Abstract

Raimon Panikkar’s theological research shares its specific way of thinking with a broad spectrum of attempts to relate Christianity to the great Hindu spiritual traditions. Their most distant roots can be found as early as in the seventeenth century. Thereafter, starting from the neo-Hindu revival of the nineteenth century and the “new theologizingµ of the second half of the twentieth, the confrontation becomes more systematic and exacting on both sides. Panikkar’s theological research is undoubtedly of great moment in this context, both assuming the suggestions of the forerunners and proposing a systematic rethinking of Christianity in the face of Hinduism, and vice versa. In this article, the forerunners are outlined in order to introduce some of Panikkar’s theological intuitions in the first stage of his work. From the very outset, they belong to the most demanding level of thought, of the hermeneutics of sources and of spiritual experience.