Christophany: The Fullness Of Man (Faith Meets Faith Series) [Paperback]

Raimon Panikkar (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 214 pages
• Publisher: Orbis Books (November 30, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1570755647
• ISBN-13: 978-1570755644
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #296,267 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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55 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An erudite plea for a new Christian mysticism., November 21, 2005

By 

Stephen Triesch (Shoreline/Seattle USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Christophany: The Fullness Of Man (Faith Meets Faith Series) (Paperback)

Christology is the effort of the Christian churches to define the nature and mission of Jesus. In this difficult new book, Raimon Pannikar proposes not so much a new Christology as a renewed effort to penetrate into a lived experience of the mystery of Christ, what Pannikar calls a "Chistophany," the mystery of God-in-man and man-in God. What Christianity needs is not new or modernized dogmas, but rather a lived experience of the mystical reality that lurks behind or beneath the dogmas that have already been proclaimed. Pannikar boldly suggests that we must strive for - somehow, someway - an experience of God's presence within us, and us in God, that approximates the experience of Jesus himself.

Christian mysticism has always been hidden, so to speak, in plain sight: the letters of Paul and the Gospel of John are nothing if not mystical, but for most of Christian history this mysticism was downplayed or even suppressed in favor of a mere verbal adherence to a set of dogmas or beliefs ABOUT Jesus. It is time, says Pannikar, for Christian renewal to take place at the level of mystical awareness.

Pannikar brings enormous erudition and scholarship to this effort, even to a fault: the flow of his argument is often slowed down by the plethora of quotes from sources ancient and modern, from the East and from the West. Virtually every page is replete with quotes in Greek, Sanskrit, Latin, Spanish, German, Aramaic, Hebrew, and French (fortunately, translations are provided in most, if not all, cases). The scholarship is impressive, but I wondered sometimes if it was overdone, obscuring rather than clarifying.

And much in this book is indeed obscure, as befits its subject matter. Mystical experience is notoriously difficult to put into words, and Pannikar struggles mightily to do so, as in the following passage: "Thou discoverest the I by being thyself, by being thy self, by being the thou of the I. It is the I and the I alone that can say ahambrahmasmi (I am brahman), Yahwe ("I am who I am") . . . " There are entire paragraphs full of this sort of thing, so be warned; if this seems like verbal sleight-of-hand, you will not enjoy this book. Indeed, you will probably not finish it.

In closing, two more things need to be said. Although Pannikar insists that Christians explore the depths of mystical awareness, this cannot be done at the expense of the social Gospel, cannot be an excuse to turn away from the problems of the world. Pannikar is quite clear that any such mysticism would be a false mysticism and a betrayal of the Trinitarian communalism that lies at the basis of all Christian experience.

Nor is mysticism to be used merely as a tool of evangelism or missionary efforts, as a way to "sell" Jesus to people in non-Christian traditions. Pannikar opposes a universalizing impulse which would attempt to create a universal Christian theology or culture applicable to all times, places, and peoples. Mysticism will enable Christians to experience the depths of their own identity in God, not to convert the whole world to Christianity.

One does indeed get the impression that Pannikar put everything into this, a work which will perhaps be his last major work, his magnum opus, even his last will and testament. So, despite its difficulty and obscurity, I give this book four stars. It is a sincere and important effort to express the inexpressible, to point Christianity back towards its depths, and to return a sense of Being to the center of our lives.

37 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Panikkar's sometimes-"obscurity" comes from deep multicultural clarity, December 9, 2005

By 

Ernie Tamminga (Goleta, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Christophany: The Fullness Of Man (Faith Meets Faith Series) (Paperback)

I basically agree with the previous review already posted here.
I just want to add that the reason that words and phrases from "other" traditions appear fairly often in Panikkar's writing, is that those traditions often have words that EXACTLY say or evoke a topic Panikkar is talking about. To translate the "foreign" term sufficiently into English/Western-framework would take, sometimes, an extra page or 2 or 3 -- and would REALLY slow down Panikkar's own exposition.
I had the privilege of doing my PhD work with Panikkar, studying with him for 5 years in the early 1980's. His is the only body of thought I've ever encountered that truly, I believe, holds a (the?) key to human dialog -- and survival -- in the 21st Century. I've long been frustrated, too, that his work is widely "inaccessible" precisely because it is so deeply conversant with multiple human traditions. But that frustration does not reflect on Panikkar himself -- his own life-work is to Say it all in its deeply open-ended completeness. It remains for others of us, I think, to attempt the humble tasks of absorbing the work and reflecting facets of it as best we can for specific audiences.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A note on translations, April 25, 2006

By 

D. W. Taylor (Syracuse, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Christophany: The Fullness Of Man (Faith Meets Faith Series) (Paperback)

One reason for the "obscurity" noted by the reviewer below is that the English text of this treatise is a translation from the original Italian. As those familiar with Dr. Panikkar know, he writes and publishes in English, German, French, Spanish and Italian (not to mention various Indian languages). With all due respect to the translater, as a long time Panikkar devotee (from 1971 at UCSB) I was not altogether pleased with the result. A "translation" of an "interpretation" of an "experience" sometimes ends up as stilted prose.

Here's hoping that "The Experience of God: Icons of Mystery" to be published in June 2006 does not suffer from this defect, minor though it may be.