INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE OR THE FALL OF THE UNIQUENESS OF CHRIST? RAIMUNDO PANIKKAR RESPONDS.

Abstract

We are living pluralistic. That is a fact. Pluralism of ideas of cultures, of languages, of religions, of politics and so on. Thus, in 
the religious context, the uniqueness of Christ or Christian uniqueness appears to be a "myth". It is a "broken myth" (1). To say that it is a myth does not mean that is false. It is a myth because it uses a symbolic language. Like all symbolic or mythic language, it "must be carefully understood; it must be interpreted" (2). If one takes it literally (i.e. as it unfolds itself, without going beyond the first degree of its understanding), then it's false. "Its "truth" lies not on its literal surface but within its ever-changing historical 
and personal meaning. Therefore, the myth of Christian uniqueness· requires or calls for a genuinely new interpretation" (3).