.
How do you know what Jesus did or didn't experience? He could have experienced intimate physical desire, but a deep understanding of "vocation" might add to our understanding. Again, free choice/will: to offer one's life in service and love and to forego intimate human relationship of marriage.
It is not a huge intrinsic difference - "Incarnation" didn't end on Christmas day...from womb to tomb ponder the mystery of Incarnation and then the depths of Resurrection...and then "Father, may they be one as you are in me and I in you, may they be one in us...that the world may believe...
RM
Gerard's objection (one step
Gerard's objection (one step away from mentioning the word heresy) is not groundless. The great temptation of our Age is to understand religious differences historicistically, as signs of the coming of a Global (Universal) Faith transcending all "tribal" (Pannikar) faiths. For the globalist, the conflict between religions is overcome by the rise of a Cosmic Spiritual Synthesis of all dogmas reading the "letter" ("God" included!) of all special revelations as "symbol" of a super-symbology, a new Discourse that is supposed to overcome all political barriers once and for all. Most striking is the contrast between (1) the New Evolutionary Discourse promising a *historical* redemption of the human "species", and (2) the Divine Logos that redeems the Human Kind (genos) in "eternity*. How the New Discourse has become as popular as it has is in good measure accounted for by the attractive prospect it offers to *imagine* a naturalistic/evolutionary synthesis of general revelation and all special revelations. The New Discourse is supposed to be more "scientific" (less "mythical"/tribal) than old "discourses" by revealing the means or "history" of God's Plan (Nature); it is supposed to disclose to our *imagination* (our sense of certainty) the Way through which God reconciles the particular and the universal. In short, the New Discourse is supposed to render visible what older faiths (orthodoxies) proclaim as the inscrutable Way of God, i.e. Divine Providence.
In the 1960s I had the holy
In the 1960s I had the holy privilege of being present at a lecture of Raimon Panikkar. In that era, I attended many talks given by many theologians. Panikkar's is the only one whose thoughts and personage I remember. I treasure this lasting inspiration that I carry with me after nearly 50 years.
Raimon was an extraordinary
Raimon was an extraordinary human being. When you were in his presence you could not help being excited because he was so full of life from within that shone through his face and body like effervescence! You needed at least four or five languages, ancient and modern, in order to intelligently understand his writings - but only the language of humanity to understand him face to face. Vivat in aeternam! Len
What is also evident is the
What is also evident is the historical debate of intellects. All seeking. Trying to make words of the divine. Even in agreement, words cause division and cannot quantify or hold the divine truth. Beyond me, it is said that "The Word" became flesh. Humans will never reconcile through our words, debates, or intellectual traditions, the ineffable blissfull state of the Lord. We can only honor the Lord through honoring each other. So, to those who knew this man, peace and honor to your memories and to the way in which your inner seeking selves were satisfied. Trying to debate apart or even reconcile the inner drive for God is superfluous to the seeking, even as the debate brings new seekers to the fold.
Panikkar has opened a new
Panikkar has opened a new window for me. I look forward to reading his works.
I was moved by Raimon
I was moved by Raimon Panekkar's story - by his ability to be true to his mystical nature and also his formidable intellect. I am sorry I did not meet him or hear him speak in person. I am also bemused by the absence of reference to his marriage. Has the Church censored this important piece of information ?
Gerard....not at all a new
Gerard....not at all a new religion but a deeper understanding of the faith and message of Jesus. Hasn't the western Roman Catholic church made Christ in its own image ? Hasn't our faith accomodated Greek and Roman philosophy ?
I also recognize that this is the process that many of us go through who are born of parents from two different cultures. We are in search of some synthesis of the beliefs and values of the culture and religion of each of our parents. I experienced something similar. The expression of the Roman Catholic religion was quite different from my southern German Catholicism, even within the confines of the Latin Mass back in the late 1940's and early 1950's and the expression of Catholicism in the working class parishes of New Jersey to which we immigrated. I'm quite hopeful that Raimon Panikkar's theology will bear fruit in the global village of the third Christian millenium.
I loved him dearly. He was a
I loved him dearly. He was a great man barely recognized or realized by many in the Church. He suffered much due to sheer ignorance of the wealth of the world religions by many within the Roman Catholic church. He was a man who loved deeply and often had to apologize for loving. He once asked me if I considered him a mystic. I laughed and replied, "Does a mystic extend his living room to hold his files?" He was a modern mystic, a great priest, a lover of all peoples. I was fortunate to be one of those women who received wild daises picked on the mountain top from this humble and brilliant man who served his church, his family, his friends and the naked stranger.
I honor Panikkar as the
I honor Panikkar as the deepest Christian writer I'm aware of. I know of his work only through repeat readings of A Dwelling Place for Wisdom, The Experience of God, and Christophany. I'm certain I'll be meditating Christophany for years to come. So representing those who have never met him but who have been touched and inspired to deepen through his writing, I bow in gratitude.
"At the center of these
"At the center of these celebrations, retreats, and lectures stood Panikkar himself and his arresting personality."
This is precisely the problem.
Nevertheless, may he RIP.
I write as someone who knew
I write as someone who knew Panikkar only through three of his books: A Dwelling Place for Wisdom, The Experience of God, and Christophany. I am sure I will be rereading and reflecting on them for years to come. I feel intuitively that his wisdom on the Christ can help light our way through the 21 Century. I bow in gratitude and honor of his life and work.
I met Father Panikkar briefly
I met Father Panikkar briefly a long time ago. While he was at Harvard, I spend an afternoon in his company and left feeling as spiritually refreshed and renewed as if I had been on retreat for a month. Since then I have read and studied much of his work and have come to known what a remarkable human being he was.
He followed his spirit and
He followed his spirit and was not afraid of the unknown so is an inspiration to us all.
Did Father Pannikar teach a
Did Father Pannikar teach a new doctrine that contradicted traditional teaching? Surely the early church fathers told us all that was there to know & why should one be renewed & refreshed by one who is meant to follow in their footsteps.
Paikkar's life and thought
Paikkar's life and thought was centred around Christ alone. His Vision is not an imagination but it is real. An 'unknown' reality all of us are 'in'.
He was my Guru whom i have
He was my Guru whom i have never seen. A Guru guides to the light without uttering a single word. It is a great silence!...Through his silence he guides me to Christ the eternal light. There is no confusion and osilation because Guru ignites the intellect. He is the enlighten one.
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