Hendrik Kraemer – författare

A rich and profound contribution to the debate on the position of the Christian faith in the modern world.

The meeting of Christianity and the non-Christian religions, the impact of East on West, and West on East, the clash of cultures and the movement of divine and human forces that are changing the pattern of man's life, form the basis of Kraemer's magisterial book.He deals historically with the world situation as he sees it because history determines the mood in which East and West approach this 'coming dialogue'. In a series of masterly chapters Kraemer surveys the position of the world's religions deeply enmeshed in socio-cultural systems that create both barriers to change but impetus towards evolution. The dialogue with the 'grand, elusive, Eastern systems of humanist thinking' demands searching thought, fundamental re-adjustment of methods and readiness to find fresh points of contact. It will, however, vindicate the personal conception of the living God as manifest in Jesus Christ. The 'key word of Oriental philosophies is Harmony, glossing over the glaring disharmonies of man's life.'This is, the heart of the dialogue that Kraemer discusses backed by his vast experience and learning. Kraemer provides a formative and fundamental tool for Christians and all who are aspire to an intelligent and penetrative understanding of the religious and cultural life of the world.

The meeting of Christianity and the non-Christian religions, the impact of East on West, and West on East, the clash of cultures and the movement of divine and human forces that are changing the pattern of man's life, form the basis of Kraemer's magisterial book.He deals historically with the world situation as he sees it because history determines the mood in which East and West approach this 'coming dialogue'. In a series of masterly chapters Kraemer surveys the position of the world's religions deeply enmeshed in socio-cultural systems that create both barriers to change but impetus towards evolution. The dialogue with the 'grand, elusive, Eastern systems of humanist thinking' demands searching thought, fundamental re-adjustment of methods and readiness to find fresh points of contact. It will, however, vindicate the personal conception of the living God as manifest in Jesus Christ. The 'key word of Oriental philosophies is Harmony, glossing over the glaring disharmonies of man's life.'This is, the heart of the dialogue that Kraemer discusses backed by his vast experience and learning. Kraemer provides a formative and fundamental tool for Christians and all who are aspire to an intelligent and penetrative understanding of the religious and cultural life of the world.

'Everywhere in the world . . . the Christian Church finds itself on the way to rediscovering, re-evaluating and restating its marching order,' says the author in the opening lines of this discussion of the problem of communication in the Church. Kraemer explains why the communication of the Christian faith is difficult and how human communication, broken through the Fall, may be restored. The Author elaborates a fundamental theology of communication, stressing the difference between 'communication between' and 'communication of'. He treats communication historically, pointing out that the character of the message creates a tension with which the Church has to live. The more the Church is concerned with the problem the healthier it becomes. He discusses the psychological, sociological, and cultural factors involved in communication, analysing its breakdown and suggesting that the difficulty in overcoming it is partly caused by assumptions that it can be solved by language and method. Communication problems are a feature of modern culture, due to the breakdown of the unity of Western culture. Kraemer stresses that the main issue in restoring communication is not that of using more intelligible language nor of devising programs as primary needs. It is that the Church, in self-criticism and self-examination, should recover consciousness of its true nature and calling and change its ways to reflect the truth that 'judgement must begin at the house of God and not at the house of the world.'