ANTHROPOLOGICAL
FOUNDATION
OF INTER-RELIGIOUS
DIALOGUE
Cornelius
Afebu omonokhua
1. Introduction
Let us begin our reflection and enquiry
with the following questions:
·
How
old was your mother when you were being conceived?
·
How
old was your father when you were being conceived?
·
What
was the relationship between your parents like?
·
What
events surrounded your birth?
·
What
complications did your mother experienced when you were being born?
·
In
what conditions did you grow up?
·
What
were your fears and phobia?
·
What
are your frequent ailments?
·
What
is the genetic disease in your family
·
What
is the common temperament in your family and community
·
Under
what religious environment where you born?
Inter-religious dialogue is first and
foremost a dialogue between human beings. It follows therefore that this human
being who is the subject of dialogue must be properly understood otherwise the
effort of dialogue will be akin to a medical doctor who treats the symptoms of an
ailment instead of the real illness. Sometimes the human person does not even
properly understand himself or herself. Thus Socrates calls for a study of self
and examination of consciousness since an unexamined life is not worth living.
This study will help us to enquire into intra-personal dialogue, inter-personal
dialogue, inter-cultural dialogue, inter-ethnic dialogue and Inter-religious
Dialogue. This enquiry will study the human person in the context of
anthropology and other related social sciences. Anthropology is about the
widest in social sciences in the study of a person. There are many different
types of anthropologies:
·
Physical
anthropology: studies the features of the human body, such as types of blood,
the form and colour of hair, and the shape of the skull, which
often show relationships between different groups of people or races.
·
Cultural
anthropology: studies the life style of a people by studying the objects which
man makes and uses.
·
Social
anthropology: studies the way people live together in organized societies, and
with the customs and rules that are kept in these societies. [1]
·
Ethnology:
studies particular societies or distinct groups. It is a comparative study of
cultures.[2]
The study of anthropology is important in
the promotion of dialogue because every religion is attended by a particular
culture of a people. It appears that religion is even incarnated in the culture
and world view of a people hence the human person and his cultural milieu can
not be ignored in the effort of promoting peaceful coexistence. God reveals
himself to a people in their own context using what is meaningful to the people
to reveal his divine essence. Thus grace builds on nature and does not destroy
it. Jesus used the custom and traditions of the Jews to reveal the Triune God.
When the Church moved to Rome,
the Christian Religion was proclaimed to the Hellenistic world in their own
categories using the Platonic and Aristotelian schema. The knowledge of God,
the awareness of his presence and the ultimate union with God is the essence of
life on earth. This is where Anthropology within the context of Christology is
very important. Jesus for Christians is the perfect revelation of God. He is
God made man who is a testimony of a perfect life well lived in the context of
the Jewish culture.
In Nigeria, life is defined within the
context of ethnicity and religion. This has to a great extent polarized the
politics of the nation such that if a person needs something or does something
wrong the person is described within the context of his / religion.
Consequently within the context of dialogue, a lot of factors come into play in
understanding a partner in dialogue. The events surrounding the birth of a
person (heritage at birth); the environment and life pattern of the people
(cultural heritage) and the religion of the parents (religious heritage) have a
lot to contribute to the partner in dialogue.
We can analyze these further.
2
Heritage at birth
The formation of character begins from the very day conception takes
place in the womb of a mother. The condition of a pregnant mother has a lot to
contribute to the formation of the child. Pregnant mothers react differently to
the environment and persons. There are some who are easily irritated and easily
get angry. This according to some psychologists some times affects the fetus.
It has been discovered by some empirical psychologists that even the period of
birth has a lot of influence on the baby. For instance, if a mother is in the
process of delivering a baby clasps her legs while the head of the baby is
already coming out, the baby is likely going to suffer some psychological
defects like:
- The baby will grow up to be afraid of narrow spaces. That means that the baby will not be able to pass through a tunnel. Such a child may not be able to pass a military test and consequently may not be able to be a valiant soldier
- The baby will be afraid of heights. That is to say, may not be able to live in a storey building or climb high mountains.
