Where We Dwell in Common: The Quest for Dialogue in the Twenty-First Century

266 Pages·2016·2.252 MB·English

by  Gerard Mannion (eds.)

Where We Dwell in Common
PATHWAYS FOR ECUMENICAL AND
INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE
Series Editors: Mark Chapman and Gerard Mannion
Building on the important work of the Ecclesiological Investigations
International Research Network to promote ecumenical and interfaith
dialogue, the Pathways for Ecumenical and Interreligious Dialogue
series publishes scholarship on ecumenical and interreligious dialogue
and encounters in relation to the past, present, and future. It gathers
together a richly diverse array of voices in monographs and edited
collections that speak to the challenges, aspirations, and elements of
ecumenical and interreligious work. Through its publications, the
series allows for the exploration of new ways, means, and methods of
advancing the wider ecumenical cause with renewed energy for the
twenty- first century.
The Theological Roots of Christian Gratitude
Kenneth Wilson
The Ecumenical Legacy of the Cappadocians
Edited by Nicu Dumitraşcu
Where We Dwell in Common: The Quest for Dialogue in the
Twenty- First Century
Edited by Gerard Mannion
Pathways for Interreligious Dialogue in the Twenty-First Century
Edited by Vladimir Latinovic, Gerard Mannion, and Peter C.
Phan
Pathways for Ecclesial Dialogue in the Twenty-First Century:
Revisiting Ecumenical Method
Edited by Mark D. Chapman and Miriam Haar
Where We Dwell in Common
The Quest for Dialogue in the
Twenty- First Century
Edited by Gerard Mannion
WHERE WE DWELL IN COMMON
Selection and editorial content © Gerard Mannion 2016
Individual chapters © their respective contributors 2016
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2016 978-1-137-50314-5
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
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permission. In accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting
limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House,
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may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
First published 2016 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of
this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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Basingstoke, Hampshire, RG21 6XS.
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companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
ISBN: 978-1-349-58056-9
E-PDF ISBN: 978-1-137-50315-2
DOI: 10.1057/9781137503152
Distribution in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world is by Palgrave
Macmillan®, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered
in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke,
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Contents
Preface: Voices from Assisi 2012 vii
Acknowledgments: In Gratitude for Assisi 2012 xiii
Part I: Thinking Outside the Ecumenical Box 1
1 Thinking Outside the Ecumenical Box:
Assisi 2012— Story, Method, and Beyond 3
Gerard Mannion
2 Thinking Beyond Conflict and Confrontation:
Lessons from the Quest for Peace 35
Paul Arthur
3 “Together with Those Who Hold the Incomparable
Treasure”: Clare of Assisi on Relational Spirituality 55
Jean Molesky- Poz
Part II: Beyond What Remains Divisive:
Theory and Practice 71
4 Precarious Life, Laments, and the Promise of
Prophetic Ecumenical and Interfaith Communities 73
Bradford E. Hinze
5 Where and When Gender Divides:
Reflections from an Orthodox Perspective 93
Eleni Kasselouri- Hatzivassiliadi
6 Difficult Dialogue and Wisdoms about
Difference: Doing as a Way of Knowing 107
Mary McClintock Fulkerson
vi Contents
Part III: Transcending Ecclesial Impasse 123
7 Seeing Beyond the Religious and Social Divide:
The Intercultural Church in the Migrant Context 125
Agnes M. Brazal and Emmanuel S. de Guzman
8 “Unreal Worlds Meeting”? Reality and Illusion
in Ecumenical Dialogue 145
Paul Avis
9 Does a Doctrinal Teaching Office Have an
Ecumenical Future? Assessing the Groupe des Dombes
Document, “One Teacher” (2005) 161
Richard R. Gaillardetz
Part IV: Transcending Religious Difference:
Where We Dwell in Common 185
10 Communicative Theology: A New Way of Engagement 187
Bernd Jochen Hilberath
11 Interreligious Dialogue: Where Are We Going? 211
Peter C. Phan
12 Where We Dwell in Common: Ecclesial Spirituality
as a Basis for Living with Other Religions 231
Roger Haight, SJ
Contributor Biographies 249
Index 255
Compiled by Fr Jason Welle, OFM
Preface
Voices from Assisi 2012
Gerard Mannion
This book originated on the steep slopes of Umbria, inspired by the
visions of two thirteenth- century visionaries who promoted dialogue
in forms that were well beyond the conventional norms of their day.
They thought and acted “outside the box.” Drawn by these inspiring
visions, which have inspired countless others since their day, an ecu-
menical and interfaith gathering, “Where We Dwell in Common—
Pathways for Dialogue in the Twenty- First Century,” took place
in Assisi, Italy, in April 2012. You will learn much more about the
background to this gathering from further chapters in this book, par-
ticularly Chapter 1, which outlines the background to the event, its
method and structure, and what lessons and hopes the gathering has
offered for future pathways for dialogue.
Suffice to say here, the gathering featured many highlights, includ-
ing a great many which took place in the wonderful sacred spaces
of that hill town. To name but a few of these, our proceedings were
graciously opened by Archbishop Domenico Sorrentino, the local
ordinary, in the Basilica of Santa Maria Degli Angeli, who spoke mov-
ingly about the need for greater dialogue and cooperation between
bishops and theologians and set the tone for the wonderful exchanges
that followed. The following evening, our gathering also featured
reflection on the “ten commandments” of Franciscan contributions to
shaping dialogue and ecumenical vespers in the Basilica of San Fran-
