Multi-faith dialogue in conversation with Raimon Panikkar

Abstract

Raimon Panikkar (1918-) has deliberated on principles and practices of multi-faith dialogue for over half a century. The presentation will focus on Panikkar's experience of Christian-Hindu, Christian-Buddhist and Christian-Secularist dialogue. It will outline his "rules of the game" forinterreligious dialogue and intercultural encounter. Attention will be drawn to his distinct levels of religious discourse identified as mythos, logos and symbol. Panikkar's more adventurous proposal for the meeting of the world's religious and cultural traditions will be introduced through elucidation of his "cosmotheandric vision" of reality—what he now calls "the radical trinity" of cosmic matter, human consciousness and divine freedom. The conversation will conclude with an overall assessment of Panikkar's contribution to contemporary thinking on multi-faith dialogue and religious pluralism.