By Roshan Shah, New Age Islam
04 May 201
Name of the Book: Let Us Stand Up For Prayer: Sacred Texts That Shape Perspectives
Compiled by: Vincent Sekhar
Publisher: Claretian Publications, Bangalore (www.claretianpublications.org)
Year: 2016
Pages: 263
Price: Rs. 195
There may have been a
time when people who followed (or claimed to follow) different religions
felt no need to learn about other religions because they had little or
no contact with their adherents. But in our closely interconnected world
today the situation is vastly different. People from different faith
backgrounds are now closely interdependent all across the world, and
almost all societies today are multi-religious. Peace—locally,
nationally and globally—thus heavily depends on peaceful relations
between people of different faith backgrounds. For this purpose,
interfaith dialogue and understanding have become an indispensable
necessity. Developing an empathetic understanding of other faiths
assumes greater salience given the long history of religion being used
as a tool to foment conflict in various parts of the world.
Today, there is
growing recognition that there can’t be peace in the world without peace
between religions and those who claim to be their adherents. For this
purpose, there is an urgent need to underscore the great similarities
that most religions share in common. This book does this—and very
admirably. It provides a theme-wise selection of passages from
scriptures from a range of faith traditions, highlighting how at the
level of basic values there is tremendous shared ground between them. In
his Preface, the compiler of the book, Fr. Vincent Sekhar (a Jesuit
scholar who works with the Institute of Dialogue with Cultures and
Religions at Loyola College, Chennai, and is Secretary for the
Commission of Interreligious Dialogue in the Jesuit Conference of South
Asia) points to the fact of how sacred texts in different traditions
‘say the same thing, though in different words’, underscoring what he
calls the common spiritual heritage of humanity. ‘What a common ground
for all to realize this “Family of Oneness” [...], travelling as
pilgrims to the same goal!’, he rightly exclaims.
Sekhar identifies 50
themes or core values, and under each he provides extracts (in English
translation) from scriptures from different faith traditions that say
pretty much the same thing. These traditions include Judaism,
Christianity, Islam, Sikhism, Jainism, Hinduism and Buddhism. Selected
themes include God’s grace, faith and prayer, knowledge and wisdom,
goodness and love, equality and good governance, sanctity of nature,
reverence for life and non-violence, egoism and pride, suffering,
salvation and immortality, self-control and gratitude, serving others,
forgiveness, friendship and kindness, duty and responsibility, peace on
earth, self-sacrifice, reconciliation and unity in diversity.
These extracts from a
range of scriptural texts put together theme-wise clearly bring out the
ethical and spiritual oneness that underlies all Divinely-inspired
religions, which is something that is generally obscured by obsession
with name and form and rituals and dogmas that often makes religions
wrongly appear as completely different from each other and obscures
their commonalities.
Recognising this basic
oneness can facilitate a more appreciative attitude towards other
faiths while also helping us recognise that religion ought to be
something that we ourselves embody, in terms of leading an ethical and
God-oriented life (reflected in love for God and for all
fellow-creatures), rather than just being a set of dogmas to blindly
believe in and rituals to mechanically perform. Learning about the
oneness (in terms of basic orientations and values) that underlies
various religious traditions and the ample goodness in religions other
than the one we may profess can be a great means for one’s own spiritual
growth, and in this regard the book can serve a very useful purpose.
The book can also be a very handy teaching resource in settings such as
school and college assemblies and interfaith gatherings.
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