A Fresh Perspective - 10/24/08
In each of the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) Jesus says that if anyone would follow him, one must deny oneself, take up one's cross and follow him. His death becomes a pattern for transformation. Jesus is talking about dying to one's ego attachments and needs (like the need for position, power, and possessions to acquire identity and security in the world) and radically reorienting one's life in God's justice and compassion.
The above invitation is followed by a paradoxical statement intended to clarify and evoke thoughtful reflection: "For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel (the kingdom of God), will save it" (Mark 8:35). Some form of this saying occurs six times in the Gospels - once each in the Gospels of John and Mark, and two times each in the Gospels of Luke and Matthew. This testifies to the importance of the saying in the teaching of Jesus.
This teaching gets to the core of Jesus' understanding of personal salvation. Of course, Jesus envisioned a redeemed world - a world of nonviolence, equity, and peace; but Jesus understood salvation to be both corporate and personal, communal and individual.
Professor John Hick in his book, "A Christian Theology of Religions," contends that all the great religious traditions of the world, including Christianity, "are directed towards a transformation of human existence from self-centeredness to a re-centering in what in our inadequate human terms we speak of as God, or as Ultimate Reality, or the Transcendent, or the Real."
In the first chapter Hick lays out a pluralistic hypothesis. He argues that while the different religious traditions "involve different conceptions of the Real, with corresponding different forms of experience of the Real, and correspondingly different forms of life in response to the Real," he finds common ground among them in the path to human transformation.
Hick writes: "And what is variously called salvation or liberation or enlightenment or awakening consists in this transformation from self-centeredness to Reality-centeredness." According to Hick this transformative connection to the Real (God) results in more compassionate, loving persons and societies (salvation).
This, he says, is of central concern to each of the great world faiths: "Each in its different way calls us to transcend the ego point of view, which is the source of all selfishness, greed, exploitation, cruelty, and injustice, and to become re-centered in that ultimate mystery for which we, in our Christian language, use the term God."
Could this serve as the common ground out of which dialogue among the different faith traditions could grow? If we can acknowledge this basic quest in all authentic religion, namely, to overcome ego-generated selfishness and evil and to live more selfless, loving, and compassionate lives centered in the Divine Goodness, then we have a foundation upon which to pursue a religious dialogue and discuss our differences.
And one would hope that in the discussion of our difference we could learn from one another.