Fire and water: Basic issues in Asian Buddhism and Christianity,

1996) (English) by Pieris. A.

Reviewed by Kopf, G. (REPRINT)

JOURNAL OF ECUMENICAL STUDIES

Vol.35 No.2

Pp.305-306

Spring 1998

COPYRIGHT 1998 Journal of Ecumenical Studies

            Aloysius Pieris. Faith Meets Faith Series. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis 
            Books, 1996. Pp. 219. $20.00, paper. 
            In Fire and Water, Pieris argues convincingly and brilliantly that 
            an Asian theology must always be a liberation theology located in 
            the context of interreligious dialogue. He successfully negotiates 
            the ambiguity of Sri Lanka's Christians, whose religious and 
            cultural identities seem to be at odds and proposes a post-colonial 
            liberation theology that does justice to biblical foundation of 
            Catholicism as well as to the unique cultural, religious, economic, 
            and historical situation of today's Sri Lanka. He skillfully draws 
            from traditional scholarship, poetry, and Buddhist insights to 
            reinterpret Christian theology as liberation theology that 
            courageously faces the aftermath of colonialism, patriarchy, 
            religious sectarianism, and technocratic alienation at the end of 
            the twentieth century. While Pieris also touches on crucial issues 
            such as the significance of feminism, problems inherent in a 
            rhetoric of human rights, and the issue of chastity, I will focus on 
            his contributions to an interreligious dialogue. 
            Pieris is wholeheartedly dedicated to the evangelization of Asia and 
            the "conversion to YHWH's program of liberation" (p. 147). While 
            this program seems to conflict with the overall spirit of an 
            interreligious dialogue, Pieris radically reinterprets the 
            conceptions of "conversion" and "evangelization" with a brilliance 
            reminiscent of Erasmus's argument against the holy-war rhetoric of 
            sixteenth-century Europe. Pieris argues that YHWH's program is the 
            "dream of a contrast society," "a human community governed by love" 
            (p. 173); conversion is an "interreligious solidarity" beyond the 
            paradigms of exclusivism and inclusivism. This concern for the poor 
            and the downtrodden "is the common denominator between Christianity 
            and all non-biblical religions" (p. 149) and thus the basis for an 
            interfaith dialogue. As languages of the spirit, differing 
            theologies should neither mix nor absorb one another but coexist, 
            each in its particularity. The same applies to the languages of 
            human rights and of individual responsibilities and the languages of 
            inculturation and liberation. 
            Pieris constructs liberation theology as criticism of patriarchy, 
            economic exploitation, the idolatry of consumerism and, ultimately, 
            of theology itself. Theologies are not free from these forms of 
            infidelity but, rather, have to recognize the "canon within the 
            canon" (p. 107), which continuously denounces any form of domination 
            and exploitation even when it appears under the guise of theology. 
            Like Noriaki Hakamaya, who proposes that Buddhism has to be critical 
            and transformative, Pieris prefers a prophetic definition of 
            religion to a descriptive one. Any theology - and, subsequently, 
            interfaith dialogue - has to follow God's demand to listen to those 
            traditionally rejected and silenced: women, the poor, and those 
            subjected to economic, cultural, and theological imperialism. It is 
            Pieris's consistent emphasis on this prophetic demand and his 
            challenge to admit and reform the power structure and ideological 
            imperialism within the theological discourse that make Fire and 
            Water an invaluable contribution to Christian theology and 
            interreligious dialogue in the postcolonial era. His notions of 
            "symbiosis" and wholeness as well as his vision of a "third 
            magistratum," a tertius quid, further imply and necessitate a 
            radical rethinking of the fundamental paradigm on which theology and 
            interreligious dialogue rest.