A Sociologist on the Contribution of Mystique and Theology in Interreligious Dialogue

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Go for Shorter titles/ sub-title

Avoid the use of first person singular / plural in academic texts (lines 26, 47,  60, 269)

line 116 - The English grammar does not recommend starting a sentence with a 'But'. In such case, better re-word the text.

Change 'mankind' to 'humankind' (The author uses both in fact).

I recommend you remove / delete "the university of the Pope" in line 155 

line 204 - insert 'Masjid' before 'Malcolm Shabazz mosque

line 204 REMOVE "already mentioned above"

line 210 - The first sentence of a paragraph should be loaded with meaning not with providing futile info like "a volume of 556 pages."

Personally, I would go for less exclamation marks. This is an academic piece of work.

lines 305-307. Try to join this short paragraph with the previous or the following one.

 

Author Response

Thanks for the attention.

1. I put more attention on the context and  completed with the aid of the concepts nomos/cosmos of Berger (The Sacred Canopy) the whole story of framing sociologically mysticism and theology.

2. I refined with the help of nomos/cosmos the analysis of how Coda formulates the new solution on the mediator position of Christ from within tradition interpreting cosmos in an original way.

3. I refined the formulation of the hypothesis of Willaime and completed the sociological analysis of Coda's theological way of operating in theology

4. The lacking references were due to the rule that the author must remain anonymous .

I accepted  all the observations : (9 ones ) and corrected 

Reviewer 2 Report

I think the merit of the article is that it tries to solve the problem between a universal love that is requested by Christ to each Christian and the truth of Christian Revelation which is the very base for that love. For Christians, their love for the others is possible because of the truth of faith, not in absence of it. The article show this paradox is possible through Chiara Lubich’s mysticism and Piero Coda’s theology in the benefit of the interreligious dialogue.

There are some uncompleted references and, as a result, an uncompleted final bibliography.

Author Response

Thanks for the attentive lecture.

1. I put more attention on the context and completed with cosmos/nomos concepts of Berger (The Sacred Canopy) the whole story of 'mysticism and theology' in my contribution
2. I checked the references and completed here and there in order to make clear the link with the text.
3. ...coherent, balanced, complelling: I refined my text with  the cosmos/nomos concepts and this eased especially for the link between theology and sociology the rythm of the text
4. References that were lacking depended on the rule the author must remain anonymous
5. I rewrote the conclsuion completing  in the sense suggested

Reviewer 3 Report

First of all, although English is not my native language, I consider that especially the title and subtitles require a syntactic review.

 

Second, the abstract is very promising; later, unfortunately, the different sections are written down without delving into them. The article ends by proposing the topic itself, which is not a conclusion.

 

Another topic of discussion is the use of the term dialogue: the author assumes that a definition is not required. Either one should justify such an aspect or, on the contrary, reflect on what it means from a sociological perspective. Continuing with the sociological perspective: the text by Berger and Luckmann stands out and seems correct. However, I recommend the author: 1. Consider the year for the first edition (1966) and especially the context: North American society, which is very different regarding religious pluralism from the Italian one. 2. In addition, the author should consider the two books published later and separately! Berger's The sacred Canopy and The Invisible Religion by Luckmann.

 

Finally, I advise the author to mention the socialization process from the second generation onwards. It is essential for the founder, and it has a particular meaning regarding dialogue with other religions because the context has changed entirely over the last 50 years (regarding migrations and women's rights, among others).

Author Response

Thanks for the precious attention given to my text

1. I put more attention on the context and completed with nomos/cosmos concepts of Berger (The Sacred Canopy) the whole story of mysticism and theology as exposed in my contribution.
2. I tried to understand where some references could be superfluosus but completed some so that the link could become clearer
3. ... coherent, balanced, compelling: I refined with the help of cosmos/nomos the analysis of how Coda is able to formulate the solution starting from within tradition but interpreting cosmos in an original way to support the solution.
4. This is not to consider as an empirical research, as confirmed by 'Religions'
5. The lacking references were due to the rule that the author had to remain anonymous
6. I have rewritten the conclusion and completed it
7. I corrected the titles, added a footnote on dialogue, completed Berger as said, added a footnote on socialization and new generations. I hope this will do it

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

This paper deserves praise particularly on two counts. Firstly, it shed lights on the valid contribution of the Focolare Movement in the filed of interreligious dialogue and secondly, it shares to a wider circle of readership, the thought of Piero Coda. Unfortunately, he is not widely known in the English speaking world, so such article is definitely original and providing a n interface of converging perspectives.