Evangelical Zen: A Christian's Spiritual Travels with A Buddhist Friend. By Paul Louis Metzger and Kyogen Carlson. Patheos Press, August 1, 2015. 216 pages. ISBN-10: 1939221277 ISBN-13: 978-1939221278
摘要
A professor of Christian theology at Multnomah Biblical Seminary in Portland, Oregon, Paul Metzger is a well‐known evangelical theologian who has begun to publish in interfaith dialogue. His 2012 Connecting Christ: How to Discuss Jesus in a World of Diverse Paths breaks new ground in evangelical theology in including the voices of other faith practitioners and thinkers, thus exhibiting the kind of dialogical and relational approach that evangelicals before him had talked about but not exemplified. Readers of that book will recognize one of Metzger's conversation partners, Kyogen Carlson, abbot of Dharma Rain Zen Center in Portland, who in Evangelical Zen responds (briefly) to each of the (more lengthy) 33 chapters that chronicle Metzger's reflections during and after a forty‐day trip to Japan with his wife—of Japanese ancestry and citizenship—and two children. Christians within and outside the evangelical world will note that neither of the interlocutors compromise their distinctive commitments, although those looking for such doctrinal and theological content might be frustrated that not more of such is to be found. The genius of Evangelical Zen, however, is that it reflects a kind of spiritual practice, a mode of attentiveness and even mindfulness that some more conservative Protestants might see as fundamentally Eastern in its religious orientation, but about which most others would recognize as being deeply embedded in Christian contemplative traditions even if neglected until the encounter with Buddhism traditions. May Metzger's tribe increase as friendships flourish in our multicultural world.
