Sección I: conociendo al personal docente de la Escuela

According to Stephen T. Chan’s observation, the preoccupation of Song’s theology is twofold: Negatively, it is to liberate the Asian Christian from ‘the confinement of western theology’. Positively, it is to venture into uncharted terrain ‘searching for new resources for the reconstruction of theology in Asia.’^^ These two attempts, nonetheless, do not outgrow, but still revolve around, the two most common issues of Asian theology-suffering and pluralism. It is alongside these trends that the three theological methodologies of Song develop: they are the third-eye theology, the theology of transposition and the theology of story. It is noticeable that there is an ultimate distinction between Barth’s and Song’s teachings of the knowledge of God. Barth treats the ontological foundation (the realities of divine revelation) antecedent to the epistemological foundation (the possibilities), for he insists that this is the only order prescribed for human beings by God in Scripture, whereas Song develops the epistemological foundation prior to the ontological foundation, in line with the classical epistemological philosophies.

Stephen T. Chan, ‘Narrative, Story and Storytelling; A Study of C. S. Song’s Theology of ^Xoxy? Asia Journal o f Theology, 12.1 (April, 1998), 18.

(I) Third-Eye Theology

In Third-eye Theology Song intends to provide an ambitious device in the Asian setting which is accessible to all human beings who are in search of the Being ‘from whom they derive the power and meaning of their experience’, for that Being ‘is the source and destiny of their being’. He argues, no matter whether consciously or unconsciously, human beings are bound to search for that Being, as they are conditioned ‘by the image of God within them.’^^ Song names this universally accessible device, by which humans can be led to the Being, ‘spirituality’. However, spirituality of this kind must not be confused with the spirituality understood ‘in a narrow sense’ —something procured merely from a religious faith or belief. What Song means by spirituality, existing both in the East and the West, is the entirety of being that ‘expresses itself in ways of life, modes of thinking, patterns of behavior and conduct, and attitude toward the mystery that surrounds our immediate world and that beckons us on to the height beyond heights, to the depth below depths, and to the lights beyond lights.

According to Song, the discovery of such a universal and pluralist spirituality in the essence of Asian cultures will open the eyes of Christians to see what has long since been disclosed in the Gospel, but is overlooked because of their prejudice. It will enable especially western Christians to discover fresh insights into how God is at work in places and peoples unknown to them. While the journey to the Being through an Asian spirituality is exciting and enriching, it is also difficult and complicated in that there is a twofold obstacle, pictured as

Song, Third-Eye Theology, 17. Ibid., 10.

‘double darkness’, to be conquered: ‘the darkness surrounding the heart of Being and the darkness separating Christian spirituality from other Asian spiritualities.’^^ The first darkness, which surrounds the heart of Being, is what Barth would call the unbridgeable ‘infinite qualitative distinction’ between human beings and God, which defies a complete comprehension of the mystery of that Being from the human side by virtue of the logic of reason and rationality. This explains why the human inquiries for that Being have never been in solidarity, but often take vastly different forms of expression for people in different cultures, for lack of a common spirituality.^^ This is particularly true in any religion as well as culture, as in the darkness of Being all human beings are confronted with their ultimate puzzlement, anxiety, and fear. This can be seen in the fact that ‘from highly developed religions like Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, or Christianity to the primitive religions of nomads and other who live on the fringe of modem civilization, each faith has developed its own ways and systems to account for whatever insight each is enabled to gain into the mystery of Being.

The second darkness results from human hubris (pride) and the arrogance that claims to have the complete knowledge of God at his or her fingertip, and therefore has rooted out other approaches to the depth of the mystery of Him. As a result, the spirituality that has developed in each religion is regarded as sui generis. Communication between one spirituality and another becomes an almost impossible feat. ‘One spirituality, instead of embracing another spirituality.

