Of the tasks facing the church today, none is more formidable than that of coming to grips with the question of the great Asian religions. But is the much sought-after unity of Christians the heralding of an all-out assault on the Asian religions? Have we nothing to learn from the past and the mistakes that were made in the name of evangelization? How does one approach the Asian religions? Are they simply the work of human beings, of the devil, making no contribution to salvation what-soever? With their emphasis on interiority, on an acceptance of the existing order, do these religions give humankind any possibility of saving itself in the midst of social, political, and technical realities?
In the last twenty years a number of conferences and meetings between representatives of the christian and great Asian religions have been held in such diverse places as Bombay, Beirut, Manila, Nagpur, and Bangalore. The author, secretary general of the Capuchin missions, a former missionary and university professor, has had access to all the documentation and knows the experts who attended these historic meetings. Here he graphically creates the dialogue that has occurred and documents the progress that has been made in these conversations so critical to the survival of the human race. His is a reporter's story of what has happened in these past years as he sifts for the truth between the theologians 'theologizing in the clouds and the missionaries' day-to-day experience of living side by side with the religions of Asia.