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Irish Theological Quarterly

http://itq.sagepub.com Book Reviews: The Bhagavad-gita and St. John of the Cross. By Rudolf V. D'Souza OCD. Anand, Gujarat, India: Gujarat Sahitya Prakash, 1996. Pp. v+460. Price $15.00
Noel Carroll Irish Theological Quarterly 1999; 64; 433 DOI: 10.1177/002114009906400432 The online version of this article can be found at: http://itq.sagepub.com

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Pontifical University, St. Patrick's College, Maynooth, Co. Kildare, Ireland

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433

The Bhagavad-gita and St. John of the Cross. By Rudolf V. DSouza OCD. Anand, Gujarat, India: Gujarat Sahitya Prakash, 1996. Pp. v+460.
Price

cal
to

$15.00.

One of the pressing challenges facing the Church today is to clarify her nature and mission vis-d-vis the major religions. There are several reasons for this. The world is shrinking rapidly so

that

people and ideas

are

meeting

across

national boundaries; beliefs too are meeting and intermingling with the possibility of syncretism resulting. Also, the Church in recent decades has urged Christians to approach the

religions in a positive manner, declaring that these too are in a cergreat


tain sense vehicles of revelation however partial or blurred that revelation might be. There exists, too, a powerful movement in the West - the New Age - which I suspect may in the end pose a greater threat to Christianity than secularism. Its basic thesis would go something like this: Strip away all dogma, ritual, and tradition (the exoteric element in religion) from the religions and penetrate to the core (the esoteric element) and you will find that on this level they are all essentially the same. To a person whose grasp of Christianity is superficial, this reasoning can be quite seductive. Knowing nothing of the long and rich mystical tradition which exists in Christianity, one feels the need .to go beyond that tradition in search of rare and esoteric experiences, satori, nirvana, self-realisation. People can hardly be blamed for this, for where are the sure guides in Christian mysticism who can lead them to a dynamic and ever-deepening union with God? Who can help them to actually experience the presence of God in the depths of their hearts? Who can lead them safely past the dangers which they will surely encounter on the inner journey? The particular value of the book The Bhagavad-gita and St. John of the Cross is that it brings two great mysti-

together in an effort discover their similarities and differences. The authors approach is both sympathetic and rigorous, displaying a profound knowledge of both traditions. It could serve as a model for any such comparative study. There are similarities between the two, but there are also fundamental differences. Probably one of the greatest thinkers that India has produced is Shankara. He wrote a commentary on the Gi ta in which he displays the philosophy of Advaita or non-dualism. God, the world, and the person are not distinct and separate entities. If they seem so, that is due to ignorance. Hence for Shankara the spiritual search consists in an effort to overcome this sense of separation and to dissolve oneself in the Self which is the only reality. A Christian could never accept this philosophy and remain true to the teaching of Christ. For the Christian the key word is relation - not dissolution. NOEL CARROLL, S.V.D. Guaranda, Ecuador
movements

Radical Prayer: Creating a Welcome for God, Ourselves, Other People and the World. By David J. Hassel, S.J. Anand, Gujarat, India: Gujarat Sahitya Prakash, n.d. Pp. 181. N.p. ASIN 0 809 103400.
All
act

Christian

prayer agree that the initiative

explanations of
comes

from God, who

moves

of praying. Definitions of prayer from the great teachers of the Christian tradition include raising the mind to God (John Damascene), conversation and discussion with God (Gregory of Nyssa), affectionate directing of the mind to God

people

to

the

between friends (Theresa of Avila), and loving attentiveness to God (John of the Cross). David Hassel in this book describes prayer as benevolence, as creating a welcome for God, ourselves, other people and the world.
SEÁN HANNAFIN

(Augustine),

intimate

sharing

Tralee

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