FAITH AND CULTURE

Excerpt from One But Not The Same, by Gary Demarest I have come to the strong conviction that the ultimate meaning of the peace, unity, and purity of the church will be furthered by demonstrating that our oneness in Jesus Christ is best expressed through our differences, not through efforts to achieve and enforce sameness. Without minimizing the significance of the importance of interpreting and applying our understanding of Scripture to issues raised by our culture, including those of human sexuality, marriage and family, abortion, immigration, wealth and poverty, we must bring an awareness to each other that neither uniformity nor unanimity has been the mark of any church tradition. There have always been conflicts among the followers of Jesus as to the interpretation and application of the Bible in the personal, social, economic, and political areas of life. The history of the church has been that of continuing conflict and schism. The existence of hundreds of denominations and church groups, and the continuing formation of new alliances and splits is the reality we face. I know of no greater challenge in this chapter of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) than demonstrating to the world around us the power of Jesus Christ to make us one without requiring that we be the same. Excerpt from “Religious” Manefistations in a Modernizing China, by Franklin J. Woo Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Faust worked with the devil in grasping all knowledge to gain power over the world. In the frenetic process, he lost wisdom. In remorse he tried to regain it, to which was said to him Erquickung hast du nicht gewonnen, Wenn sie dir nicht aus eigner Seele quillt, which is to say, “Recovery will not come, unless it is out of your very soul.” In our modern disenchanted world of positivistic science, secularity, and its complexity, plurality, and problematic religion and culture, we too need to recover knowledge as wisdom. It also will not come, unless out of the very God-given soul of a people. Furthermore, the plurality of the multicultural world renders no particular religion or culture to remain in isolation, let alone having all the wherewithal to meet today’s needs. One way or another every tradition is impacted by the plurality of diverse traditions surrounding it. Its needs to interact and work together with all for the greatest common good. Following in the spirit of openness of an encyclical of Vatican II, Pastoral Constitution in the Modern World, which states that the “joys and hopes, the grief and anguish” of the world are also those of Christian people, the Roman Catholic Church today is taking the lead in relating and interacting with other people of faith, with the conviction that “the holy spirit offers to all the possibility of being made partners in a way known to God, as the paschal mystery” (Gaudium et Spes, 1965). A recently published comprehensive 605-page study shows how serious and thorough Catholic scholars have been in understanding traditions other than their own.24 It is in interacting in dialogue with others that we can come to an even more profound understanding of ourselves. In our time of complexity and plurality, not to mention its manifold problems—to build a dialogical civilization is the imperative towards a peaceful, sustainable, and harmonious planet, where all can live and grow. Thank you for listening to my musing. Excerpt from Where Muslims and Christians Meet, by Dudley Woodberry A recent Gallup Poll of Muslims around the world indicated that what Muslims most admire about the West is its technology and democracy, yet when they themselves have exercised this democracy in recent years it has often included some form of Shariah. However, they have no uniform understanding of what that Shariah means. One problem in trying to mix Western and Islamic systems was evident in Afghanistan in 2006. An Afghan, Abdul Rahman, was sentenced to death for having converted from Islam to Christianity. Article 2 of the constitution says that all citizens “are free to exercise their faith and perform their religious rights within the limits of the provisions of law.” But Article 3 says, “no law can be contrary to the beliefs and provision of the sacred religion of Islam.” The Afghan government was caught between international demands for Rahman’s release and local demands for his execution. The American ambassador asked me to facilitate resolving the case as quietly as possible. Muslims do not need to choose between an Islamic political/social system and secularism. An alternative example is the Pancasila system in Indonesia that recognized belief in God in a plurality of religions though it limits them to five designated ones. With these examples in mind, what is the probability in Muslim politics of freedom of religion? Many of the building blocks are there in historical examples and contemporary Muslim thought but, as the encounter in Egypt shows, the road promises to be a long one.