Dupuche BR Clooney

Francis X. Clooney
HIS HIDING PLACE IS DARKNESS
A Hindu-Catholic Theopoetics of Divine Absence
Stanford University Press

This work is remarkable on many counts. It presents a valuable development of comparative theology which Clooney defines as “acts of faith seeking understanding which are rooted in a particular faith tradition but which, from that foundation, venture into learning from one or more other faith traditions” (10). Comparative theology is already an advance on the comparative study of religions, for it presupposes a stance of faith in the person engaged in this form of research, and a readiness to develop their own faith by studying another faith. His Hiding Place is Darkness, a Hindu-Catholic Theopoetics of Divine Absence takes this trajectory to yet further stages, as will be noted shortly. He does so by juxtaposing the biblical Song of Songs (Shir ha-Shirim) and the Tamil Vaishnava text Holy Word of Mouth (Tiruvaymoli).

F. X. Clooney is Parkman Professor of Divinity and Professor of Comparative Theology at the Harvard Divinity School where he also directs the Center for the Study of World Religions. He is the author of many books and articles, and travels widely to give addresses. While Clooney’s interests and skills are far reaching, his particular field is Tamil Vaishnavism.

One of the innovations of His Hiding Place is Darkness is to introduce poetry and drama into the work of comparative theology. The text is arranged in the form of a play with a prologue, three acts, two entr’actes and an epilogue. Act 1 is entitled "Missing Him" [namely the Beloved]; Act 2: "Spiritual exercises in times of absence"; Act 3: "In the End."

At the start of each act, and more often in Act 2, he quotes from the Song of Songs and the Holy Word of Mouth, both of which describe the quest of the woman for her beloved. After quoting the text he unpacks its meaning. Then he provides what is called an "Interlude" where he develops his thoughts in a far ranging manner, in imitation of the two women who explore every path in search of their beloved.

To accomplish this task he draws on the insights not only of the mediaevalists Bernard of Clairvaux, Gilbert of Hoyland and John Ford who together provide a complete commentary on the Song of Songs, but also on modern commentators such as Cheryl Exum and Elie Assis, as well as on the poetry of Jorie Graham, a contemporary of Clooney’s at Harvard, to mention but a few. His closely argued and detailed exposition demands close reading. It is clear that His Hiding Place is richly reflected work, at the conclusion of which one has the impression of an encyclopaedic treatment.

The fact that there are 36 pages of endnotes for a text of 142 pages indicates the breadth and accuracy of Clooney’s study. There is also an extensive bibliography and index.

Clooney draws on Hans Urs von Balthasar in particular, and his work of theo-logy, theo-poetics and theo-drama, for “the poetic and the dramatic can be integral to a fuller theological discourses” (23). Balthasar sees truth revealed not just in the luminosity of theology but also in the movement of divine action, which withdraws from our contemplative gaze. Clooney explains: “There is truth in revelation, but for Balthasar it is found in movement, in a ‘continuous forward striving (diastasis),’ which is ‘the truth of the cor inquietum, of hope and love for what is absent’”(25). A powerful example of this is found in the searchings of the two women for their beloved. Likewise Balthasar perceives “the infusion of divine glory into human words” (23), for the beauty of language as well the meaning of words reveals the divine.

The work is scholarly and objective, researched and original in style, but above all it is a pastoral work. In a world where some have no sense of the Divine, and where others seek but do not know what they are seeking or again where others are unable find the object of their quest or where the images of God are no longer effective, Clooney makes the point that the search is as revealing as the finding. In this way he shows that comparative theology is also a work of pastoral care. He goes far beyond the abstractions of religious studies to the needs of the modern world. His Hiding Place not only satisfies the mind but also invites us to empathise with the needs of society. He shows that the apophatic quest for an absent God provides a most profound form of revelation. He writes, “this deep love for a real beloved, [is] noticed most vividly when suffered in absence” (x). Or again, paradoxically “this absence is a particularly powerful site for encounter with God” (ix). In this way Clooney delves into the depths of Christian and indeed universal mysticism. Gregory of Nyssa (4th cent. CE), a major figure in Christian mystical writing, describes Moses coming into the presence of God in the “dark cloud,” where knowledge fails. But in Cooney’s analysis God is actually absent; the darkness is deeper.

Clooney’s analysis means that works such as the Song of Songs and the Holy Word of Mouth cannot be adequately appreciated without taking part in the trajectory that leads from purely objective study to an awareness of the impact of another faith on one’s personal religious standpoint, to a sense of revelation in the aesthetic and dramatic, and to seeing how the texts in question are significantly relevant to the needs of the modern world. Clooney has shown how comparative theology is a far-ranging trajectory.

The epilogue, entitled “Jesus, the Beloved,” is Clooney’s personal statement of faith, albeit objective and with profound awareness that a Vaishnava would relate to Krishna, the Beloved, with equal intensity.

Rev. Dr. John Dupuche is Pastor of Nazareth Parish, Ricketts Point, Melbourne. He served for ten years as the coordinator of the Australian commission for Monastic Interreligious Dialogue. He is Honorary Fellow at the Australian Catholic University with special involvement in interfaith relations, and senior lecturer at MCD University of Divinity. He is chair of the Catholic Interfaith Committee of the Archdiocese and member of the executive of the School of Prayer within the Archbishop’s Office for Evangelisation . He has a doctorate in Sanskrit, specialising in Kashmir Shaivism and is particularly interested in its interface with Christianity. His book: Abhinavagupta: the Kula Ritual as Elaborated in Chapter 29 of the Tantrāloka was published in 2003; Jesus, the Mantra of God in 2005; and Vers un Tantra Chrétien in 2009 (translated as Towards a Christian Tantra). He has written many articles in these fields. He lives in an interfaith ashram.