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Following Jesus in nonviolent struggle for justice and peace, we love our neighbors and enemies as God loves us all, becoming a peace church to share in Gods work to save the world.

Jesus, Anthropology and World Religions: Some Good News

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JESUS, ANTHROPOLOGY AND WORLD RELIGIONS
Some Good News

by John K. Stoner

1st of 7.

INTRODUCTION

   Following are some thoughts seeking a genuine interreligious conversation around a question of human consequence posed by Jesus: “Is it lawful in your system to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” (Mark 3)

   Many people have observed that religion plays a role in some of the most intractable conflicts and wars of our time. As a consequence it is not a big jump to conclude that some of the work for peace, perhaps a very central part of it, is to seek peace between and among the religions of the world.

   Given this, it is certainly a good thing that people of faith are initiating conversations between religions. Each faith tradition will certainly try to bring to that conversation the essence of its own best insights. In an effort to contribute something toward that goal I present these thoughts, grounded in the life and teachings of Jesus, with a focus on what he said about human nature and humans living in community--elements of anthropology. Here are some things to say about Jesus in an interreligous dialogue. That there are other ways of talking about Jesus may simply indicate that there is more than one religion called Christianity.

    The following themes are treated in the order shown.
   1. To Do Good or To Do Harm
   2. To Save Life or To Kill
   3. The Primacy of Embrace
   4. How to Deal With Enemies
   5. The Tyranny of Exceptions
   6. The Possibility of Change
   7. The Persistence of Hope

1. To Do Good or To Do Harm

   One can read the life of Jesus as a commentary on how to deal with enemies.

   Did Jesus have enemies? Yes, if “enemies” are what we call “the other” in the most difficult cases, because of experienced hostility and perceived threat from the other. Psychologists, counselors and pastors have written many books on relating to others in situations where the others present challenges and obstacles to an easy relationship.   However, there are not a lot of books on the really hard cases, where the challenges merge into serious threat, even endangering life itself.

   But surely it is in the hard cases that any principle of reconciliation and community is put to the test. A textbook on human relations which treats everything except how to deal with enemies would not be a good buy.

   On the other hand, a book which deals centrally with how to deal with enemies, in our day and age, would be a very good buy indeed.

   In a way the Bible is such a book. But it is not automatically read as such, and indeed there are ways of reading it which teach more of the wrong thing than the right thing, because the Bible contains many voices, and the reader is forced to choose among them.

   It is here that we get help from a life rather than a book. We get help from the life of Jesus, from how he lived his life and what he taught as he lived.   His life was lived, indeed, in the midst of a culture, religion and politics which kept much of its history and thought in a book, but Jesus added insight and energy which surpassed anything in the book. His life and teachings thus became critical

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