Discourse of the World Religions – serie

All world religions make statements about the beginning: about the beginning of the world and the beginning and nature of human beings. Propositions about God and humankind, about the eternity or the becoming of God, and about the position and destiny of the human person, the image of God, are woven into religious speculations about "the beginning". The first volume in the series "A Discourse of the World Religions" presents the image of the human person and the image of the deity in the world religions, as well as the relationship of both to teachings about the beginning of the world, its creation or origin. Leading thinkers of Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam provide the reader with a first-hand source for understanding the five world religions and their teaching about God, the human person, and the origin of the world.

Technology and the control of nature have arisen from the endeavour to reduce the neediness of human life. Since this reduction is also the goal of religions, there is a necessary proximity between religion and technology. The relationship of humans to nature and technology is an object of religious doctrine and ethics in all of the world's religions. The interpretations and the norms of the treatment of nature in economy and technology, but also the veneration of nature in nature-mysticism and its elevation in cult and sacrament, are forms of expression of the relationship to nature in religions. The development of the modern control of nature through technology appears to be connected to the biblical commission to rule over nature. Buddhism and Hinduism, however, also interpret technology and human control of nature. Technological power raises the question of how the normativeness of the created order intended by religions' concept of creation relates to the human freedom to reshape creation. What answers do religions give to the question of the humane form of technology and the limits to technological power and human control of nature?Leading scholars of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism have created with this volume a first-hand source of information which enables the reader to gain a better understanding of these five world religions and their teachings on nature and technology.

All religions face the challenge of explaining, in view of God's goodness, the existence of evil and suffering in the world. They must develop theories of the origin and the overcoming of evil and suffering. The explanations in Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism of evil and suffering and their origin, as well as these world religions' theories of how to overcome evil and suffering, differ from one another, but are also similar in many respects. The human person is always considered to be the origin of evil, and also to be the focus of aspirations to be able to overcome it. The conviction that evil and suffering are not original and can be overcome is characteristic of and common to the religions. The explanations of the origin of evil are closely related to the explanations of the continuation and propagation of evil in human persons, in nature, and in our technology and culture that have been developed in the religions - in Christianity, for example, as the doctrine of original sin. Finally, the world religions are concerned with how to cope with suffering and offer guidance for overcoming evil and suffering. Leading scholars of five world religions, Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and Hinduism, have created with this volume a first-hand source of information, which enables the reader to gain a better understanding of these religions' central teachings about the origin and the overcoming of evil and suffering.

Technology and the control of nature have arisen from the endeavor to reduce the neediness of human life. Since this reduction is also the goal of religions, there is a necessary proximity between religion and technology. The relationship of humans to nature and technology is an object of religious doctrine and ethics in all of the world's religions. The interpretations and the norms of the treatment of nature in economy and technology, but also the veneration of nature in nature-mysticism and its elevation in cult and sacrament, are forms of expression of the relationship to nature in religions. The development of the modern control of nature through technology appears to be connected to the biblical commission to rule over nature. Buddhism and Hinduism, however, also interpret technology and human control of nature. Technological power raises the question of how the normativeness of the created order intended by religion's concept of creation relates to the human freedom to reshape creation. What answers do religions give to the question of the humane form of technology and the limits to technological power and human control of nature? Leading scholars of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism have created with this volume a first-hand source of information which enables the reader to gain a better understanding of these five world religions and their teachings on nature and technology.

The question of the progress, the apocalyptic end, and the completion of history and the question of the life after death and the resurrection of the human person differ and are interconnected in the religions at the same time. The individual's completion and the completion of the world, the historical communities and humankind are conditional on each other. The world religions offer more than an interpretation of present history and the present world and existence of the human race. They also convey to humankind a theory of world history and of history before and above world history. This interpretation of universal history in the religions can be apocalypticism as the theory of the end of the world or apocalypticism and eschatology as the theory of the end, completion, and transfiguration of world and history. The completion of the world is inseparable from the completion of the individual human life in immortality and vice versa. Immortality is described in the Abrahamic religions as personal resurrection; in Hinduism as entering the divine self, the Atman; and in Buddhism as being united with the Buddha.How do the religions interpret universal history and what statements do they make about life after death? Leading scholars of Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam have created with this volume a first-hand source of information, which enables the reader to gain a better understanding of these five world religions and their teachings about the end of history and the life after death of the human person.

