What Christians Can Learn from Other Religions (4-13-14)

What Christians Can Learn from Other Religions: It's a catchy title, especially because of the little word ..."from ". According to author Rev. Phil Wogaman, we can learn a lot from other religions. "Yet we can't learn by comparing the best of our faith with the worst of theirs," he told Adult Ed. On April 6 and 13 Dumbartonians were privileged to hear highlights of some of the 50 "bests" in Wogaman's new book with the same title. Here are a few examples:
Islam, Judaism, and Christianity: Abraham is a unifying figure.
Islam: 
--"Jihad" has nothing to do with terrorism.
--Islamic universalism can't be equated with the nationalism of any one country.
--The great figures of Christianity are featured in the Koran.
--Islam strongly opposes the doctrine of the Trinity, or the concept of God as three persons. The original meaning of "person" was "mask"--the mask worn by an actor to portray a certain personality. 
Judaism:
-- The same words in the Hebrew Bible often appear in the New Testament.
--A relationship with God is the fundamental idea.
--Each new experience leads to a  new understanding of God."
--Being a "chosen people" can mean being elected for responsibility.
--We build on what we've inherited.
--We have the capacity to endure. We can also accept our complicity in oppression.
Primal Religions: 
--All realities are spiritually interconnected.
Hinduism:
--Brahman (God) is "all that is," not a thing which exists along other things;
--What appears to be lasting may not be so.
--We don't get to serenity all at once.
Buddhism:
"--To talk about God is to change the subject. Contemplation--not a concept--helps us understand reality.
--We carry around our karma, good or bad. we can't escape karma, but we can set it aside.
Daoism:
--We can mourn the death of our enemies.
Confucianism:
--We can be civil. We can learn the discipline of compromise.
Zoroastrianism:
--It's not a dead religion. 
Atheism:
--We can face the dark side of our tradition (for example, Armagedden); we can);
--We can  learn from science.

 

--By Ginny Finch