Jesus Christ and the Religions by Waldenfels Hans

Author:Waldenfels, Hans [Hans, Waldenfels]
Format: epub
Published: 2010-05-03T06:31:19.834000+00:00

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Jesus ChrisT & The religions

Therefore, everywhere people ask: “What shall I do so that I succeed with my life?” In German the words for “luck” (= Glueck) and

“to succeed’ (= gluecken) come from the same root. Whoever had the chance to celebrate Chinese New Year, will remember that wherever he goes, he will come across one pictorial symbol: the pictograph for

“happiness” = fu in its various combinations: success, luck, fortune, happiness – all of these are loosely interconnected. In the “Far East” – as we westerners use to call it, although also this is a question of perspective – people yearn for peace which appears where the polarity of yin and yang is balanced in harmony and the hearts of people are open for each other.

And yet, what unites all people in desire and effort might differ in different tribes and nations, cultures and religions, in their startingpoint and their history. When today human persons happily discover many common points between the different peoples from different re-4 • World hisTory 77

gions and races, this implies, first and for all, that even those who differ in thought, speech and language, in appearance and conduct, are nevertheless human beings. And we must sadly admit that what for us is a matter of fact, had to be learnt in the era of discoveries by Europeans. The conquerors of that time did by no means treat the inhabitants of the newly discovered American countries as human beings since they were neither white nor baptized.

If all that is no question anymore for us, and we know that in all our diversities we live in the one boat of human race, we still are allowed to ask where all the diversities come from? What causes the otherness between us? Wherever we compare, we tend, first, to think in terms of putting above and below which leads to a ranking of superior and inferior, and, secondly, we are inclined to estimate one’s own qualitatively higher and better than that of others. This again often produces a sense of superiority and dominion. For many centuries wars were the instrument to enlarge the zone of influence and might; consequently other countries were conquered and subjected by force. Today’s peace research is focused on exploring the motives of wars and violence and on developing methods of how to handle conflicts; one section of research is concerned with religions as causes for conflicts and wars and their contribution to peace, too.

Considering the dark sides of history we may even ask: To what extent are religions really ways for guiding and bringing humans to happiness? How far do they liberate them from suffering, and lead them to healing and salvation? In what sense are they able to make them free in a comprehensive manner? Christians including the official Church cannot but concede that terms like “salvation” and “invitation to salvation” are also used by others. For the desire of happiness and the promise of ways guiding to happiness and salvation leads beyond the realm of Christian influence.

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