71_{Ibid., 22} Ibid., 17. ^Ibid., 17-18.

repels Only when the darkness that surrounds different spiritualities is lifted can human beings begin to see the love and compassion of God for the world in a fuller and richer light. To overcome this double darkness, particularly the darkness that makes different spiritualities unable to communicate with one another, is the task of third-eye theology.^^ That is to say, to bridge the infinite qualitative distance between human beings and the Being, to break the barriers that prohibit spiritualities of different religions from being united, Christians cannot resort to the west-cherished theology; they must look at their own theology afresh ‘with a third eye. For traditional theology, with which Christians are too familiar and in which most of them are nurtured, ‘is a first- or a second-eye theology—a two-dimensional theology that is not capable of a third-dimensional insight.’ It is a ‘fiat theology’ canvassing a long stretch of terrain-the two thousand years of church history—‘colored strongly by western thought forms and lifestyles.

In this two-dimensional theology, dominated by reason and rationality, divine-human relationship is conceptualised rather than actualised in human daily life and experience. This brings about the imposition of a severe limitation on the human experience of God, such as in love and suffering. For scientific and philosophical frameworks that western theologians deploy to gain at the essence and nature of the ‘Reality behind all realities’ does not accord with the ways in

^Ubid.,21. Ibid., 22. Ibid., 11. Ibid.

which God relates Himself to the world/^ Song points out, Asian Christians can never grasp God’s love and pain until they ‘turn their eyes beyond their self- imposed domain of Christianity’. Once again, he emphasises, ‘to realize and understand this, theologians need a “Third Eye,” namely, a power of perception and insight that enables them to grasp the meaning under the surface of things and phenomena.

What is a third eye, after all? Song finally tells the reader that the term ‘third eye’ is not his own invention, but a Zen Buddhist idea. According to the Japanese Zen master Daisetz Suzuki: ‘Zen...wants us to open a “third eye,” as Buddhists call it, to the hitherto unlieard-of region shut away from us through our own ignorance. When the cloud of ignorance disappears, the infinity of heavens is manifested where we see for the first time into the nature of our own being. Basically, it can be understood as an Eastern intuitive approach, in contrast to the Western conceptual and rationalistic approach, to the Reality that underlies all realities. Its meaning can be further expanded in the concept of satori (intuition): "Satori is enlightenment of the mind as the mind is touched by the truth. It is an experience that leads us to the sudden realization of being in the presence of the truth we have been seeking. ’ It is nothing but human intuition that transcends the ordinaiy framework of reason and rationality, ‘breaks into the mystery of mysteries, and enables men and women to come to the presence of the Reality they

^ Ibid., 45. Ibid., xi.

^ Ibid., 11, quoting Daisetz Suzuki, Essays in Zen Buddhism, First Series (London: Luzac & Company, 1927), 1.

seek.’81

By the aid of satori a door into the dimension of things hidden from ordinary human beings will be opened, from which they will be able to break the barrier that restrains them from conceiving the true nature of things, and they will also be able to see the reality behind and beyond appearances. ‘Needless to say’. Song contends, ‘this satori is akin to the revelation on which Christian faith depends’, for divine revelation does not come into being as a result of logical reason, nor is it controlled by the principles within which human logic operates. It encounters human beings at the moment they least anticipate it.^^ ‘In satori when we are grasped by the power of the Spirit, we gain insight into the nature of realities in tenns of pain and suffering. This is true of Christianity as well as Buddhism. Song believes, experience of satori is no less than experience of religious conversation which will certainly mark a new beginning in human life and in human relationship to the surrounding world. Nonetheless, Song points out, there is an essential distinction between Buddhist and Christian satori. In terms of Buddhism, satori tends to be considered purely to be the work of the human spirit. As far as Christianity is concerned, "satori is the work of the Holy Spirit within us.’ The Holy Spirit is thus perceived in satori as a power that draws us closer to the source of our being and makes Christians aware of the true nature of our life and the w o r l d . T h a t is to say, from the Christian point of view, reviewing and doing theology with a third eye is the beginning of satori. It is no other than

Ibid., 46. Ibid. Ibid., 47. Ibid.