cesco, followed by a procession of prayer and chant where all gathered
around the tomb of this saint who cared so passionately for peace and
harmony. The gathering also featured explorations of various ecclesial
and ecumenical themes in the Convent of San Francesco, interfaith
issues in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore (a church built on top
of a pagan temple), and ecological challenges in the Garden of the
Sisters of the Atonement, overlooking the rolling Umbrian Hills. The
viii Preface
afternoon of the third day featured a plenary session in the Cathedral
of San Rufino, which brought together speakers from South Africa,
Vietnam, the Philippines, England, and the Czech Republic.1 From
these examples alone, one hopes the reader captures the sense of how
very special those four days of shared conversation truly were.
From the outset, thinking outside the box was evident in thought,
word, and practice. The number of contributions that were shared
during the Assisi 2012 gathering was far too great and diverse to do
them justice here in just one single volume. That is one reason we
have begun this new series—i n order to widen the conversation and to
share many of the fruits that emerged from the Assisi gathering. This
first volume is but a small sampling and taste of the rich experiences
and ideas that were shared in some of the plenary sessions at Assisi.
Our focus in this volume, in particular, is on those contributions that
explored questions of focus and method in seeking to encourage the
thinking outside the box that is necessary to promote dialogue in
our times. Two further volumes will show you the breadth and richly
diverse depth in fuller perspective.2
Turning to the inspiring and thought- provoking voices we have
included in this initial volume, while here we include but a small selec-
tion of the wonderful engagements in dialogue that were brought to
the table, those contributions featured are of enormous depth and
breadth alike.
On the opening day of Assisi 2012, at our host venue of Domus
Pacis, in the shadow of the Franciscan Order’s mother house, Paul
Arthur, Professor of Peace Studies Emeritus at the University of Ulster
and veteran of various conflict-r esolution initiatives around the globe,
sought to share some lessons that ecumenical and interfaith dialogue
might learn from the struggles and efforts involved in building peace
processes, often in the most challenging of circumstances. Here he
expands on those thoughts and raises challenging questions for all
those who would seek to further the cause of dialogue in these times.
On the third day in Assisi, we heard from Jean Molesky Poz, appro-
priately of California’s Santa Clara University, about the inspirational
“relational spirituality” legacy of Saint Clare in the Basilica of Santa
Chiara. This was yet another sacred-space highlight of the gathering.
Here she revisits those reflections and considers the ongoing potential
of that legacy, exploring the story and writing of Saint Clare herself
and unpacking for readers the tradition of how, in the community at
San Damiano, “Clare learned with her sisters and brothers a relational
spirituality of mutual respect and equality in which contemplation,
service to one another, and reconciliation were at the core.”
Preface ix
From the second day of proceedings, the insights shared included
proposals concerning the promise of ecumenical and interfaith com-
munities for our times from Bradford Hinze (Fordham University).
Moving from an honest and engaged reflection on “Precarious Life
and Laments,” he reflects on divisive ways of perceiving religious
community in order to introduce some neglected “resources provided
by the individual and communal calling to cultivate prophetic atten-
tiveness, prophetic discernment, and prophetic witness in word and
action,” all of which finds its expression in attentiveness to the exis-
tential challenges and precariousness of social realities.
Eleni Kasselouri- Hatzivassiliadi, an Orthodox theologian and bib-
lical scholar from Greece, offers an overview of the role and place of
women in churches in recent times and today. Her given theme in
Assisi was “Where and When Gender Divides,” and here she explores
both the silences and yet also the occasions of inspiring ecclesial
expression from women in Christian communities, blending together
feminist and ecclesiological analysis and concluding with reflections on
approaching scripture and tradition from the hermeneutical starting
point of the experience and perspectives of contemporary Christian
women.
Mary McClintock Fulkerson (Duke Divinity School) spoke on
Assisi 2012’s final day, where she called for a focus on “doing as a way
of knowing” as a means of making difficult dialogue possible. Sug-
gesting that the resolution of differences may not be the only desired
outcome from dialogue, she discusses instances where such has proved
to be the case. These include examples from academic debate, as well
as from processes of dialogue themselves, and finally that notion of
“doing as a way of knowing” itself, because this facilitates interac-
tion “between groups which are ‘other’ in terms of race, class, ability,
and other social markers of difference.” She argues passionately for
an approach whereby we come to understand one another more fully
through more direct engagement with and being alongside the reli-
gious “others” in our societies.
Speaking at San Rufino on the third day, leading Filipina theolo-
gian Agnes M. Brazal (St. Vincent School of Theology) addressed the
issue of seeing beyond religious and social divides from the perspec-
tive of the intercultural church in a migrant context. Here, alongside
Emmanuel S. de Guzman (also of St Vincent’s), she develops those
themes by offering a typology of the different ways in which migrant
Christian communities can interact with the societies and cultures in
which they find themselves called to live and believe. The intercultural
church is the model toward which they believe communities presently