updated 3h ago
Without Buddha I Could Not be a Christian
if for Buddha we are not “beings” but “becomings,” now he clarifies that we are “becomings-with.”
from Without Buddha I Could Not be a Christian by Paul F. Knitter
Justin Reidy added 4mo ago
“God” must be an experience before “God” can be a word.
from Without Buddha I Could Not be a Christian by Paul F. Knitter
Justin Reidy added 4mo ago
The author of John’s first letter announces that “God is love” (1 John 4:8). The author is not saying that God is a Father who loves but that God is love.
from Without Buddha I Could Not be a Christian by Paul F. Knitter
Justin Reidy added 4mo ago
to believe in a Trinitarian God is to believe in a relational God. The very nature of the Divine is nothing other than to exist in and out of relationships; for God, “to be” is nothing other than “to relate.”
from Without Buddha I Could Not be a Christian by Paul F. Knitter
Justin Reidy added 4mo ago
we exist through relationships of knowing and loving and giving because that’s how God exists.
from Without Buddha I Could Not be a Christian by Paul F. Knitter
Justin Reidy added 4mo ago
Loving others, therefore, is not a question so much of “doing God’s will” but, rather, of “living God’s life.” That’s why Rahner used to tell us that there are a lot of people who live God’s life in their actions even though they may deny God’s existence in their words. (And vice versa, a lot of people who say they believe in God but who cancel out
... See morefrom Without Buddha I Could Not be a Christian by Paul F. Knitter
Justin Reidy added 4mo ago
a better image for creation might be a pouring forth of God, an extension of God, in which the Divine carries on the divine activity of interrelating in and with and through creation.
from Without Buddha I Could Not be a Christian by Paul F. Knitter
Justin Reidy added 4mo ago
Spirit no longer has to “come down” in what seems like an arbitrary fashion, here but not there. The Spirit is already there, pervading it all, brooding, as the book of Genesis suggests, over the waters and all creation. So the Spirit doesn’t step in but rather steps forth. What is already there emerges or takes shape or becomes fully active.
from Without Buddha I Could Not be a Christian by Paul F. Knitter
Justin Reidy added 4mo ago
In picturing or approaching the Divine as a “you,” I somehow feel I’m being inappropriate, or disrespectful, or offensive – something like talking loudly in the midst of the hushed beauty of a New Zealand forest.
from Without Buddha I Could Not be a Christian by Paul F. Knitter
Justin Reidy added 4mo ago