Paul F. Knitter is a leading theologian of religious pluralism at Union Theological Seminary. Since his groundbreaking work, No Other Name?, Knitter has been exploring how the religoius communities of the world can cooperate in promoting human and ecological well-being. His latest publication, Without Buddha I Could Not Be A Christian, examines the common ground and potential for mutual exchange between Buddhism and Christianity.
Last year, TRACT spent a great deal of time investigating eastern philosophy, delving into Zen, congitive science, meditation, and non-duality. This semester, TRACT hopes to study the western worldview as expressed in Christianity and explore its ties with an eastern religion, Buddhism. We have invited Professor Paul Knitter from UTS to guide us in a series of open discussions scheduled for the fall semester.
Below are a few quotes from Professor Knitter's work, Without Buddha I Could Not Be A Christian.
Why do Buddhist insist on the priority of Awakening over acting?...to remove one's ego from one's peacemaking, so that one's adtions will not be coming from one's ego-needs but rom the wisdom and compassion that constitues one's true nature."
Buddhists are aware...that to make the value of any act dependent too much (or at all!) on its hoped-for results runs the risk of devaluing the act--something like making the love we have for our children too dependent on the hopes we have for them.
The relationship between the present and the future is one in which they co-inhere, or have their existence, in each other. They're really different, and yet one cannot be found, or realized, without the other...That means we must engage the presentmoment with as much honesty, creativity, boldness, adn mindfulness as we can.