10/07/2025 14:00
- 17:30
HALL: Lecture Hall 21
Proponent:
Kuhn E.
Chair:
Kuhn E.
Speaker:
Ike O.,
Kuhn E.,
Ross E.M.
Cardinal Pizzaballa/Jerusalem stated in 2023: "After years of interreligious dialogue, we have realized that we do not understand each other. Now this interfaith dialogue must take an important step." Developing "life narratives" requires courage and strength. For example, the courage to communicate our own cultural and religious narratives and to put them up for discussion. The courage not to misinterpret integration as assimilation and not to raise new fears. The courage to take religious people seriously, even in a secular society. Respect for the value of the individual is becoming the fundamental issue of a modern society in a polarized global world. It is urgent to raise this issue also with religious societies. The Gospels make it easy for Christian churches to reflect this basic attitude of individual freedom in their theology. Islamic communities will still have to face this question. A new approach to an interpretation immanent to the times will have to be found in the study of the Koran. The knowledge that such interpretations have already existed in the history of Islam will help in this regard. However, since the early Middle Ages, these new outlets for an intellectually critical understanding of the Qur'an have been suppressed and forgotten. Our society lacks this competition between religious beliefs; religious communities withdraw too much into their own ghettos and refuse to participate in social discourse. In Europe, unfortunately, this also applies to the Catholic Church. Religions in particular have the power to tell their own life stories based on spirituality and their narrative of human dignity and peace in the world.
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