Return to the Center

The One Spirit in All Religion - Bede Griffiths

The function of comparative religion is to discern this essential Truth, this divine Mystery beyond speech and thought, in the language-forms and thought-forms of each religious tradition, from the most primitive tribal traditions to the most advanced world religions. In each tradition the one divine Reality, the one eternal Truth, is present, but it is hidden under symbols, symbols of word and gesture, of ritual and dance and song, of poetry and music, art and architecture, of custom and convention, of law and morality, of philosophy and theology. Always the divine Mystery is hidden under a veil, but each revelation (or ‘unveiling’) unveils some aspect of the one Truth, or, if you like, the veil becomes thinner at a certain point. The Semitic religions, Judaism and Islam, reveal the transcendent aspect of the divine Mystery with incomparable power. The oriental religions reveal the divine Immanence with immeasurable depth. Yet in each the opposite aspect is contained, though in a more hidden way. We have to try to discover the inner relationship between these different aspects of Truth and unite them in ourselves. I have to be a Hindu, a Buddhist, a Jain, a Parsee, a Sikh, a Muslim, and a Jew, as well as a Christian, if I am to know the Truth and to find the point of reconciliation in all religion.

Extract taken from Return to the Centre by Bede Griffiths

SHALOM PAX SHANTI PEACE OM+

#fatherbedehouseofprayer