Trust me, if you are intelligent, you should be able to understand the the activity of Comparative Theology. There is nothing in that branch of theology that is a danger to the soul. That’s what we’ve been trying to explain to people, but they jump to make assumptions that there is something dangerous there, without opening a single one of these works, be it by Merton, by John Paul II or any other theologian. John Paul II wrote beautiful and very helpful comparative theology in Crossing the Threshold of Hope. It has not led any souls astray. At worse, Comparative Theology, bores the person who has never had extensive training in World Geography and anthropology. The writer assumes that you had a good high school education and he does not pause to explain what this or that means or where it came from. He proceeds to the next level, the spiritual level.
A wonderful example that I use is the use of sculpture in Catholicism. It was obviously a pagan form of art. But it was a beautiful form of art, foreign to the Jews. As the Gentiles convert, they Christianize it rather than suppress it. The Christmas tree. There are several stories of how it came to be a Christian element for Christmas. The one point that is common to all of the stories is that it was a practice of pagan origins that was Christianized. Like this, we have many things that have been Christianized. This is what Comparative Theology does. It discovers what can be useful to Christians, what is common to both the Christian and the non-Christian, and what is so different, that we need to have it explained to us if we’re ever going to make the Gospel understood to the non-Christian, because we need to speak his language.
I’ll give you the advice that St. Maximilian Kolbe gave to the Catholics in Japan. There is nothing to fear in paganism, because most of it is myth. Myths can do no harm to the man who recognizes a myth. There is a great deal of Christianity to be found in paganism, beginning with moral values and the desire to do good and avoid evil, and there is great advantage to understanding what is different, because it opens up the door to understanding the mind and heart of another. With this belief in mind, the Franciscans thrived in Asia. The number of Asian Franciscans is greater than that of American Franciscans, given the number of Asian Catholics. In other words, the percentage is higher.
I have read Merton’s works and those of others who do Comparative Theology and am still a Catholic. Some of it is quite interesting. A lot depends on the writer too. Some writers are boring. They can make Batman and Robin sound like the weather report.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, FFV
Too bad that one has not been translated.