Amerang Dispute

Religion – Humanity’s Blessing or Curse?

Coming from the perspective of religious studies, this book takes stock of the reality of religion, asking for the individual and social effects of believing in God (or the equivalents, as in the case of Buddhism); it does not ask whether God exists – which is a matter of faith. Of course, not all religions could be considered in this publication.
Its contributors are well-known thinkers who with erudition and dedication comment on their respective traditions, yet they are not exemplary in an exclusive sense. The authors talk analytically about religions that they personally adhere to, yet they do not necessarily defend all details and modes of conduct that these religions imply. Apologetics is not the main and glorious path to an objective understanding. Rather, the liberating and repressive potentials of each religion are canvassed and it is considered what could be done to push back the repressive potentials.
The book goes back to a series of conferences, the “Amerang Disputes”, held by the Ernst Freiberger Foundation in Amerang/Chiemgau in 2006 and 2007. Today’s reawakening of religion and its renewed appearance in the political arena of a globalised world inspires fear and raises hope. Never before has there been such a multi-faceted discourse between so many religions. It is difficult to survey the overlapping fields of interest. This book intends to offer some orientation and explores the possibilities of a productive exchange. The first part contains ‘insider views’ of the religions: the first text stresses the religion’s positive aspects and the second text focuses on those aspects that are regarded as problematic. However, it is evident that such a strict division could not always be maintained. The discussions are summed up in “continuative questions” which help the readers to pursue these issues individually and to participate in a well-informed and active manner when the questions are debated in their respective surroundings. In the second part of the book, experts discuss more specific problems. The latter concern the influence of religion on intrapsychological-individual issues, secondly on the question of the formation of group identities, and thirdly on the creative, formative, power within the politics of complex societies. We would like to point out ways of understanding as well as taking action, but we do not lay claim to canonising our findings. The debate concerning our future is and remains open-ended, and this also applies to possible strategies of action.
In most cases, intellectuals are not the authorities who run religious institutions and thereby exercise power in the political and economic spheres of our globalised world. Yet, public discourse can motivate people to engage politically because, in the end, everyone is affected by the conflicts and acts of violence that are triggered and legitimised by religions all over the world. The authors just like the readers hold responsibility – in a political, economic, scientific, educational or journalistic sense. The prerequisite of engagement is understanding. But understanding is not possible without listening – with as little prejudice as possible. The capacity to see through one’s own prejudices is often the first step towards productive results.
What can be done in order to train our consciousness (i.e. our awareness and our reasoning), to free it from prejudices, thereby enabling us to judge and to act? The natural sciences have developed valid procedures for that, and humankind is successful with it. The human and social sciences find it more difficult to achieve this; in the inter-cultural, social and normative debates concerning values we have not yet really achieved clarity regarding the following issue: what are the conditions for training our mind, our emotions and motivations in order to avoid ending up in encapsulating ego-structures? On the level of individual psychology this is referred to as the overcoming of narcissism. On the level of collective psychology it is the overcoming of fundamentalism. Yet, fundamentalism is not only at work in militant religious movements but often also lurks in those aspects of religion that mean well. Let us all contribute to recognizing this web of discontent and let’s even try to sever it!
Apart form those contributions of the conference that have been turned into essays, the book also contains the conference’s discussions which have been summed up into units. Passages in italics refer to questions that have been bundled up while non-italicized passages mark the results of discussions and answers given by the speakers. Sometimes the answers also go back to contributions made by guests of the conference whose participation had a great impact on the conference’s success. At this point, I would like to thank everyone I cannot name individually – to all of you we owe thanks and respect. I would like to thank Ernst Freiberger who with his foundation has enabled us to conduct this open debate in such dignified surroundings. To Dr. Otto Helwig I extend thanks for transcribing the debates, and I thank Birgit and Adrian Tavaszi for their dedicated, substantial and smart collaboration in devising, forming and correcting the book’s texts.

Michael von Brück

Hardcover, 2008
Verlag der Weltreligionen
ISBN 978-3-458-71016-5
This book can be obtained in any book store.
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