Читать книгу Only One Way? - Gavin D'Costa - Страница 29

Before I begin talking, or writing, about God, I need to post a reminder from my teacher, Karl Rahner: We experience God before we know God. All our ‘talk’ of the Divine is possible only because we have an inbuilt capacity to ‘feel’ the Divine. All the words we use for God are possible and meaningful only because they touch or give voice to what Rahner called the ‘pre-thematic’, or pre-verbal, experiences of the Divine that are as natural to our natures as a bee’s bent to flowers.8

So where did I learn my ‘God language’? From Jesus primarily. His ways of talking about the Mystery that held and guided his life– Abba, Spirit, Reign – confirm or clarify or correct the ways I have sensed this Mystery in my own interactions with people and the world. Certain Christian theologians – Rahner, Paul Tillich and, I should add, Raimon Panikkar9 – have provided the broader philosophical framework for the deeper understanding that my faith in Jesus seeks. And then there is Buddha. As I’ve tried to explain in a recent book, Gautama has helped me understand Jesus – or, the Dharma (Buddha’s teachings) has enabled me to grasp the gospel– in such a profound, enlightening way that I can honestly say that Without Buddha I Could Not Be a Christian.10 Like a growing number of Christians, I’m a ‘double-belonger’ – in this case, a ‘Buddhist–Christian’.11 Buddhist fingers, together with Rahner’s and Tillich’s and Panikkar’s, have helped point me to the moon that guided Jesus’ life and that he called ‘Abba’ or ‘Dad’. I’ll try to explain what I mean.