"Without Ceasing to Be a Christian"
A Catholic and Protestant Assess the Christological Contribution of Raimon Panikkar
- World Religions
- Publisher: Fortress Press (Augsburg Fortress)
- Published: 2017
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Publisher's Description
Since his death in 2010, there has been continuing and growing interest in the life, vision, and thought of the late Spanish-Indian mystical theologian Raimon Panikkar. This volume offers a descriptive and critical assessment of Panikkar’s life and extensive writings about Christ. The chapters by Erik Ranstrom describe the intellectual and ecclesial development of Panikkar amidst his vast corpus, offering a sympathetic but not uncritical evaluation of his legacy and influence. Ranstrom retrieves Panikkar’s early Christology as a key to overcoming various impasses in the theology of religions today. Bob Robinson’s chapters introduce an ecumenical and Protestant perspective, including Panikkar’s reception in Protestant circles. Robinson also compares and contrasts Panikkar with a range of Indian theologians, both Catholic and Protestant, writing in India during Panikkar’s time there and suggests the possibilities of mutual enrichment. The authors’ intention is to provide an accessible journey into the fascinating and intimidating world of Panikkar’s thought. The conclusion features an ecumenical dialogue between Ranstrom and Robinson, as both scholars seek to further understand and learn from each other’s perspectives on this pioneer of interreligious spirituality and theology.
Endorsements (5)
“'Without Ceasing To Be a Christian' makes a welcome and substantive contribution to the growing library of assessments of Raimon Panikkar’s intellectual legacy. Writing from outside the circle of Panikkar’s immediate disciples, Ranstrom and Robinson engage his thought with the utmost respect and sensitivity – and thus are willing also to raise substantive concerns about the coherence and cogency of some of his positions and his overall theology. This admirably collegial work is also the fruits of an ecumenical, Catholic-Protestant friendship which freshly draws Panikkar into a deservedly broader Christian conversation. It is sure to help set Panikkar studies on a new foundation and promote a new wave of scholarship about him.”
“This is a work of remarkable scholarship and ecumenical engagement which investigates the ever-elusive interreligious writings of Raimon Panikkar from Catholic and Protestant perspectives. In many ways, it seeks to reinstate, as well as critique, Panikkar as a Christian theologian for whom the Christ-mystery is the focal point of his writings. Distinctive features include attention to little-known earlier works and development (or rupture?) of ideas in relation to his Opus Dei beginnings, Indic-Hindu Odyssey and beyond. This sometimes controversial, but always insightful, book is essential reading for all future Panikkar studies.”
“In this important and timely book, Bob Robinson and Erik Ranstrom provide an ecumenical reading of the truly outstanding intellectual in the theology of religions. In doing so, they appraise Raimon Panikkar’s interfaith theology intriguingly and creatively in the light of Christian tradition. More than this, authors track down some major shifts in Panikkar's thinking and thus locate the evolution of the ideas in their historical context. ' Without Ceasing to be a Christian' expounds Panikkar's thinking with proficiency and is therefore highly commendable for all those interested in the theology of religions.”
“Read this book if you want to better understand – both developmentally and analytically – one of the most significant thinkers of recent times, if you want to dive deeper into some of the most important Christological issues and debates of the present global era of encounter between religions, if you want to appreciate heretofore relatively unheard-of Roman Catholic and evangelical Protestant dialogue and interaction at a substantive level; usually one has to work through three volumes to attain these goals, but with what is held in your hands, you get at least three-for-the-price-of-one. “Without Ceasing to Be a Christian” is truly a theological feast!”
“In the new jointly authored work, the two authors, one a Roman Catholic and the other an Anglican, seek to shine a light on a neglected but crucial Christian thinker and priest whose perspectives, properly revisited, have much to offer us today. It is refreshing to find a jointly authored work of this kind on a topic which must surely refresh and invigorate current ecumenical and interfaith dialogue, as well as rejuvenate what it means to think well as Christians in an increasingly complex and pluralistic environment. Anglican and Catholics, with other Christians are called to the truth that what unites us is greater than what divides us, that no one of us has got it altogether, but in Christ, together, each one of us can share it all. This book offers a renewed way of approaching a multi-faith world with full Christian integrity while taking the pluralities very seriously, as well as modeling in itself an authorial partnership which bridges a difference.”
Archbishop. Archbishop Sir David Moxon
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