The word Advaita is Sanskrit for "non-dual" or "not two," but the doctrine itself is by no means exclusively Hindu, being present in Buddhism, Islam, Taoism, and Judaism. In Christianity it has always been more implicit, though explicit with writers such as Dionysius the Areopagite, Eriugena, Eckhart, and even Dante. The great merit of this work is that it shows that non-dualism is neither pantheism nor monism, and that there is no incompatibility between orthodox Christian doctrine and the strictest understanding of non-dualism in the Advaita Vedanta. The implication is that non-dualism can again find expression within a Christian ambiance. Christianity and the Doctrine of Non-Dualism offers one approach to this doctrine and to the greatest possible spiritual/intellectual adventure that is implied.
A Monk of the West: - Alphonse Levée, a lay brother of the austere Cistercian Order who later used the transparent pseudonym of "Elie Lemoine" (Elias the monk), was born at Paris in 1911. His father was a skeptic, his mother a devout Catholic. His secondary education was at a commercial high school, and he did the usual compulsory military service. In 1938, while on assignment on behalf of a Parisian commercial house, he he was caught up in the events of World War II and had to remain there until 1946. Around the age of twenty he had come upon a copy of René Guénon's East and West at a second-hand book stall, which he later described as dazzling and numinous (indeed, it marked him for the remainder of his life). He corresponded with Guénon, and although this correspondence was cut off by the War, it was undoubtedly influential in his decision to pursue a monastic vocation in a contemplative order, a decision taken when he was about thirty years old, although his vocation was delayed because he had become the sole support of his mother. But she died in 1951, and later the same year he entered the great Abbey of La Trappe, the mother house of the OCSO, the Cistercian Order of the Strict Observance. At La Trappe he lived for decades in quiet anonymity, though judging from what is known of his later years his interior life was anything but idle and unfruitful. He became thoroughly familiar with the works of St Thomas Aquinas, with the Church Fathers, especially those in favor in Latin Christianity, and among these latter especially St Bernard of Clairvaux (whom Catholics consider the last of the Fathers). All the while he continued to study works pertaining to the Vedanta, those of Guénon as well as the Hindu authorities on this darshana, notably Shankara. It is worth noting that when he became a Trappist he inevitably brought with him conceptual influences derived from years of studying Guénon and the Vedanta, and that he was not asked to jettison this (which would hardly have been possible) but was allowed to pursue these interests, and even encouraged to do so. The French original of the present work was originally published in 1982 with the permission of Brother Elias's monastic superiors and with the encouragement of several clerics, among them a responsible theologian and a Vatican cardinal. The original edition carries the subtitle: jalons pour un accord doctrinal entre l'Eglise et le Vedanta ("landmarks for a doctrinal accord between the Church and the Vedanta"). During this time, Brother Elias author wrote a second work entitled Theologia Sine Metaphysica Nihil, first published in French in 1991, the year of his death.
