Guest Author

Paul F. Knitter - Theologian

An Interfaith Dialogue with Theologian Paul F. Knitter: The God Within & Beyond All Our Symbols for God

Picture
Burning Bush
In 2011 I spoke with theologian, Paul F. Knitter, in an intimate and radically open interview that we recorded.  The full interview is contained within these seven recordings that are only five to ten minutes in length. The original interview lasted over one hour.  Our conversation is rich in questions, answers, meanings, and infinite potential (Openness & InterBeing). It is a conversation we hope you will enjoy listening to as we explore an interfaith dialogue. 

Listen, as Paul speaks on an interfaith dialogue between Buddhism and Christianity, how this is a new way of being church, and how a non-theistic and theistic approach is understood through the symbols we use or do not use, and that the "Ultimate Divine Mystery" and "Reality" of God goes beyond all symbols.  How God, as the ground of our being, is an experience that takes us beyond symbolism.  


And how God as the "Connecting Spirit" calls us into relationship with one another and all of creation.  But, even more, how our sacramental practices and sacred religious rituals may be experienced by others as unity and union within the divine mystery.   Parts of this interview were eventually incorporated into a Tangent that appeared in Parabola Magazine, in the Fall 2011 edition on Seeing.
1. A Call to an Interfaith Dialogue as Being Church: What is an interfaith dialogue as being church and how will this shape the future church within this generation and the next generation?  How is an interfaith dialogue a new way of being church?
2. From a Christian Perspective:  From a Christian perspective, how can an interfaith dialogue open us up to the "Ultimate Divine Mystery" of God, that which is more than we may or can imagine.
3. God the Connecting Spirit:  How are we to understand the Holy Spirt, God as Spirit & Truth, in a 21st Century contemporary context where communication travels in bits and bytes of information at the speed of light that a 1st Century person could never imagine?  John 4:24 - King James Version (KJV):  24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
4. Religious Pluralism - Commitment & Openness:  How at Union Theological Seminary are teachers and students approaching questions on religious pluralism in the educational philosophy of the school and their programs?
5. A Sacrament of Silence:  Is there a way for a Christian or any person of faith to approach their relationship with God in both a theistic and non-theistic transformative way experienced through a Sacrament of Silence?  All of our traditional and Trinitarian language about God is poetic, impressionistic, symbolic; one that reveals and makes known the divine reality of God through Logos, the Word, and the abiding creative Spirit of God that is transcending and transformational.
6. Role of the Holy Spirit: When we enter into a practice of prayer and meditation, into a Sacrament of Silence, is the Holy Spirit waiting for us in that space as "Comforter and Counselor", to teach us all things, and remind us of what Jesus taught, and to give us his peace, God’s peace, the peace that passes all understanding?
7. Sacramental Christians - Encountering Christ in the Eucharist:  How can we understand and explain this wonder filled mystery in the context of religious pluralism and an interfaith dialogue?  Speaking about the experience of John Makransky from Boston College, who is Paul's Buddhist teacher. An interfaith dialogue on, A Mahayana Buddhist’s experience of Christian Communion.
8. Ending the conversation, thank you and goodnight.
After listening, move on to this sermon written by Paul, titled, Jesus: The Way That is Open to Other Ways.  The photograph, titled - Burning Bush, is from a stained glass window at Trinity Episcopal Church in midtown Houston.

2014 Baldwin Wallace Faith & Life Lecture Series


Paul F. Knitter, was the Paul Tillich Professor of Theology, World Religions and Culture at Union Theological Seminary in Manhattan, until he retired in June 2013.  He holds a licentiate in theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and a doctorate from the University of Marburg, Germany, and is the author of  Without Buddha I Could Not Be a Christian.

Parabola Magazine Tangent