PODCAST Paul Knitter on "Walking More Than One Path: Is Religious Multiple-Belonging Possible?"

Faith House Living Room, October 14, 2009

With Prof Paul Knitter and Robert Kennedy, Roshi and S. J.

Follow the program online at home or feel free to adapt it for your local community.   

Welcome and Introductions (5 min)

Opening poem (read by one of Paul Knitter's students) (3 min)

"My Neighbor"


I am glad you made my neighbor different from me;

a different colored skin, a different shaped face;

a different response to you.

I need my neighbor to teach me about you;

he knows all the things I don’t know.



        By Monica Furlong, in 1000 World Prayers, Marcus
        Braybrooke, ed. Hampshire, UK: Obooks, 2003, p.296.

Presentation by Paul Knitter (20 min)

"Walking More Than One Path: Is Religious Multiple-Beloning Possible?"

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Paul Knitter on Walking more than one path

Discussion (20 min, facilitated by Bowie Snodgrass)

A. Clarifying questions for Knitter

B.  In small groups of 3-4, discuss:

"What do you think are effective ways to understand
and learn from another religious tradition?"

C.  Share an insight you heard from your neighbor with whole group

D.  Open sharing in whole group

Present and practice Zazen, silent sitting in the Buddhist Tradition (20 min)

Led by Robert Kennedy Roshi, S.J., (Jesuit priest and Zen teacher)

Community Sharing If time, invite people to share insights with group (5 min)

Close with 2-3 Koans (read by pre-selected participants)

A monk asked Fuketsu:
`Without speaking, without silence,
how can you express the truth?'
Fuketsu observed:
`I always remember spring-time in southern China.
The birds sing among innumerable kinds of fragrant flowers.'

    From The Gateless Gate

A monk asked Tozan,
"When cold and heat come, how should one avoid them?"
Tozan said,
"Why not go to a place where there is neither cold nor heat?"
The monk said, 
"What kind of place is it where there is neither cold nor heat?"
Tozan said, 
"When it is cold, the cold kills you;
when it is hot, the heat kills you." 

From The Blue Cliff Record                        

Final Announcements (10 min)

Paul F. Knitter, the Paul Tillich Professor of Theology, World Religions and Culture at Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York is a leading theologian of religious pluralism and interreligious dialogue.  Knitter is author of more than a dozen books, most recently, Without Buddha I Could Not Be A Christian.  Knitter's journey into interfaith dialogue began in 1964 when he was a seminarian in Rome and experienced the Second Vatican Council firsthand, at a time when the Roman Catholic Church declared its new attitude towards other religions.