Bede Griffiths: An Introduction to His Interspiritual Thought by Wayne Teasdale

Author:Wayne Teasdale
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Interspiritual Thought; Bede Griffiths; Spiritual life; Hinduism; Christianity; Interspirituality; Christian Vedanta; Interspiritual awareness; Sannyasic Monasticism; Wayne Teasdale; Christian Theology; Christian Spiritual Biography; Cometemplative Theology
Publisher: Skylight Paths Publishing

6

Christology, Tantrism, Sannysa, and the Future of the Church

IN CHAPTER 5, after giving considerable attention to preparatory details and the definition of terms, we saw how Bede Griffiths conceived of a Christian Advaita and how he regarded or formulated the relationship of Hinduism and Christianity from the ultimate perspective of each other’s mystical intuition of the Absolute. This relationship was narrowed down to two essential terms: Saccidnanda and the Trinity. It was also shown, in Bede’s thought, what a Christian Vedanta entails and how an Indian Christian theology is possible. Furthermore, Saccidnanda was found to be a possible term for the Trinity in such a theology.

It was also suggested that the relating of Advaita/Saccidnanda and the Trinitarian intuition—if genuinely reflecting Ultimate Reality and thus valid—presupposes an ontological continuity, a continuum of realization insofar as both intuitions/mystical doctrines arise out of the same mystery of Being and the same metaphysical reality. For both are part of the one system of being and life as it is experienced in mystical consciousness. Moreover, the meeting of Hinduism and the Christian faith, of Advaita/Saccidnanda and Trinity, on this profound level of encounter is actually an existential convergence, since there is a substantive connection between the two that goes beyond mere dialogue into the very ground of their relationship in that ultimate depth we call the Spirit. And yet we also discovered that in Bede’s view, the Trinitarian intuition and doctrine represent a deeper conception of the mystery, because it recognizes as primary the personal, interpersonal, indeed relational dimension of the Godhead, that the divine mystery is one of communion at the heart of its being, and that this communion consists of knowledge and love.

In this, the penultimate chapter, I will examine the Christology of Bede Griffiths, which rounds out his doctrine of God as he understands the Divine. Clearly, his Christological insight is an absolutely indispensable element in his theological/contemplative vision. This will be the subject of the first section. The next three sections are more practical and concentrate on methodology of spiritual realization and the task of integration and assimilation as part of the Church’s mission in Asia and elsewhere. More specifically, the second section deals with Bede’s understanding of Tantrism and its importance for Christian spirituality, while the third considers sannysa as the way and experiential context for the encounter of Hinduism and Christianity. Here we are concerned with the possibility of a Christian form of sannysa. Finally, in the last section of the chapter, the focus is the future of the Church in relation to the process of assimilation, integration, and modifications of the spiritual insights, intuitions, and experiences of Hinduism and the other great traditions.

There is a unity to this chapter and its four sections that might not be obvious at first. The structure perhaps seems a bit arbitrary, but there is a practical theme that guides these issues, and so it is appropriate to situate them together in the same chapter. The practical concern of Bede’s Christology ultimately centers on Christ as paradigmatic of Sonship.

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