Contemplation et dialogue : Quelques exemples de dialogue entre spiritualités après le concile Vatican II : [examples of spiritualities in dialogue emerging after the Second Vatican Council]

In the latter half of the 20th century interreligious dialogue has become a necessary and important feature in human co-existence. This study discusses the dialogue of religious experience. The essentials in this dialogue are mutual understandings of prayer and contemplation as practiced in differing religious and cultural contexts. The dissertation consists of four parts. The first is a survey of missiological theology on interreligious dialogue, contemplation and inculturation in the Catholic Church after the Second Vatican Council. The second part considers initiatives taken in dialogue in the Benedictine Order from early 1960-ties to mid 1990-ties. Attention is given to "East-West Spiritual Exchange" which has taken place regularly between European participants in "Dialogue Interreligieux Monastique" and Zen Buddhists in Japan. The third section focuses on Japan. Three Japanese Catholic theologians are discussed. In efforts to establish theological and pastoral communication with Zen tradition, moving towards an integration of details emerging from Zen practice to Catholic spirituality, the Japanese theologians theologize in a fashion similar to the Benedictines. The final section analyses initiatives in dialogue of religious experience discussed in the thesis. Key concepts draw attention to distinctive characteristics of specific expressions in dialogue, partly in monastic contexts, partly in Japanese contexts. Because the particular form of dialogue presented is an ongoing process which has only recently commenced, no final results in developments can yet be identified. Suffice it to state that initiatives described are new inputs in Catholic missiological study. Both Benedictine and Japanese theologians have in many ways paved the way for official Catholic theology on interreligious dialogue