lovemuffin
τὸν ἄρτον τοῦ ἔρωτος
I've recommended the writings of Raimon Panikkar a few times, and mentioned this idea of his, which I'm rather taken with. I have never been able to find any good internet sources that introduce the idea, so I've tried to write one. Since no one will ever read it, I thought I might share it here. But since it's a bit long for a forum post, I will summarize and link. I hope that's not too spammy 
- the philosophical worldviews of ancient Christian thought are problematic and unbelievable in various ways, even to Christians
- to attempt to address various difficulties in more productive ways, like the problem of evil, the relationship between faith and knowledge, science and religion, and etc.
- to promote a more mystical and experiential vision of religious life
What is the cosmotheandric intuition?
The name signifies Cosmos, Theos, Anthropos. Universe, God, Mankind. As per the snippet I quoted. It is called an intuition because it isn't trying to comprehend whatever these three things may be "in themselves", but how they might be understood by us. There are three primary categories that explain how Panikkar arrives at his ideas: Pratītyasamutpāda, Advaita, and Trinity.
Pratītyasamutpāda - "interdependent origination". A Buddhist term, and one that Panikkar alludes to when he talks about "artificially substantivized". interdependent origination emphasizes the mutually constitutive relation amongst things, rather than an abstract essential nature of each. As applies to the triad of God, World, and Man, this understanding differs from traditional Abrahamic belief in a Creator "prior" to the world or to humanity, and denies metaphysical omnipotence, which is the source of the problem of evil.
Advaita - "non-duality". A somewhat ambiguous term that is sometimes understood to be synonymous with monism, pure "oneness". In Panikkar, it emphasizes the experience of a relation that transcends dialectic reason, allowing only to say "There are not two", without affirming a logical monad. Advaita describes the relation Panikkar posits between the three: Man, World, and God, as well as describing the classic relation between persons of the Trinity in Christian tradition, where it is called perichoresis, "mutual indwelling". An idea also closely related to pratityasamutpada
Trinity - the Christian concept of the ecumenical councils. The trinitarian focus on the "essence" or substance of God may seem incompatible with pratityasamutpada, but needs to be understood in reference to the writings of the originators of the dogma, one of whom wrote that "Father is not the name of a substance..." The trinitarian symbology of Logos and Spirit informs a cosmotheandric anthropology that explicates the way in which humans experience and understand reality, through the senses, reason, and spirit, emphasizing a distinction between epistemological knowledge and ontological union.
If this sounds at all interesting, you can read more of my rambling here, or check out The Rhythm of Being.
There is no matter without spirit and no spirit without matter, no World without Man, no God without the universe, etc. God, Man, and World (Theos, Anthropos, Kosmos) are three artificially substantivized forms of the three primordial adjectives which describe Reality. There is a kind of perichoresis, “dwelling within one another,” of these three dimensions of reality: the Divine, the Human, and the Cosmic.
— Raimon Panikkar
Why depart from monotheism or traditional theology?— Raimon Panikkar
- the philosophical worldviews of ancient Christian thought are problematic and unbelievable in various ways, even to Christians
- to attempt to address various difficulties in more productive ways, like the problem of evil, the relationship between faith and knowledge, science and religion, and etc.
- to promote a more mystical and experiential vision of religious life
What is the cosmotheandric intuition?
The name signifies Cosmos, Theos, Anthropos. Universe, God, Mankind. As per the snippet I quoted. It is called an intuition because it isn't trying to comprehend whatever these three things may be "in themselves", but how they might be understood by us. There are three primary categories that explain how Panikkar arrives at his ideas: Pratītyasamutpāda, Advaita, and Trinity.
Pratītyasamutpāda - "interdependent origination". A Buddhist term, and one that Panikkar alludes to when he talks about "artificially substantivized". interdependent origination emphasizes the mutually constitutive relation amongst things, rather than an abstract essential nature of each. As applies to the triad of God, World, and Man, this understanding differs from traditional Abrahamic belief in a Creator "prior" to the world or to humanity, and denies metaphysical omnipotence, which is the source of the problem of evil.
Advaita - "non-duality". A somewhat ambiguous term that is sometimes understood to be synonymous with monism, pure "oneness". In Panikkar, it emphasizes the experience of a relation that transcends dialectic reason, allowing only to say "There are not two", without affirming a logical monad. Advaita describes the relation Panikkar posits between the three: Man, World, and God, as well as describing the classic relation between persons of the Trinity in Christian tradition, where it is called perichoresis, "mutual indwelling". An idea also closely related to pratityasamutpada
Trinity - the Christian concept of the ecumenical councils. The trinitarian focus on the "essence" or substance of God may seem incompatible with pratityasamutpada, but needs to be understood in reference to the writings of the originators of the dogma, one of whom wrote that "Father is not the name of a substance..." The trinitarian symbology of Logos and Spirit informs a cosmotheandric anthropology that explicates the way in which humans experience and understand reality, through the senses, reason, and spirit, emphasizing a distinction between epistemological knowledge and ontological union.
If this sounds at all interesting, you can read more of my rambling here, or check out The Rhythm of Being.