The possibility of inter-religious dialogue between Christians and Buddhists in the critical phenomenology of Paul Tillich

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to discuss how Paul Tillich (1886-1965) methodologically developed the inter-religious dialogue in his theology and philosophy. Although Paul Tillich developed his own methodology in theology – such as the correlation method and the theological circle – one can also observe in his work the
phenomenology of Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger, and its application in the research of religious experience. However, according to Tommy A. Goto, the phenomenology present in the thought of Tillich is neither pure phenomenology according to Husserl, nor hermeneutic phenomenology later developed by Heidegger, but rather a “critical phenomenology,” as the theologian suggests. This critical phenomenology is summarized in the association of both phenomenological elements, that is, Husserl’s phenomenology of intuitive-descriptive and the critical-existential phenomenology of Heidegger. It is from this “critical phenomenology” that allows the inter-religious dialogue between Christianity and non-Christian religions, such as Japanese Buddhism. To explain the possible inter-religious dialogue between Christianity and the Japanese Buddhism, we will use as an example the dialogue between Paul Tillich and the Buddhists that was presented as the “Conferences of Bampton” in autumn 1961 after his trip to Japan. In this conference, Tillich discusses a possible dialogue between Buddhism and Christianity, stating that interfaith can be based on a theological and philosophical methodology.