Christianity and the Doctrine of Non-Dualism
The word Advaita is Sanskrit for “non-dual” or “not two,” but the doctrine itself is by no means exclusively Hindu, being present in Buddhism, Islam, Taoism, and Judaism. In Christianity it has always been more implicit, though explicit with writers such as Dionysius the Areopagite, Eriugena, Eckhart, and even Dante. The great merit of this work is that it shows that non-dualism is neither pantheism nor monism, and that there is no incompatibility between orthodox Christian doctrine and the strictest understanding of non-dualism in the Advaita Vedanta. The implication is that non-dualism can again find expression within a Christian ambiance. Christianity and the Doctrine of Non-Dualism offers one approach to this doctrine and to the greatest possible spiritual/intellectual adventure that is implied. “As the author of this work points out, ‘there can be no reciprocity, real reciprocity, between Man and God except in the Son, in the bosom of the Trinity, in the interior of the eternal relation of the Son to the Father. It is in order that man might be raised to this point that the Father sent his Son and his Spirit.’ Here he alludes to the Christian mystery of theosis, [whereas] the goal of Vedanta is the realization of an eternally true state of affairs, namely the Supreme Identity or Infinity of God as the transcendent fullness of Being, in comparison to which all of creation is naturally insubstantial (maya). His point is that Christianity need not deny this Supreme Identity, but that the Christian mystery is concerned with something else, namely the active incorporation of man—and along with man, the entire created order—into the very life of the Trinity.”—Stratford Caldecott, author of All Things Made New: The Mysteries of the World in Christ “The author’s purpose is to consider whether the Vedantic understanding of non-dualism, primarily as exposited by Shankara, is compatible with Christian doctrine, particularly as we have it in Aquinas; and further, whether an enhanced appreciation of the Advaita Vedanta might allow a fuller apprehension of the Christian perspective on the fundamental questions with which all sapiential traditions must necessarily contend, especially those pertaining to the nature of Ultimate Reality. Both questions are answered in the affirmative, though not without the appropriate qualifications. We may surmise that such a book is the consummation of a lifetime of prayer, of contemplation, of submission to the dictates of an orthodox spiritual method, as well as study, for it is stamped with a spiritual maturity that can be attained in no other way.—Harry Oldmeadow, author of The Betrayal of Tradition: Essays on the Spiritual Crisis of Humanity Alphonse Levée, a lay brother of the austere Cistercian Order who later used the transparent pseudonym of “Elie Lemoine” (Elias the monk), was born at Paris in 1911.Around the age of twenty he came upon a copy of René Guénon’s East and West, which he later described as dazzling and numinous. His corresponded with Guénon was undoubtedly influential in his decision to pursue a monastic vocation in the Cistercian Order of the Strict Observance.There he became thoroughly familiar with the works of St Thomas Aquinas, with the Church Fathers, among these latter especially St Bernard of Clairvaux. All the while he continued to study works pertaining to the Vedanta, those of Guénon as well as the Hindu authorities on this darshana, notably Shankara. The French original of the present work was originally published in 1982 with the permission of Brother Elias’s monastic superiors and with the encouragement of several clerics, among them a responsible theologian and a Vatican cardinal. During this time, Brother Elias author wrote a second work entitled Theologia Sine Metaphysica Nihil, first published in French in 1991, the year of his death.
