Book Reviews 525
Depending on a variety of usually re-
liable written and oral sources, the au-
thors adopt both a descriptive and
analytical methodology to look at the
socio-political, historical, cultural, and
psychological factors that have produced
the current growth of the Han Chinese
Protestant church.
In chapter 5 Hunter and Chan give
detailed reports on the varieties of Chris-
tian life to be found outside of the larger
urban centers. This intimate picture of
the many variables impinging on these
congregations shows the danger of mak-
ing simplistic extrapolations about the
whole of China. A look at Roman Ca-
tholicism and Buddhism gives a perspec-
tive by which to evaluate the different
and unique religious and cultural fea-
tures of both of these groups as com-
pared with Protestant churches.
While giving due weight to theological
and spiritual factors producing the great
growth of Protestant churches, the au-
thors stress also the many points of
congruence between the Protestant faith
and the popular Chinese religious tradi-
tion, particularly in the rural areas. This
includes such factors as prayer, healing,
charismatic phenomena, morality, sin,
suffering, salvation, and conversion.
They also analyze the historical and
political context which has created a
favorable climate in which churches can
grow.
Hunter and Chan, both academicians
with noted track records in studies of the
Chinese Christian scene, have done their
work well and leave little uncovered in
analyzing the present situation.
How do they view the future of the
Protestant church in China? They con-
clude that "whatever happens, it seems
that Chinese Protestantism is now a sus-
tainable force" (278). In their view the
Christian faith may never get beyond
being a "sub-cultural minority religion"
(266) in the large industrial cities, where
the government carefully supervises all
ideological issues. However, in the coun-
try areas where "much of the population
has a long tradition of religious belief'
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(266) it may move away from its sub-cul-
tural role and impact mainstream Chi-
nese culture. Particularly will this be true
if it retains the core of its belief and
continues to provide "the answer to life's
quest, a spiritual experience which leads
to utter certainty and conviction" (269).
If you can read only one book on the
current Protestant scene in China, make
it this one!
The Cosmotheandric Experience:
Emerging Religious Consciousness
By Raimon Panikkar
Maryknoll, NY Orbis Books
1993, xv, 160 pp., cloth. $24.95
Reviewed by C. A. Joachim Pillai
Nearly fifty years ago, Panikkar pub-
lished his first essay, the title of which
was "Synthetic Vision of the Universe."
Now in 1993 the same theme is taken up
again in the present volume, more than
30 books and 300 essays later. In his
Gifford lectures at the University of Ed-
inburgh in 1989 titled "The Rhythm of
Being," Panikkar explored the same
theme of the "theos" dimension of this
cosmotheandric experience.
As a good teacher, Panikkar is trying
to deepen and simplify and make his
research available to those interested in
interfaith dialogue. His lifework has
been to live out this vision of unity
implicit in all religious experience.
The first essay which started as a short
piece called "The Catholic Experience"
has now matured into what he calls in
his particular jargon "The Cos-
motheandric Experience." Remembering
Jesus' call to his disciples to gather (col-
ligite) the leftovers (jragmenta) after the
miracle of loaves and fishes, Panikkar
wants to gather into a harmonious whole,
not only what is orthodox and accept-
able, but also what is heterodox and
questionable. Nothing is left out. Every-
thing is included.
For Panikkar the divine, the human,
and the cosmic are three irreducible di-
mensions which constitute the real. Of
course, they can be formulated in differ-
526 C. A. Pillai, Sunday Aigbe, Eugene Fisher
ent ways. An agnostic may even think of
it as the "Unknown't-e-above, below. and
in-between; another may think of it as
the mystic, aesthetic. and noetic dimen-
sions. Panikkar is trying to say that the
ultimate constitution of reality is three-
fold-not as three modes of a monolithic.
undifferentiated reality, nor as three ele-
ments of a pluralistic system. But this
fascination with the "triune" is his way of
grasping the real. I do not think he makes
a dogma of this intuition of reality.
How he goes on to spell out the
kairological moments of consciousness
as the ecumenic moment, economic mo-
ment. and the Catholic moment seems to
be an effort at synthesizing a vast array
of human experience and religious in-
sight from both East and West. The best
response might be the silence which he
advocated in his earlier volume. The Si-
lence of the Buddha.
In the second part of the book. 'The
End of History." Panikkar tries to root
the cosmotheandric experience in history
with its many twists and turns leading
inevitably to some form of transcen-
dence. He is quite down to earth in his
sociological analysis which seems to con-
firm what is happening in the evolution
of superpower politics. His main point is
that people will be impelled to break out
of all closed systems and yearn for liber-
ation from all the hidden slaveries of
civilized consciousness.
The book succeeds admirably in focus-
ing our inward eye on the realities that
ultimately define human being and be-
coming. In a tour de force. Panikkar has
used all his erudition in science. philos-
ophy. and religious studies to define this
cosmotheandric experience.
Muslim-Christian Encounters: Per-
ceptions and Misperceptions
By William Montgomery Watt
London. UK: Routledge
1991. 164 pp.. cloth. £30.00. paper. £10.99
Reviewed by Sunday A. Aigbe
The bombing of the World Trade Cen-
ter in New York. Ethnic cleansing in
Downloaded from mis.sagepub.com at SUNY HEALTH SCIENCE CENTER on April 12, 2015
former Yugoslavia. The Azerbaijan-Ar-
menian crisis. Death sentence on
Salmon Rushdie. What do these and a
number of other recent world-news inci-
dents have in common'? They are not
only symptoms of worsening Muslim-
Christian relations. but also represent a
long tradition of love-hate tensions be-
tween the Arab world and the West. In
this timely book. William Montgomery
Watt traces the roots and development of
this long tradition of encounters from
c.E. 600 to the present.
His basic argument is that these en-
counters are due to "little accurate
information" or "misperceptions" (6. 7)
that the two great religions have of each
other. Any improvement in relationships
between the two religions and. in effect.
the Arab and Western worlds. he be-
lieves. must begin with dialogue that
fosters "a better understanding of the
other's religion" (144).
The first eight chapters cover the basic
argument. Watt groups the encounters as
theological (chapters 1-4). military (5-7),
and intellectual (8-9). The last chapter
focuses on the solution.
The author sets the stage by analyzing
the state of sixth-century Christianity as
represented by the Orthodox Church. the
Monophysites, and the Nestorians. A key
weakness of Christianity during this pe-
riod was its lack of agreement in theo-
logical matters such as the concept of
trinity in relation to the doctrine of the
oneness of God. With this deep division.
the churches could hardly agree on any
thing from ecclesiology to Christology
and cultural sensitivity. Thus the type of
Christianity to which Muhammad and
the Arab tribal societies were exposed
was that of a religion in disarray. One
consequence was that the "perception of
Christianity" developed by Muhammad
and his followers was lacking in accu-
racy.
Watt next delineates the following
basic Christian stereotypes of Islam: (I)
Islam is a deliberate perversion of truth;
(2) Islam is a religion which spreads by
violence and the sword; (3) Islam is a