In the early stages of life, the external manifestations that are
stored up in the memory of a baby could have some positive or negative effect
when the baby becomes an adult. There are some people for instance who would
not like to see certain faces. This faces are hated and absolutely detested.
What could be responsible for this?
·
It is likely that a person with
a similar face must have done something terrible to the person when he or she
was a baby.
There are people who detest certain actions no matter how noble and
interesting. It is likely that the person must have received these actions as a
child in a very ugly or violent passion. For example:
·
There was a lady who detested
and hated sex with passion. When ever the husband approached her for sex, she
screamed and shouted: Rapist! Rapist!
Thief! Robber! Why this hatred for that which many people would like to
give a ransom to have? After serious
counseling and psychological test, it was discovered that when she was 12 years
old, armed robbers broke into their house and raped her violently. That was the
day she lost her virginity. That painful experience gave her a negative
impression of sex and men.
A child’s first language is an involuntary inheritance. Language
contributes extensively to the ways many people behave and reason. The environment contributes a lot to the
behavioral pattern of a person. Every child grows with a level of societal
indoctrination. Sometimes, you can easily identify a person’s origin from the
way the person speaks and behaves. There are tribes that are calm while others
are violent depending on the influence of the environment. Some Nigerians are
militant in behaviour may be because of the civil war and the long period of military
rule. The behaviour of some Nigerians differ from that of some other Countries in the
world. What makes the difference in the
process of growth is the level of debriefing and healing of memories.
There are some personality disorders that can appear in childhood.
These to some extent can be obstacles to dialogue. We may give examples of
these abnormalities:
- ADHD: - Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: This is associated with hyperactivity and the inability to keep attention focused on one thing.[3] It is inability to analyze, and anticipate consequences or learn from past behaviour. It has a tendency to continue into adulthood.
- CD: - Conduct disorder: This is characterized with an individual’s violation of societal rules and norms
- ASPD: - Antisocial Personality Disorder – this is diagnosed after the age of 18 when the individual shows persistent disregard for the rights of others.
Some of the causes of
these personality traits may be attributed to:
- Inheritance
- Children raised in an aggressive family environment
- Personality disorders such as schizophrenia, psychosis (hang-up, fixation, neurosis, phobia, obsession), ( and manic (over excitement, frenzy)
- Depressive illness which are common in adopted children
Knowing about this disorders which may be inherited at birth may
help us to appreciate the fact that many people do wrong things unknowingly.
Therefore we must be patient with a partner in Dialogue. He / she may need help
or we may need help pathologically, anthropologically, psychologically and
spiritually to understand each and one another. Saul thought that killing
Christians was good in the sight of God. He actually was killing in God’s name
until he encountered Jesus Christ on the way to Damascus when he was converted to Paul the
evangelist. The modern day terrorists in Nigeria may be suffering from one
or two of this personal abnormality as a result of indoctrination and
brainwashing.
Some of these disorders can be corrected even pathologically as in
the case of PMTCT- Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission.
This is a process of assisting a mother with HIV to give birth to babies that
are HIV negative. Even OVC, that is Orphan and vulnerable children technique
has been very useful in preventing and correcting behavioral disorder that are
or could be inherited at birth. In the process of self discovery and self
awareness it is important that we ask our parents about the events that
surrounded our births. One of the best ways of debriefing a child is to feed
the child with positive thinking that would replaced some of the ugly
experiences that could have been stored in the child’s subconscious mind.
3.
Religious heritage
Another serious heritage that affects dialogue and peace building is
religion. Many people did not choose the particular religion they practice.
Some people were born Christians and were told that Jesus Christ is the way,
the truth and the life. The Christian grow up to learn that no one can reach
God the Father except through Jesus Christ. After the reformation in the 16th
century, Christians were taught that outside the Church, there is no salvation.
