by Joseph Stoutzenberger
I spent sixteen years going to Catholic-affiliated schools, so when I graduated from college, I decided to learn about other religions on my own. I recall sitting on the beach at the Jersey shore reading the Qur’an when everyone around me seemed to be reading fluff mystery novels. I moved on to reading What the Buddha Taught and then some of the Bhagavad Gita and Heschel and Buber on Judaism. I attempted to read the bible all the way through but got bogged down in the law codes of Leviticus and Numbers.
As it turns out, I taught a world religions course for much of my academic career. I don’t believe I ever had a student decide to change religions because of studying about them. Something else happened instead. Notre Dame theologian John S. Dunne describes a process he calls “crossing over and coming back.” He recommends immersing oneself in another religion, seeking to understand and appreciate it as someone who is a member of that religion would. After an experience of immersion, return to one’s own religion, and you will find that you look upon your own in a new light. It’s somewhat like saying that one of the best ways to appreciate what it means to be an American is to travel to another country and seek to understand and appreciate its customs and culture. In that way, you can understand and appreciate American culture better and differently. (We don’t take siestas in the afternoon. Why not? What does that say about us?)
One book that can help people engage in this process of crossing over and coming back is Living Buddha, Living Christ, by the Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hahn. He had many occasions to spend time with Christians and learn from them about their religion. He often found parallels between Buddhism and Christianity. When he heard about the Holy Spirit as the divine presence within people, he realized that it sounded very much like what Buddhists call mindfulness. The historical Jesus who comes to be viewed as Christ is similar to Siddhartha, who comes to be recognized as the Buddha, the awakened one.
Look up reviews of the book, and you will discover that many Christians feel as though his correlations between Buddhist concepts and Christian ones are belittling Christianity. Jesus is one with God, not simply “awake.” The vast majority of my Christian students who read the book find that Buddhist perspectives on reality help them better appreciate the meaning of their own beliefs.
A few years ago, I had an unplanned experience of crossing over and coming back at a Muslim festival in Philadelphia. I stopped at a booth that had pamphlets on interesting topics: Islam and Women, Islam and War. I picked up a few and stuck them in my back pocket. As I started to walk away, a woman behind the table beckoned to me: “Excuse me, sir, but you put those pamphlets in your back pocket. You might forget they are there and inadvertently sit on them. They contain the holy name of God.” I said, “Thank you very much. I would not want to sit on the name of God.” I was struck by the reverence shown to even the written name of God. We Christians tend to be nonchalant about and even disrespectful at times of writing or speaking God’s name. I had crossed over to a different appreciation for reverence toward the holy in scripture and discourse. It was a lesson I could apply to my own Christian attitude.
Eboo Patel had a different trajectory when it came to learning from and appreciating another religion and his own. He was raised in a Muslim family in Chicago but rebelled against it and stopped practicing. As a young man, he volunteered at a Catholic Worker House on the southside of Chicago and was impressed with the good work these Catholics were doing. A Franciscan brother there told him he should look into his own religion for wisdom and guidance. Patel discovered that care for those who are poor is a central teaching of Islam; it is one of its five pillars, zakat. He found in the Qur’an far more references to caring for people in need than about issues such as women’s dress that people associated with Islam. Patel was guided by the Franciscan brother to pass over from Catholicism to his own tradition and came back to it. Patel has established a leading organization to promote interreligious dialogue and young people from various backgrounds to work together for good.
America is increasingly a melting pot of many cultures and religions. Even my small hometown now has a Buddhist temple thanks to Cambodian refugees and a Confucian study center. If we apply John Dunne’s approach to these different traditions, we might come to a greater appreciation of our own. Try it.
