The Process of Buddhist-Christian Dialogue

While process philosophers and theologians have written numerous essays on Buddhist-Christian dialogue few have sought to expand the current Buddhist-Christian dialogue into a trilogue by bringing the natural sciences into the discussion as a third partner. This was the topic of Paul O. Ingrams previous book Buddhist-Christian Dialogue in an Age of Science. The thesis of the present work is that Buddhist-Christian dialogue in all three of its forms--conceptual social engagement and interior--are interdependent processes of creative transformation. Ingram appropriates the categories of Whiteheads process metaphysics as a means of clarifying how dialogue is now mutually and creatively transforming both Buddhism and Christianity. The Process of Buddhist-Christian Dialogue is many things: Reflections on the historical process of Buddhist-Christian dialogue the authors own intellectual process of evolving dialogue and the vision of dialogue informed by a Whiteheadian view of process. The multifaceted complexity and richness of the work however issues from Paul Ingrams wholehearted engagement with dialogue not just as a scholar but as a person. In plumbing the very depths of his own faith he has been inexorably impelled to examine his life within the larger scope of human and cosmic diversity to reach beyond any sort of dogmatically predefined boundaries. He is a scholar of Japanese Pure Land thought East Asian Buddhism and religion and science but it is here in The Process of Buddhist-Christian Dialogue that he truly reveals the deep hues of his kaleidoscopic lifework. --Mark Unno University of Oregon Ingram offers an insightful well-structured and panoramic view of the field of Buddhist-Christian studies mapping out the conceptual socially-engaged and interior dimensions of the dialogue that continue to enrich and expand the horizons of both traditions. --Ruben L. F. Habito Perkins School of Theology Southern Methodist University Paul O. Ingram is Professor of Religion Emeritus at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma Washington. He is the author of Buddhist-Christian Dialogue in an Age of Science Wrestling with God and Wrestling with the Ox: A Theology of Religious Experience.