The scheduled lecture by Dr Gunnar Stålsett took place in Moore Close Chapel last night. Dr Gunnar Stålsett was a member of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee, and had previously been the Bishop of Oslo, and the General Secretary of the Lutheran World Federation. He is currently serving as the Vice President for the International Religious Liberty Association as well as the International President for the World Councils for Religion and Peace.
This 2007 Beach Lecture was on Peace and Religion and, as you would expect covered all the three Abrahamic religions and questioned their contributions to peace or its lack of contribution! He started by paying tribute to the inter-Christian dialogue which he sees as having contributed to the success of the ecumenical movement. Historically we have been skeptical about the movement but Dr Stålsett was careful to point out that the ecumenicalism does not imply unity of all religions but rather, says that unity is based on one world and one humanity and not one church.
The speaker describe the age in which we are living as World War III which, on the surface seems like a bizarre and far fetched statement until you dig deeper and undertand that he was referring to genocide, continued oppression, marginalisation, extended poverty, HIV/AIDS, international terrorism and the breakdown of human rights as well as civil liberties. This is a civil war, he says, which makes previous strategies for peace obsolete - the media, governements and non-govermental organisations the world over have all drawn the same conclusion.
So, where do we find solutions to end poverty and to stop the endless and mindless killings which we all too often hear about and read about? Dr Stålsett believes critics of religion have some validity when they say that religion has not left obvious footprints in history but rather it has laid confusion and ambiguity. He concludes that the natural solution to these ills can only be religion itself. It's a solution which will challenge any of us whose eschatology drives our theology - why try to fix something if it is all going to burn anyway? If it all has to get worse before Christ can return, leave it alone and give the clarion call for Christ's second coming. But we can't sit idly by. Can we?
It is in finding a way forward that we will throw off the mantel of ambiguity. Then we will be able see through the fog of tradition and admit that there are aspects of every religion that serve to debase humanity. It is then that we will be able to see those things which we promote in the name of God which really aren't from God. Then we will be able to check ourselves to see whether our teachings are based on cultural, ethnic and tribal divisions and to change them where identified.
Is it true that religion will find its way out of extremism through the reinterpretation of its teachings? What benefit is there in seeing out teachings through the eyes of others? Any such steps will be both difficult and painful but its rewards will bring a new richness to our interpretation which will it be worth it
The night was an interesting one. Challenges were thrown down which will call us to question ourselves on all levels. How, for example do we even begin to discuss open dialogue with other other religions considering our own historical developments and eschatology? How do we even begin to address how culture and traditional practices have shaped our understanding of Adventism? And to what extent should this be a personal journey as compared to a corporate one? And, where do we start?
The lecture has left me with many questions which I don't know how to begin to answer.
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