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The example of Ramon Llull by Kaj Engelhart, Caritas Sweden
Dialogue – A Matter of Attitude
There can be no serious interreligious dialogue without a common attitude
towards dialogue: a personal, reflected position of firm adherence to a religious
conviction combined with a humble readiness to listen attentatively
to one’s counterpart and grasp, intellectually and intuitionally, what he or
she conveys of knowledge, experience and vision. The more this prerequisite
prevails, the more qualified and dignified the dialogue will be.
In the official documents from the Pontifical Council for Interreligious
Dialogue (PCID) in Rome, the main Vatican institution dealing with this
issue, the distinction is made between roughly four different levels of interreligious
dialogue. One is the simple everyday living together of people of
various religious backgrounds, sharing the same residential area, shopping
zone and places of work. The second is the level of personal exchange about
religious topics between neighbours, friends and colleagues of different denominations.
Third comes the sharing of religious experience such as worship,
cult and celebrations by persons of different creeds. And the fourth and
last one is the theological discussion on a professional, academic level between
scholars representing diverse religions.
The attitude of dialogue is addressed in some of the documents from
PCID. It is seen as an important part of the tradition of interreligious dialogue
as it has been practised to various degrees through the ages. Today,
interreligious dialogue plays a major role in Catholic thinking and preaching
on international, cultural, ethnic and political matters.
A rather early example of the discourse on the attitude of dialogue is
provided by Ramon Llull, Latinized Raimundus Lullus, a missionary and
philosopher, born around 1233 in Mallorca. He was given a nobleman’s
upbringing and as a young man of 30 had a vision of Christ crucified. It
made him decide to dedicate his life to the conversion of Muslims. After
nine years’ studies of Muslim and Christian thinking, he had another vision,
revealing to him how to reach this goal. This is the subject of his “Art of
Finding Truth”. Around the age of 50 he started travelling widely to find
support for his endeavours. As a result of his labours, the Council of Vienna
1311–12 decreed the establishing of studies of Oriental languages (Hebrew,
Arabic and Syriac) at five universities.
In his works, Llull treats his method of converting Jews and Muslims
through rational arguments and without referring to the authority of sacred
scriptures. He tries to relate all forms of knowledge to the manifold ‘dignities’
of God present and recognizable in creation, basing his teaching on the
monotheistic outlook common to Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
On several visits to North Africa, Llull engaged in an intense missionary
activity and heated debates with learned Muslims. In Tunis, later in Bougie
in Algeria, he caused so much irritation that he was thrown into prison and
was almost beheaded. He was saved, however, and died in 1315 or 1316,
possibly on another missionary visit to Tunis.
Behind this elderly missionary’s sometimes frenzied proselytising striving,
however, there is also in him a noble view on relations between reli-