Raimundo Panikkar has emerged as one of the leading religious thinkers of our time. At a juncture in history when the great cultures of the world and their religious traditions are converging, Panikkar has employed his talents to create new modes of consciousness required by a global environment, Now ate the crest of his academic career, he has already broken new ground and made substantial contributions in the history of religions, interreligious dialogue, theology and hermeneutics. In recognition of his stature and achievement, a symposium was recently held in his honor by the Institute of Religions Studies of the University of California as Santa Barbara. This was the sixth in a series of symposia dealing with the thought of living catalytic figures in the study of religion. The questions of hermeneutics permeates the centire orpus of Panikkar's writings. Because of his cross-cultural experience, he has been acutely aware of of the limits of Western thought. Although trained in contemporary European hermeneutics, he has constantly warned against applying uncritically Western principles of interpretation to the diverse religious experience of mankind.