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From the Inner Being of God to Inter-Faith Dialogue

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Hope in the Ecumenical Future

Part of the book series: Pathways for Ecumenical and Interreligious Dialogue ((PEID))

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Abstract

The concept of a “Creator-Sustainer-God” shows already that difference is essential to God. In God, identity and difference are co-eternal. The idea of Creator-Sustainer-God in itself therefore implies an ontological intra-dynamic relation. This does not deny that God could still remain One and Indivisible (Monotheism), but emphasizes the fact that unity and indivisibility do not imply “static-ness”. The conceptualization of God as one, indivisible and dynamic existence, from the ontological examination of Christian Deus-trinitas, could be the meeting point of Monotheism and Polytheism. It could also provide a common ground that permits us to hope that other world religions—Islam , Judaism , Hinduism , Buddhism and African Traditional Religions —would initiate a profound re-examination of their notion and relations to God/gods and to progress in their dialogue with one another.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See Patrick Toner, “Etymology of the word ‘God’”, in Charles G. Herbermann et al. (eds.), The Catholic Encyclopedia (New York: Robert Appleton Company 1909), vol. 6, http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06608x.htm (accessed February 7, 2016). See also: John H. Wright, SJ, “God”, in Joseph A. Komonchak et al. (eds.), The New Dictionary of Theology (Bangalore: Theological Publications in India 1996), 423.

  2. 2.

    Wright, “God”, 423; cf. Patrick Toner, “Etymology of the word ‘God’”.

  3. 3.

    See Richard G. Swinburne, “God”, in Ted Honderich (ed.), The Oxford Companion to Philosophy (Oxford: Oxford University Press 1995), 314–15. See also Judy Pearsall and Bill Trumble (eds.), Oxford English Reference Dictionary (Oxford: Oxford University Press 1996), G, 598.

  4. 4.

    Wright, “God”, 423.

  5. 5.

     « لاإلهإلااللهمحمدرسولالل» , i.e. there is no god but God. Muhammad is the messenger of God. See also: Surah Al-Baqarah (II), 163, 255; Surah Al-Imran (III), 2, 6, 18, etc.

  6. 6.

    See Surah Al A’raf (VII) 7, 54: “Your Lord is Allah who created the heaven and the earth in six days and then established Himself above the throne”.

  7. 7.

    See John L. Esposito (ed.), The Oxford Dictionary of Islam (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), 333.

  8. 8.

    See Piero Coda, Teo-logia: la Parola di Dio nelle parole dell'uomo (Roma: Lateran University Press, 2004), 77–8.

  9. 9.

    Polytheism is generally seen as being equivalent to idolatry. Cf. Babylonian Talmud/Mishnah: Tractate Avodah Zarah. See Rabbi Louis Jacobs (ed.), The Jewish Religion: A Companion (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), 189–94, 366.

  10. 10.

    See “The Hindu Trinity (Trimrti)” in Arvind Sharma, Classical Hindu Thought: An Introduction, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), ch. 6; See also V. Jayararn, The Trimurthis or the Trinity at: http://www.hinduwebsite.com/hinduism/hindutrinity.asp (accessed 25 January 2016).

  11. 11.

    See Louis Renou, L'induismo, trans. Luciana MEAZA (Milano: Xenia, 1994), 34.

  12. 12.

    See Alan B. Wallace, “Is Buddhism Really Non-Theistic”, lecture given at the National Conference of the American Academy of Religion, Boston, Massachusetts, November 1999, 8 at: http://www.alanwallace.org/Is%20Buddhism%20Really%20Nontheistic_.pdf (accessed 15 August 2016).

  13. 13.

    See Nyanaponika Thera, “Buddhism and the God-idea” in The Vision of the Dhamma (Kandy, Sri Lanka: Buddhist Publication Society, 1994), 294–9. Also at: http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/nyanaponika/godidea.html (accessed 9 February 2016).

  14. 14.

    This could also be compared to the traditional Greek religion/mythology where there is actually the veneration of proper triad constituted by the three gods of the Olympus: Zeus as the god of the heavens, Poseidon as the god of the sea and Hades as the god of the underworld while Zeus remains the coordinator or synthesis of the gods.

  15. 15.

    See Francis A. Arinze, Sacrifice in Igbo Traditional Religion (Onitsha, Nigeria: St. Stephen’s Press 2008), 15: “The Igbo man believes firmly in the existence of a Supreme Being. This Supreme Spirit has three chief names: Chukwu (Chi-ukwu, the Great Spirit), Chineke (the Spirit that creates), and Osebuluwa (Lord who upholds the world)”.

  16. 16.

    Arinze, Sacrifice, 18.

  17. 17.

