Peace in the Face of War
thus marginalising the more open, gracious, intellectual and mystical tendencies in Islam that were in the past the source of its greatness. It was a strategy remarkable in its long time-horizons, its precision, patience, detail and dedication. If moderation and religious freedom are to prevail, they will require no less. We must train a generation of religious leaders and educators who embrace the world in its diversity, and sacred texts in their maximal generosity. 1 By way of encouragement we could say to the Israeli Jew, this is best for you: remove your thumbs from the throat of your Palestinian brother. Put your arm around his shoulders instead and comfort him. This is the will of God for you, for is it not written in your Scriptures to love, forgive, help your enemy, love the stranger, speak peace and pursue it? To be fair, we would also have to acknowledge that the Israeli throat is also in a stranglehold grip of a group of nations that does not seek after its long–term well–being. Role reversal would help both sides to reveal its pain and bow its head to the shoulder of his brother, ideally with tears. Israel’s statehood was a godsend for the Jewish people, but for the Palestinians it was an unimaginable catastrophe (nakba), as nearly a million fled and/ or were expelled from the homes and towns by an implacable army of new arrivals. Thus we come to the final, remaining issue of the conflict in Israel, the conflict over the land. Here the religious Jew finds himself, typically, between a rock and a hard place, between what might be called sagas of war, 2 written prior to the destruction of the First and Second Temples, and the rabbinic/prophetic witness after the Temple’s first century demise: Judaism survived through its scholars, not its soldiers…. They were not pacifists but they were realists. They knew that the real battles are the ones that take place in the mind and the soul…. That is the wisdom the zealots do not understand: not then and not now. 3 To us outsiders, it would seem the land is a symbol of God’s entitlement for the Jewish people. But it can also be an idol. Killing in God’s Name, the focus of Dr Sack’s book, is not an option for the people who warned the world about idol worship. Nevertheless, as a good starting point for understanding the contemporary Jewish mind, its faithfulness to Bible and Tradition, and as a consultation document for reconciliation between the three Abrahamic faiths, I would strongly recommend this book. Christopher Mark CSWG 1 Sacks, op.cit., 262 2 i.e. Moses, Joshua, Gideon, and the Maccabees 3 Sacks, op.cit. 217 56
Alex (above) steps out into the light with a pair of ladders, one horizontal, the other almost vertical. Sunday Tea at the Monastery: an ebullient visitor corrals John of the Cross into conversation.
- Page 7 and 8: Our Associate, Caroline Walton, pro
- Page 9 and 10: peace is easy. To the contrary, it
- Page 11 and 12: heart reaches the limits of our phy
- Page 13 and 14: has now become beyond their strengt
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- Page 17 and 18: Performers received slightly higher
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- Page 23 and 24: An eschatological understanding of
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- Page 27 and 28: with a messianic consciousness, wit
- Page 29 and 30: Eschatological Creativity The disti
- Page 31 and 32: grim endlessness. 1 The End of the
- Page 33 and 34: one concerned with women, religion
- Page 35 and 36: the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Ro
- Page 37 and 38: embassies need to know how these pr
- Page 39 and 40: - regrettably, for security reasons
- Page 41 and 42: need to ‘strengthen the moderate
- Page 43 and 44: Do not repay anyone evil for evil.
- Page 45 and 46: Wilson, had warned against it. Prob
- Page 47 and 48: Brother John of the Cross CSWG 6 Ap
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- Page 53 and 54: and it lifted high the waves of the
- Page 55 and 56: Are religious conflicts today then
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Alex (above) steps out <strong>in</strong>to <strong>the</strong> light with a pair <strong>of</strong> ladders, one horizontal, <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r almost vertical.<br />
Sunday Tea at <strong>the</strong> Monastery: an ebullient visitor corrals John <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Cross <strong>in</strong>to conversation.
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