Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xiii

Foreword xv

Preface xvii

A Locus Philosophicus xvii

B A Note on Language xx

C Perspective of the Book xxiii

Abbreviations of Titles of Texts Used in References xxv

Books of the Bible xxv

Other Classic Texts xxv

1 Introduction 1

A All or Nothing 1

1 The Choice of the Topic 3

2 The Context 7

3 The Aim 9

4 The Theme 11

B The Method 12

1 Humor 13

2 The Holistic Attempt 16

a A Threefold Approach 18

1 The Socio-Historical Approach 18

2 The Philosophical Approach 19

3 The Sophianic Approach 21

b The Starting Point 22

1 The Questioner 25

2 The Questioned 27

3 The Question 29

c The Vital Circle 31

3 The Purification of the Heart 34

C Regarding the Title and Subtitle 37

1 Rhythm 38

a Universality of Rhythm 38

b Phenomenological Approach 41

c Rhythmic Quaternity 44

d The Experience of Rhythm 48

2 Being 50

3 Trinity 55

II The Destiny of Being 58

A The Ultimate Question(s) 58

1 Some Examples 61

2 What is an Ultimate Question? 67

3 The Dialectic of Ultimate Questions 70

B Reality and Being 74

1 The Sense of the Real 74

2 The Discovery of Being 80

C Becoming and Destiny 94

1 Becoming 94

a Movement 95

b Change 96

c Growth 96

d History 97

2 Destiny 100

a Sociological Interlude 101

b Etymological Excursus 102

c The Destiny of Being 104

III Ancient Answers 108

1 Immutability 109

2 Respect for Tradition 110

3 Classification of Religions 112

A The Theistic Mythos 115

1 The Principle of Reasonableness 116

2 The Axiom of Non-Contradiction 118

3 Non-Theistic Mythoi 120

B Monotheism 121

1 Description 122

2 Genesis 127

a Political 127

b Philosophical 128

c Theological 129

3 Critique 129

a Internal 130

1 Understanding Faith 130

2 An Unknown God 131

3 The Historical Touchstone 132

b Philosophical 135

1 Substantiality 135

2 Omnipotence 143

a God 145

b Man 145

3 Omniscience 146

4 God and Being 149

C Other Forms of Theism 156

1 Deism 156

2 Pantheism 158

3 Polytheism 162

4 Atheism 166

5 Agnosticism 168

6 Skepticism 169

IV The Dwelling of the Divine 171

A The Divine Mystery 171

1 The Transcendent Plane 174

2 The Immanent Locus 176

3 The Adualistic Space 178

B Theology 181

1 Philosophy and Theology 181

2 Theology and Kosmology 185

3 The Word of and about God 188

4 Theological Language 190

a Theology as an Activity of the Logos 193

1 Theology as a Construct of Signs 193

2 Theology as a Conceptual System 194

3 Theology as a Symbolic Knowledge 196

4 Theology as Theopraxis 197

b Theology as a Work of the Mythos 199

1 Aesthetic 199

2 Apophatic 200

3 Mystical 203

4 The Mythological Character 206

5 Theology as Divine Life 207

C Ultimate Answers? 208

V The Triadic Myth 212

A Advaita and Trinity 213

1 Monism and Dualism 213

2 Advaita 216

3 Trinity 224

4 Some Examples from History 227

B The Anthropophanic Factor 232

1 The Human Approach to Reality 233

2 The Three Eyes 236

a The Senses 238

b Reason 239

c Spirit 240

3 The Threefold Experience 241

4 The Mystical 244

a Its Locus 245

b The Field of Emptiness 246

c The Mystical Translation 249

d Its Existential Character 250

e Its Fragility 252

C A Christian Reflection 253

VI The Theanthropocosmic Invariant 263

A The Invisibility of the Obvious 263

1 The Open Secret 263

2 Human Invariants and Cultural Universals 267

B The Primacy of Life 269

1 The Being of Life 269

2 Life of Being 274

C The Triple Interindependence: The Cosmotheandric Intuition 276

1 Kosmos 278

a A Stone qua Real Stone 278

b The World qua Real World 285

2 Anthropos 289

a Caturloka 290

1 The World of the Gods 290

2 The World of Nature 291

3 The World of History 291

4 The World of Technocracy 291

b A Rational Animal? 292

1 Formal 293

2 Cultural 295

3 Experimental 298

c A Trinitarian Mystery 301

3 Theos 304

a Faith and Belief 305

1 Faith 305

2 Belief 306

b Apophatism 308

c Features of the Divine 311

1 Nothingness 312

2 Freedom 315

4 Infinitude 317

VII The Divine Dimension 319

A Silence 323

1 The Body 325

2 The Mind 328

3 The Will 334

B Logos 337

1 Speech 338

2 Worship 341

a Glory 342

b Prayer 345

c Listening 347

3 Doing 348

a Transformation of the Cosmos 349

b The Case of the Human Household 353

c Political Involvement 355

C Personalism 359

1 Istadevata Spirituality 359

2 Contemplation 364

VIII The Emerging Mythos 368

A A New Kosmology 369

1 Cosmology and Kosmology 369

2 The Conflict of Kosmologies 373

3 The Metaphysical Problem 378

B The Scientific Paradigm 383

1 Method 385

2 Monotheistic Cosmology 388

3 The Scientific Story 393

C Fragments of the New Story 398

Epilogue 405

Index 406