Mystical Mutuality Model

Due to my bent toward mystical reflection on theology, I locate most comfortably in the Mutuality Model of the three modes we have encountered. Knitter’s description of Panikkar’s theory of “mutual fecundation” is the rubric which resonates with my mystical/theological understanding (130). Panikkar’s phrase “cosmotheandric experience” exemplifies the goal of my mystical mutuality model. God, humanity, and the material world are all interconnected and dependent upon each other. While remaining distinct, these three components exist in their own Trinitarian perichoresis. Traditional Christian theology has described God’s existence in Trinitarian language: Father/Mother, Son, and Spirit – the three in one. God is said to exist in the interconnectivity of these persons. Assuming Panikkar’s thesis that God, humanity, and creation are connected, I propose that a fractal perichoretic model may be thus extended toward religious diversity. The process of dialogue between differing religions and spiritualities constitutes a perichoretic dimensionality which both honors diversity while thriving in the paradoxical realm of discovering the ontological unity enmeshed in their very existence. As for Christology, in the Christian matrix, mysticism can both elevate Jesus’ particularity, and in kenotic fashion simultaneously empty it in the arena of universal dialogue. Again, appealing to the model of perichoresis, within interreligious dialogue, the uniqueness of Jesus and the interconnectivity with other means of salvation or enlightenment may be paradoxically juxtaposed. Within Christian circles, it makes sense to use the common revelation of God in Jesus, but it dialogue where that common revelation is not shared, the mystic can both appreciate and learn from the other who has another expression of humanity’s existential needs. In so doing, the mystic engages in metaphorical thinking which is the primary matrix for how we understand ourselves and each other and God. (See James Geary’s TEDTalks Video 12/17/2009).

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