Saccidananda Ashram (also called Shantivanam) is a Camaldolese Benedictine monastery in Tannirpalli, India founded in 1950 by French priest Jules Monchanin (Parma Arupi Anananda), and French Benedictine monk Henri le Saux (Abhishiktanandain).
With the erosion of “religion” as a set category, the hard borders of religious difference the category mandated have also begun to erode. This creates space for reevaluating ideas such as syncretism and contextualisation. Hybridity offers another way of addressing the question, but important here is the critical edge basic to the idea of syncretism. What function does this idea serve and how might we better address its violence? Or, positively stated, how might the Christian church constructively engage with context which includes also religious difference?
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