In the name of Jesus every knee must bow. The Christian child grows up with
these convictions. He or she develops
pity for who ever is not a Christian because for the young Christian, all non
Christians are destined for hell fire. The Muslim child is instructed that the
Prophet Muhammad is the last prophet who received the message directly from God
to preach unconditional surrender to Allah and follow his prophet. The Muslim
child grows with the same feeling that all none Muslims must be converted
either through conviction or through jihad. The child of the African
Traditional Religion grows up with the feeling that Christianity is the
religion of the white people while Islam is the religion of the Arabs. These
religions have come to fall apart the good values of Africa.
If these convictions are not properly evangelized in the science of the need of
peaceful coexistence and the truth that all religions have the mission of
worshiping the same God, the end result could be religious conflict. Proper
religious education is indispensable in correcting this religious heritage.
4. Dignitatis
Humanae and Christian Anthropology
The Christian is a human being but given
that he / she has been redeemed by Jesus Christ, he / she is called to have a
personality that transcends human limitations through conversion of heart and
conversion to the image and likeness of God in whom he / she was created. This
calls for authentic living and promotion of human dignity. The Christian then must be God and human conscious. The dignity of the human person is
ultimate in every aspect of dialogue.
Today, we live in a world where the value
and dignity of the human person is reduced to zero. Millions of people have
lost their lives in various religious riots in Nigeria. One wonders for how long
we may go on like this killing and maiming human beings. The Fathers of the
Second Vatican Council made a declaration on religious liberty, dignitatis humanae, 7 December, 1965 to
bring the human person back to the consciousness and awareness on the right of
the person and communities to social and civil liberty in religious matters;
the general principles of religious freedom in the light of revelation. The
declaration among many other elements that could promote human dignity
declares:
·
All
men are bound to seek the truth, especially in what concerns God and his
Church, and embrace it and hold on to it as they come to know it. [4]
·
The
Vatican Council declares that the human person has a right to religious
freedom. Freedom of this kind means that
all men should be immune from coercion on the part of individuals, social
groups and every human power so that, within due limits, nobody is forced to
act against his convictions in religious matters in private or in public, alone
or in association with others. [5]
·
Religious
communities also have the right not to be hindered by legislation or
administrative action on the part of the civil authority in the selection,
training, appointment and transfer of their own ministers, in communicating
with religious authorities and communities in other parts of the world, in
erecting buildings for religious purposes, and in the acquisition and use of
the property they need. [6]
Islam also preaches freedom of religion and
promotion of human dignity. This should guide Christians not to see the
religious riots in many parts of the world as the true teaching of Islam. No
matter what happens the Christian should be fully conscious of the fact that
For Christian anthropology Jesus Christ is
the focal paradigm. The Christian is in the most literal sense the disciple of Jesus, the one who learns
from Jesus how to live authentically. The biblical elaboration of this
Christian structure of existence is rich and varied, and it includes both
testaments since Jesus was a Jew, and his basic religious formation came from
the traditions of Judaism, especially from the Hebrew Scriptures. It was the
prophets of Israel
who first introduced that structure of existence which we call personhood.
