Thougts on the Lecture by Hans Kung

Today I attended a lecture by renowned Catholic Theologian Hans Kung. The lecture titled "The Challenges to Islam, Christianity and Judaism in Today's Global Crisis" highlighted the need to positively engage Islam into a dialogue rather than branding it as a rogue religion. Such a dialogue, he said, is all the more achievable because in essence Islam- Christianity- Judaism have common heritage and values.

Hans Küng to Speak at AUC

Kung, according to my back-of-the-envelope calculation, must be in his late 70s. Sometimes his tone and tenor were incomprehensible to me, yet he spoke with a thought-provoking élan and was all too clear and communicable. What Kung spoke has been oft-repeated and yet despite the simplicity and logic of the argument, it doesn’t seem to be catching up.

According to him, the three prophetic religions differ from the oriental religions in a sense that the fountains of wisdom in these religions are prophets whereas the fountains of wisdom in oriental religions are Gurus and Masters. (This to me is a very significant argument, Prophets have a divine purpose… often their source of knowledge is directly from the God… therefore they are irrefutable. This explains the relatively stricter codification of religious values in Prophetic Religions. Gurus and Masters, on the other hand are ordinary humans who have thought over the religious values… and then propagated them… this puts a human limitation over their teachings… thus oriental religions are generally more flexible and have a lesser degree of codification.)

There is a constant argument among the followers of the three prophetic religions on what needs to be preserved and what is not to be preserved, within their religions. Some within them argue that nothing should be preserved (typically Secular) and some other argue that everything should be preserved (typically Orthodox). However, Kung argues, that the typically secular ones and typically orthodox ones are a minority… and the majority follows a doctrine that is neither here nor there.(Oriental religions do not undergo this vociferous debate, because nothing is considered sacrosanct and irrefutable… thus follower of some other doctrine will simply form another sect… or if proved falsified, the challenged doctrine will be dumped without any blasphemy).

And if the majority does not want to preserve or discard everything, then it is imperative to find out as to what are the basic values of these religions. These basic values, thus, can be preserved and compromises can be done beyond them for a reconciliatory process.

Kung argues that the basic value of Judaism is the centrality of Chosen People and Promised Land. Similarly the centrality of Christianity is Jesus, the son of God and the Messiah. And similarly the centrality of Islam is that the Quran as the word of the one and only one God. He argues that a co-existence between these religions is possible if we respect the core values of the each other's religion.

Now how is this possible? This, he argues, is possible by ushering into- what he called an "epoch making upheaval". These upheavals, he argued, are not new or unique and that all religions have undergone them in past and will undergo them in future. He said that these religions have not been static through the passage of history… they have been a developing reality… and modified themselves with the faced crisis.

Take the case of Judaism- it started as a Tribal Religion, graduated into a Monarchical Religion with the advent of King David and Solomon, then into a Theocracy with the perishing of monarchy, and then after the exodus into Rabbinical Religion. And then in mid 1700s came the Reformative Process… which went on well till the world wars… finally with the establishment of Israel came the Zionism. 6 different eras.

Now take the case of Christianity- it started of as an Offshoot of Judaism… the early Christians were Jewish Christian, and then came the Orthodoxy in places like Egypt, Syria and Ethiopia. This was followed by Papal Christianity- when Constantine established the Roman Catholic Church. This was followed by reform process by people like Martin Luther King and John Calvin who propounded Protestantism. Christianity, however, went through serious challenge after the renaissance when serious questions were raised against the Papal beliefs leading to the establishment of Modern Paradigm. Its logical follow up was establishment of Liberal Secularism in 1900s. 6 different eras again.

Islam contends that it has undergone the least amount of change… however it has undergone massive changes in the past. Islam started as a Community or Tribal Religion and for some years it remained so. Then came the Umayyad Caliphate which was based on Arab supremacy… it was during this time the Shiite sect took roots. This era was replaced by Baghdad Caliphate that ended the Arab supremacy and opened the religion for non-Arabs… and in process adopted many non-Arab traditions. With the destruction of Baghdad, the Fatimid Caliphate was established in Cairo- which was Shiite… it was during this period the role of people like Ulemas, Saints and Sufis became prominent. Then came the Ottoman Caliphate under which serious modernization efforts were undertaken in Turkey, Egypt and India… because the Christians have leapfrogged in the competition. However with the disruption of Turkey as a Caliphate, this process of modernization was left incomplete. 5 different eras.

Historical analysis of these religions establishes one fact without any doubt… the religions are not static values but adapt them with time; the only condition being that their basic values are not compromised. Kung, however, points out that the development of any religion is not an eliminative process… and that two or more era of religion can co-exist together.

This brings us to the last leg of his lecture. He argues that if the religions undergo and epoch making upheavals… then it is the time that they underwent yet another epoch making upheaval to catapult themselves to a stage where they could co-exist with mutual respect.

He said that if peace is possible in Europe- that was the fountain of wars all around the world, including the World Wars- then it is most certainly possible in Middle East, Africa and South and South East Asia.

What is this epoch making upheaval? He argues that the religions should be based on an ethical sense. An ethical sense that emanates from the inner conviction- which lays stress on four points: Humanism, Non-Violence, Righteousness and Solidarity. He ended his lecture here.

And I blinked. I have heard it before, somewhere… the inner conviction, the Humanism, the Non-Violence, the Righteousness, the Solidarity….

"Generations to come, it may be, will scarce believe that such one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth"- Albert Einstein.

"..If humanity is to progress, he is inescapable. He lived, thought, acted and inspired by the vision of humanity evolving toward a world of peace and harmony."- Martin Luther King

He was the Mahatma, Mahatma Gandhi.