    Arinze,Sacrifice, 19. See also Edwin W. Smith (ed.), African Ideas of God: A Symposium (London: Edinburgh House Press, 1950), 12; George T. Basden, Niger Ibos (London: Frank Cass, 1938), 37; Cyril Daryll Forde and Gwilym Iwan Jones, The Ibo and Ibibio-Speaking Peoples of South Eastern Nigeria. Ethnographic Survey of Africa: Part 3 (London, New York: Oxford University Press, 1950), 25.

  18. 18.

    See: Gen. 1:2; 6:3; Ex. 31:3; Neh. 9:20; Is. 11:2; Ez. 36:27; 39:29; Micah 3:8; Zech. 4:1–7; 12:10, etc.

  19. 19.

    See Pontifical Biblical Commission, The Jewish and Their Sacred Scriptures in the Christian Bible, (Vatican: EV, 2001), n. 65.

  20. 20.

    For a panorama of contributions on the contemporary philosophico-theological rethinking of Trinitarian ontology, see Klaus Hemmerle, Thesen zu einer trinitarischen Ontologie (Einsiedeln: Johannes Verlag, 1976); L’Ubomir Zak, “Verso una ontologia trinitaria”, in Piero Coda-L’Ubomir Zak (eds), Abitando la Trinità. Per un rinnovamento dell’ontologia trinitaria (Roma: Città Nuova, 1998), 5–25. This contains the orthodox and traditional contributions of A. Rosmini, T. Haeker, E. Przywara, H.U. von Balthasar, J. Ratzinger, K. Hemmerle, P. Coda. On the problems of Trinitarian ontology, see Gisbert Greshake, Der dreieine Gott. Eine trinitarische Theologie (Basel: Herder, 1997).

  21. 21.

    Cf. Hans Urs von Balthasar, Theo-Drama, Theological Dramatic Theory, vol. V: The Last Act, trans. G. Harrison (San Francisco: Ignatius, 1998), 243.

  22. 22.

    See Pope Francis, Laudato Sì’ (Bologna: EDB, 2015), §§238–240.

  23. 23.

    François Varillon, La Souffrance de Dieu, (Paris: Le Centurion, 1975), 60–1. Cf. Hans Urs von Balthasar, Theo-Drama, Theological Dramatic Theory, vol. V: The Last Act, 243.

  24. 24.

    Gustave Martelet, “Teihard et le mystère de Dieu” in Cahier de la Fondation et Association Teilhard de Chardin (Paris: Seuil, 1971), 77–102.

  25. 25.

    See Heinz Schürmann, Jesu ureigner Tod (Freiburg: Herder, 1975), 146.

  26. 26.

    Hans Urs Von Balthasar, Theological Dramatic Theory, vol. V: The Last Act, 245.

  27. 27.

    For the dialectics and logical arguments in favour of the Christian doctrine of the trinity, see Richard Cartwright, “On the Logical Problem of the Trinity”, in Philosophical Essays (Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1987), 187–200, 188. A. Rosmini reasons (in his Teosofia (eds. Maria Adelaide Raschini and Pier Paolo Ottonello) (Roma: Istituto di studi filosofici, 1998–2002), 191) that the mystery of the triad (trinity) could not have come to the human mind/intelligence in the first place if the same God had not revealed it positively to human beings. Carl Jung also suggests that all religious statements contain logical contradictions and impossible assertions in principle and that this in fact constitutes the essence of religious assertions. See Carl G. Jung, Psicologia e alchimia (Torino: Boringhieri, 1981), 19; “Psychology and Alchemy” in Collected Works of Carl Jung, vol. 12 (London: Routledge, 1980).

  28. 28.

    See Dayton Hartmann II, “Answering Muslim Objections to the Trinity”, a paper presented to the International Society of Christian Apologetics, June 6–7, 2008, especially 12–13 (at: http://www.answering-islam.org/authors/hartman/trinity_objections.html (accessed 15 August 2016)). See Norman Geisler, Systematic Theology, Vol. II: God & Creation (Bloomington: Harvest House, 2003), 39.

  29. 29.

    See William L. Craig and James P. Moreland, Philosophical Foundations for a Christian World-view, (Downers Grove: Inter Varsity, 2003), 590.

  30. 30.

    Norman Geisler, Systematic Theology, Vol. II: God & Creation, 292–3.

  31. 31.

    Moses Maimonides, Guide for the Perplexed (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1963), pt. I, 50–70; pt. I, ch. 57.

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  1. Pontifical Lateran University, Vatican City, Italy

    Chukwumamkpam Vincent Ifeme

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  1. University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom

    Mark D. Chapman

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Ifeme, C.V. (2017). From the Inner Being of God to Inter-Faith Dialogue. In: Chapman, M. (eds) Hope in the Ecumenical Future . Pathways for Ecumenical and Interreligious Dialogue. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63372-5_11

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