Jesus would pioneer a “post-personal” form of existence demanding
self-transcendence empowered by the Spirit and actualized in love of neighbour….This new knowledge has obvious
consequences of a Christian anthropology for which Jesus is the illustration of a life well lived.[7]
The
Christian should not afford to compromise the principles and teaching of Christ
because of provocation. The Christian
should often ask himself or herself, what Christ would do if he were in a
crisis situation and condition. Would
Jesus encourage the carrying of arms to avenge those who are killing him and
his disciples? Jesus would certainly in
dialogue demand an answer from those who are persecuting him but would instruct
that those who carry the sword would die with the sword. Jesus would likely affirm the counsel of St. Paul to the
Ephesians:” Do not let resentment lead
you into sin; the sunset must not find you still angry. Do not give the devil
his opportunity’’ (Eph. 4:26-27). In the words of St. Paul: “May the God who gives us peace make you completely
his, and keep your whole being, spirit, soul, and body free from all fault, at
the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. 5:23). May we have the courage to leave vengeance for
God knowing fully well that an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind! Very
often the people killed in retaliation during religious crisis are the very
innocent people. This is a violation of human dignity and we must do something
about this. The people killed and deprived of their property have the right to
life as people created in the image and likeness of God. In his encyclical
letter, Saved in Hope (Spe Salvi), His
Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI said:
Christianity did not bring a message of social revolution like that of
the ill-fated Spartacus, whose struggle led to so much blood shed. Jesus was
not Spartacus; he was not engaged in a fight for political liberation like
Barabbas or Bar-Kochba. Jesus who himself died on the Cross, brought something
totally different: an encounter with the Lord of all lords, an encounter with
the living God and thus an encounter with a hope stronger than the sufferings
of slavery, a hope which therefore transformed life and the world from within. [8]
5. Forms
of Dialogue
I deliberately
intend to end this session with the forms of dialogue. I think the meaning will
be clearer having seen the pain and tragedy of conflicts. Dialogue I believe
must start from an adventure into oneself. That is to say, I must constantly
ask myself: Who am I? Where I my coming from? Where am I? Where am going? What
is my strength? What is my weakness? What are my opportunities? What are my
threats? Can I live without others? Who is my neighbour?
How do I relate to them? This intra-personal dialogue can help a great
deal to utilize the forms of dialogue to a maximum advantage. Let us briefly
look at these forms of dialogue?
- Dialogue of Life:
This form of dialogue is what human beings do
on a day to day basis. In some of the villages and cities in the world and even
in Nigeria,
there are some families where people belong to different religions like Islam,
Christianity and African Traditional Religion. This is very common in the
Western, Southern and Mid-Western part of Nigeria. People of different
religions found themselves living in the same family, attend the same school
and work together in the same office and other places of work.
- Dialogue of Social Engagements:
The human person is social by nature. People
of different religions often meet in different life situations, like
ceremonies, trade in the same market, join together to fight injustice and
diseases. This form of dialogue is
collaboration between Christians and people of other religions to promote the
integral development and liberation of people. In doing this there must be a
dialogue or discussion about what is good and what is evil for the human person
and the society. Christians and other believers can come together to fight
ecological crisis and environmental pollution. People can come together
irrespective of religious differences to fight a common course.
- Dialogue of Theological exchange:
This can also be called dialogue of experts.
This is where specialists come together to discuss theological issues to seek
deeper understanding. For instance, experts can come together to discuss the
meaning of God, grace, heaven, hell and the end of the world. For instance when
a Christian says peace be with you, does
he mean the same peace that the
Muslim is talking about and greet with. This form of dialogue deals more with
clarification of terms, understand one another’s view and respect one another’s
convictions.
- Dialogue of religious experience:
I have a dream; it is only me who has the
experience of my dream. If I tell you that I ate pounded yam in my dream, you
are not in a position to tell me that it is a lie and that I ate rice.
Religious experience is akin to the Etsako proverb that says onokho’fia lo le ani lo za tuo vho owe, He
who wears a pair of shoes knows better the spot in his leg where it is hurting.
Religious experiences are very personal. Dialogue of religious experience
therefore is the sharing of our convictions about one another, our
different traditions, spiritual riches
we derived from prayer, meditation, contemplation and the way we experience God
in life. This on a lighter mood is the sharing of testimonies and narration of
what God has done for us.
[1] C. A Omonokhua, Human Life, Here and Hereafter : Eschatology and Anthropology in
the Judeo-Christian and Etsako Religions, (Lagos, Hexagon)2011) 33-34
University Press, 1974), 60
[3] Moley & Hall 2003.
[4] Vatican
II, Dignitatis Humanae, 7 December, 1965. No 1
[6]
Ibid
[7] M. J. Scanlon, “Christian Anthropology” in Michael Glazier and Monika K. Hellwig
(Eds) The Modern Catholic Encyclopedia,
(Minnesota:
Liturgical press, Collegeville 2004), 33
[8] Pope Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi (Saved in Hope), Encyclical Letter.
No. 4, p. 10
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