Monastic Interreligi – serie

Buddhism and Christianity, two religions with distinct worldviews, are sometimes thought to be irreconcilable. Notto R. Thelle holds a different view. His life and work have been divided between the East and the West, which has given him the privilege of having to live on the boundary," in a continual inner dialogue between his basic Christian commitment and the challenges and inspirations from the East. In Who Can Stop the Wind? he shares the thoughts and experiences generated by these encounters. With him, we come to realize that the border zone is not just "out there"; it also exists in our minds. By asking questions that engage both the Eastern and Western religious traditions, Thelle urges us to seek a larger faith.Notto R. Thelle is a senior professor of theology at the University of Oslo, Norway. He formerly spent sixteen years in Japan, where he was involved in research, dialogue, and pastoral work. Thelle has published several Norwegian textbooks on and translations of Buddhist and Eastern traditions. But his deepest commitment is the existential search for meaning, which has primarily been expressed in preaching and teaching, various types of dialogues, and particularly in writing."

Over the course of its history the Christian monastic tradition has developed a desert spirituality" of solitude, silence, and self-knowledge that fosters openness to the divine presence and its transformative power. Today the divine presence is manifesting itself anew in the "desert of otherness," that sacred space in which we encounter the other as one whose difference, even of religion and spirituality, can enrich us, rather than as one who must be drawn to and converted to our own "truth." The encounter of Christians with other believers will increasingly become a place of hardship and testing that leads to union with the divine. This "third monastic desert" is, in reality, the nucleus of the Kingdom that is coming into being, where communication becomes communion. Such has been the experience of monastic men and women - Buddhists, Hindus, and Christians - who have engaged in dialogue. Having discovered an unanticipated bond between dialogue and silence, openness to the other and interiority, Christian monks invite the whole Church to join them on this journey into the desert of otherness.Fabrice Blee was born in epernay, France. He is a full professor on the faculty of theology of Saint Paul University, Ottawa, where he teaches in the areas of interreligious dialogue and Christian spirituality. He is also the director of a series on Spiritualties in Dialogue (MediasPaul); a member of the editorial board of Dilatato Corde, the online journal of Monastic Interreligious Dialogue; and an advisor to the board of directors of the North American commission of Monastic Interreligious Dialogue."

The Benedictine monk Pierre-François de Béthune has dedicated his life to following the lead of the great pioneers of interreligious dialogue at the level of spiritual experience. Having practiced zazen and "Way of tea" assiduously for decades, he now leads readers along the path of spiritual hospitality, describing how welcoming other religions transformed him and brought him to rediscover the Gospel. In this volume, he evokes the spiritual journeys of some of the pioneers of interreligious dialogue, among them, Thomas Merton, Henri Le Saux, Raimon Panikkar, and Christian de Chergé and the monks of Tibhirine. In doing so, he proposes that their commitment to dialogue, hospitality, and welcoming the other corresponds to what the Gospel requires of the followers of Jesus.