Interfaith Dialogue and Mystical Consciousness
Harvard Theological Review October 1, 2022 Isaac Portilla 3 citations
Interfaith dialogue can be understood through the lens of mystical consciousness. The article argues that the Trinity can be directly experienced in interfaith contexts and proposes an interfaith framework that accounts for the possibilities, complexity, and challenges of such encounters. It applies Gavin Flood's three orders of discourse—traditions' experience and texts, interpretation within traditions, and academic inquiry—to the study of interfaith mysticism, using a phenomenological emphasis on hermeneutics. The inquiry draws on Hindu mystical figures (Sri Ramana Maharshi, Sri Aurobindo) and Christian interfaith thinkers (Henri Le Saux, Bede Griffiths, David Steindl-Rast), in conversation with Raimon Panikkar and Francis X. Clooney.