This Is Not a Conclusion

Abstract

This chapter recapitulates the argument of the book but extends it by showing that the book is also a sustained argument against postures of religious isolationism and self-sufficiency and for religious conviviality. The chapter argues that if one is to be truly open to the mystery of the infinite, one must be vulnerable to the mystery of the neighbor. If one is to move ever more fully into the divine life, one must move toward the neighbor in receptivity and love. No pilgrimage to God apart from a pilgrimage toward the holiness of one’s neighbor. Inside and outside, yours and mine, are relative not absolute categories. “Religions” are not ontologically reified and isolated; they are distinct but not separate.