Religions are the largest communities of the global society and claim, at least in the cases of Islam and Christianity, to be universal interpretations of life and orders of existence. With the globalization of the world economy and the unity of the global society in the Internet, they gain unprecedented access to the entire human race through modern means of communication. At the same time, this globalization brings religions into conflict with one another in their claims to universal validity. How can the conflict of religions be defused? The speculative, philosophical method of dealing with a religion is a way to present one's own religious convictions in the medium of philosophy and rational discourse. The philosophical approach to religion can serve as the basis of the conversation of the world religions, without dissolving their truth claims. It can reduce dogmatic claims and contribute to overcoming fundamentalism. Philosophy builds bridges between religions. The series A Discourse of the World Religions presents with this volume the fifth and last of the EXPO-Discourses of the World Religions, which took place near the end of the World Exposition EXPO 2000 in Hannover, Germany. The five EXPO-Discourses were held before and during the World Exposition EXPO 2000 in Hannover with the objective of a philosophical-theological dialogue of religions about central themes of their teachings. The series aims at a deeper understanding of the similarities and differences between Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in their theological and philosophical propositions. It sees in philosophy a bridge between the religions and a means to overcome religious hostility and fundamentalism and to further the dialogue of the religions.

All religions face the challenge of explaining, in view of God's goodness, the existence of evil and suffering in the world. They must develop theories of the origin and the overcoming of evil and suffering. The explanations in Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism of evil and suffering and their origin, as well as these world religions' theories of how to overcome evil and suffering, differ from one another, but are also similar in many respects. The human person is always considered to be the origin of evil, and also to be the focus of aspirations to be able to overcome it. The conviction that evil and suffering are not original and can be overcome is characteristic of and common to the religions. The explanations of the origin of evil are closely related to the explanations of the continuation and propagation of evil in human persons, in nature, and in our technology and culture that have been developed in the religions - in Christianity, for example, as the doctrine of original sin. Finally, the world religions are concerned with how to cope with suffering and offer guidance for overcoming evil and suffering. Leading scholars of five world religions, Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and Hinduism, have created with this volume a first-hand source of information, which enables the reader to gain a better understanding of these religions' central teachings about the origin and the overcoming of evil and suffering.

Technology and the control of nature have arisen from the endeavor to reduce the neediness of human life. Since this reduction is also the goal of religions, there is a necessary proximity between religion and technology. The relationship of humans to nature and technology is an object of religious doctrine and ethics in all of the world's religions. The interpretations and the norms of the treatment of nature in economy and technology, but also the veneration of nature in nature-mysticism and its elevation in cult and sacrament, are forms of expression of the relationship to nature in religions. The development of the modern control of nature through technology appears to be connected to the biblical commission to rule over nature. Buddhism and Hinduism, however, also interpret technology and human control of nature. Technological power raises the question of how the normativeness of the created order intended by religion's concept of creation relates to the human freedom to reshape creation. What answers do religions give to the question of the humane form of technology and the limits to technological power and human control of nature? Leading scholars of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism have created with this volume a first-hand source of information which enables the reader to gain a better understanding of these five world religions and their teachings on nature and technology.

The soul is so closely connected to life that one cannot think that it could ever be separated from life and, consequently, be mortal. Therefore, it can only be immortal. This argument from Plato's Phaedo for the immortality of the soul exhibits both a great strength and a great weakness. Its strength is that it is dif­ ficult for anyone to think that the soul could ever exist without life. Its weakness is, first, that not all religions accept a soul that remains the same as the center of the person - thus one speaks, for instance, in Buddhism of a "soulless theory of the human being" - and, second, that what is true does not depend on what we can think, but on what we recognize in experience and thought. The religions believe in the existence of a power that can work contrary to our experience that the soul in death is not separated from life. How the reli­ gions believe they can establish this continued life after death and how faith in this life is related in the religions to the interpretation of history, its progress, its apocalyptic end, and its eschatological completion and transfiguration is the theme of this book. In the culture of the West in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, faith in the secular progress of the technological control of nature and the economic or­ ganization of society was the enemy of faith in the immortality of the soul.

Religions are the largest communities of the global society and claim, at least in the cases of Islam and Christianity, to be universal interpretations of life and orders of existence. With the globalization of the world economy and the unity of the global society in the Internet, they gain unprecedented access to the entire human race through modern means of communication. At the same time, this globalization brings religions into conflict with one another in their claims to universal validity. How can the conflict of religions be defused? The speculative, philosophical method of dealing with a religion is a way to present one's own religious convictions in the medium of philosophy and rational discourse. The philosophical approach to religion can serve as the basis of the conversation of the world religions, without dissolving their truth claims. It can reduce dogmatic claims and contribute to overcoming fundamentalism. Philosophy builds bridges between religions. The series A Discourse of the World Religions presents with this volume the fifth and last of the EXPO-Discourses of the World Religions, which took place near the end of the World Exposition EXPO 2000 in Hannover, Germany. The five EXPO-Discourses were held before and during the World Exposition EXPO 2000 in Hannover with the objective of a philosophical-theological dialogue of religions about central themes of their teachings. The series aims at a deeper understanding of the similarities and differences between Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in their theological and philosophical propositions. It sees in philosophy a bridge between the religions and a means to overcome religious hostility and fundamentalism and to further the dialogue of the religions.