By Joseph Victor Edwin
New Delhi: A webinar heard a world renowned Jesuit Islamic scholar expounding how Islam and Christianity now shape the world.
The August 29 program on “Political Religion: How Islam and Christianity Shape the World” was webinar jointly organized by the Institute of Dialogue between Religions and Cultures, Loyola College, Chennai and Islamic Studies Association, Delhi,
Father Felix Körner, who teaches Theology of Religions at Berlin’s Humboldt University, invited his listeners to penetrate through the various identities that one holds to reach the deepest form of one’s identity as the God given vocation to participate in God’s project for oneself and for the world.
Such an understanding would make both Christians and Muslims understand that their religions call them to exercise power with responsibility so that the power turns into service of the other. It will help liberate humans from all forms of slavery and lead to the empowerment of the marginalized, added Father Körner, who has specialized in Islamic Studies and Catholic theology.
He hold doctoral degrees in both disciplines and has taught at the Jesuit run Pontifical Gregorian University until 2019.
Christians and Muslims live in diverse contexts and often find themselves as minorities among others. The Jesuit scholar invited both Christians and Muslims to reflect on their ‘weakness’ not as a burden but as grace; a gift and a task.
It’s a gift since ‘weakness’ transforms ‘unruly forms of power’ into service and a task since the voices of the vulnerable make the poor visible and audible in the public sphere.
Father Korner called upon both communities to embrace pluralism as an opportunity to become an inspiration for society: a presence that heals without hidden agenda and supports the other with competence and without competing compulsions.
He concluded that religion becomes really genuine when it uses its power to shape the world not through violence, but in a positive manner – in ‘acknowledgement of the other as other.’ A lively discussion followed that contextualized his lecture from South Asian perspectives.