The &lsquo;other&rsquo; as (Not) Das Fremde: Mysticism, Dialogue and the Hermeneutics of Entanglement

Ikenna Paschal  Okpaleke,

The ‘other’ as (Not) Das Fremde: Mysticism, Dialogue and the Hermeneutics of Entanglement

Abstract:

Mysticism as a religious phenomenon could serve to foster dialogue both at the intra-religious and inter-religious levels. But the question of the where to locate the connection between dialogue and mysticism remains to be answered. This article investigates this relationship by focusing attention on what the German intercultural philosopher Bernhard Wandenfels refers to as Das Fremde, namely the ‘other’ as alien. Interestingly, this ‘other’ functions only within what one might refer to as hermeneutics of entanglement – of identity and difference, which taken further could be defined as an ‘existential mysticism’. Along the line of this argument, this article proposes a link between mysticism and dialogue through a phenomenological cum theological analysis of the identity of the ‘other’ as Das Fremde.

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