Kerry speaking on Christian-Muslim relations at Yale tonight

[MBS]

See
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles_of_faith/2008/07/kerry_to_addres.html

The entire text of the speech (as prepared for delivery) is posted here, along with the article about it.
Wonderful stuff. Highly recommended

[Dover]

1. As did Raymond Lulle in the 1200's.

He tried to unite and integrate the Muslims, Jews and Christians.
The alchemy of oneness:


In an atmosphere binding Holy War and Inquisition, and after his conversion, the great originality of Raymond Lulle is to have courageously confronted, openly and respectfully, the faith of the three monotheistic religions, Christianity, Judaism and Islam, according to a methodical and reasoned argument, leaving aside the principle of authority. In his 1271 book, The Book of Gentil and the three Wise Men, he even advocated seeking a syncretism of three religions, then abandons that idea in 1290 in his book Felix or Book of Wonders, for the benefit of a it gives preference to the Christian faith, because of the doctrine of the Incarnation...cont'd

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Lulle&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=1&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Draymond%2Blulle%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG

Of course he was also proselytizing and trying to convert them as well.


Here's a speech by the director of UNESCO that references his influence in history:
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0008/000836/083691Eo.pdf

[karynnj]

2. Very interesting

Kerry is definately not speaking of that! After speaking of the common ground that exists, he said :
"In talking about our shared challenges, I don’t seek to minimize the real differences between our religions. The specificity, the immediacy, the richness of each of our sacred texts, the greatness of our preferred theologians and thinkers—all are cheapened when dialogue tries to turn religion into some sort of undifferentiated feel-good mush. Nor can we hope to remove any influence of faith from our public life. In fact, we shouldn’t even try. If we’re not shaped by our faith, then we don’t have faith"

[Boojatta]

3. In India, there are many Hindus and many Muslims.

In Iran, there are powerful political leaders who are Shia Muslims.

Why not generalize the topic to relations between different sects of different religions and relations between different sects of the same religion?

[karynnj]

4. I think the speech does - it may be that the title given to the article is

the confusion.

[karynnj]

5. Here's the video

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=273&topic_id=150866&mesg_id=150914

[Azooz]

6. Thanks for the video

Peace on Earth is still a bit away, but it could be reached peacefully if every religion tried. I do support Sen. John F. Kerry on what he is saying and think it's a great speech. I think that the one thing all religions and sects must all compete in is their level of tolerance toward "others". The good Senator is speaking at Yale's divinity school, a good start and I hope he talks in Islamic schools to and that the idea catches on.

I have no tradition of accepting clergy and think all religions are better off without them as they (not religion) are the source of most, if not all intolerance - but if they support peace I support them.

[Jim__]

7. “We must love one another or die.”

I think that line sums it up nicely. If anyone's interested, here's Auden's complete poem.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

8. Auden always found that line deeply unsatisfactory.

He felt that the "or" should have been an "and".

[Donald Ian Rankin]

9. I'm not impressed by that speech, to be honest.

It doesn't address the hard part of the issue - that different religions have different teachings not merely about the supernatural, but about ethics, and that as the basis of society is the majority imposing their ethical principals on the minority, conflict is inevitable.