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[Abbreviations]
[ References ]
Regarding Christianity as a world-wide religion of much spiritual variety, see the essay by Saliers.
I have not mentioned Judaism among the non-Christian religions which have enriched my understanding of Christianity because Christianity is inseparable from Judaism. Judaism is the religion of Jesus, and Christianity without Judaism would not be Christianity. Islam and Christianity share monotheism (though Islam fails to understand trinitarianism as monotheism), and they share a desire for submission to God's will.
My own understanding of the Christian interface with the Eastern religions has been enhanced by Thomas Merton (a Trappist monk, whose tragic accidental death occurred during a tour of centers of Buddhist faith and learning), Raimundo Panikkar (a Roman Catholic priest and scholar of Hinduism), and Henri Le Saux (a French Benedictine interpreter of Hinduism). I must also mention Gandhi and his influence on Martin Luther King, Jr. The reader is especially directed to Merton's essay introducing Gandhi on Non-Violence, discussing the imperative of bringing the reason of the West into harmony with the spirituality of the East.
I am also indebted to native Americans Vine Deloria, Jr. and Jaime Highwater (for the books cited) and Johnny Moses (conference workshops). My understanding of vaudouism comes from various interpreters encountered during ten years of surgical visits to a hospital in Haiti, where this essay was revised and brought to its completion, in November 1990.
(In the book version, Exhibit 18 appeared in Chapter Seven.)
Abbreviations used throughout
Books of the Hebrew Scriptures
Gn. - Genesis
Ex. - Exodus
Lev. - Leviticus
N. - Numbers
Dt. - Deuteronomy
2 Kg. - Second Book of Kings
Ps. - Psalms
Jer. - Jeremiah
Dan. - Daniel
Mic. - Micah
Books of the Christian Testament
Mt. - Matthew
Mk. - Mark
Lk. - Luke
Jn. - John
Acts - Acts of the Apostles
References
Deloria (Jr.), Vine. God is Red. New York: Grosset & Dunlap,
1973
Gandhi On Non-Violence. Introduced and edited by Thomas Merton. New York: New Directions, 1965.
Highwater, Jaime. The Primal Mind. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1984.
Le Saux, Henri. Selections, in Light from Light: An Anthology of Christian Mysticism. New York: Paulist, 1983
Merton, Thomas. The Asian Journal. New York: New Directions, 1973
Panikkar, Raimundo. The Vedic Experience. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977.
Saliers, Don E. ``Christian Spirituality in an Ecumenical Age''. Christian Spirituality: Post-Reformation and Modern, (Volume Three). Edited by Louis Dupr‚ and Don E. Saliers. New York: Crossroad, 1989.
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