A Vision for Peace in the
and among the three Abrahamic
religions
(at the same time, an
answer to
The Middle-East conflict seems at
least in part to represent a hard clash between two cultural complexes. But a
solution-oriented view will point out that both of these complexes originate in
the findings of one man. Three major religions trace themselves back to this
man, Abraham. Thus, it is he who holds the key to peace.
By trying to comprehend what was
unveiled in the initial insight which gave rise to the three Abrahamic religions, it will be possible to understand how
their respective historic pathways could develop differently and how all three
of these religions can still be seen as genuinely imbedded in the original
intent of their founding father. This is the basis of the vision of peace that
follows.
The origin of both the Judaeo-Christian and the
Islamic civilizations:
According to the Bible and the Qur’an, Abraham, an “Iraqi” from
Abraham’s descendants:
Nevertheless, the Bible tells how,
again and again, leaders and members of later generations lost the ability to
comprehend Abraham’s insights. But always, yet again, there arose men who
resisted that decline, the “Prophets”, people who were able to pick up the
thread that had been lost. In each such time, new phases of true religion
started, phases of immediate perception, leading to a cultural flourishing of
the whole people, as was the case after the coming of Moses, that of David, and
the Babylonian exile.
Far later came Jesus, one of these
prophets. He perceived the creative force that brought forth all things as the
original Father, who – more than any
human father ever could – cares for His children, who has equipped them richly,
and in good time gives them all they need. Whoever takes this view can see
himself as a child of God and his fellow men as his original brothers and
sisters – and treat them as such, compassionately. And that way, the
By presenting that view most
impressively Jesus was perceived as the exemplary “Son of God”, and that title
has been enshrined in the whole tradition that has passed his perspective down
to us.
That perspective burst the ethnic
boundaries of God’s chosen people and made their religion universal. But it
also gave rise to a new misunderstanding, and a new Prophet arose who stood up
against that: if Jesus was seen as God’s only child, that
undermined all other human beings’ claim to be God’s children. The new Prophet,
Mohammed, could see this problem. He reconnected to Abraham and to the
immediacy of his submission to the one force, which he too experienced as the
source of all being.
But this submission [in the Arabic
language: “Islam”], which was rediscovered by Mohammed, later came again to be
misunderstood. It has been interpreted as a command to surrender to any system
of rule, as long as it continues to refer to the Qur’an.
Today’s conflict – a consequence of
insufficient understanding:
Today we find three religious-cultural
ruling systems in opposition to one another, each claiming to possess the sole
and exclusive truth, and accusing the others of being untrue. And that is the
un-spiritual, ignorant and un-accepting background which has given the
impression of a “clash of civilizations”.
Help from an image from the time after the
conflict has been solved: a common sanctuary for all three religions:
If we wish to resolve the conflict,
we need to go back to the source of the three religions and look from that perspective
to a future time when the conflict will be solved. How will the Abrahamic religions relate to one another then? How will
they cherish their common origin? By what symbolism will they demonstrate their
underlying unity?
Obviously
the members of the three religions will see then the principal intentions of
their sister-religions as in accord with their own.
To
facilitate the process of bringing that future state about, I will project the
image of a possible solution into today’s landscape of
In the end – once the mutual recognition of the three
religions is commonly accepted – this virtual image of the solution may even be
realized physically in form of an architectural structure. For the time being,
the image must serve as a vessel to transport the message.
The proposal which follows does not therefore, as it
may appear to, involve the construction of a building; its purpose is to create
a space for Peace.
The present symbolism of “Haram
Ash-Sharif” or the “
Please let us begin by looking
together at the symbolism of Haram Ash-Sharif, the
For the Muslims this is the third
most holy place in the world. From there the Prophet Mohammed was taken up to
Heaven on his famous “night journey”. There the Muslims built the renowned Dome
of the Rock.
Before that it had been the site of
the Temples of Solomon and of Herod; the foundations of the Holy of Holies can
be visited there today.
The Jewish temples were built on that
site because, according to the Bible, it was there that Abraham’s final test
took place. God commanded him to take his son Isaac to
And it is surely also significant
that the Prophet Mohammed took Abraham’s attitude of complete surrender as the
archetype of the spirit of “Islam”.
Abraham and the secular Jews:
Many secular Jews today consider
Abraham’s readiness to sacrifice his son as madness, but the Bible calls it a
test. In the eyes of these secular Jews (and most rationally oriented
Westerners), Abraham flunked that test precisely through his willingness to
obey. The Bible, however, says that he passed the test.
The difference between the two views
stems from the fact that the secular group consciously lacks the experience of
inner guidance which Abraham had clearly found – and which, on this
heartbreaking occasion, rid him of his last remaining superstition. That, in
turn led to the disappearance of human sacrifice.
Secular Jews can rely only on their
rationality – which is already infinitely superior to being guided by
superstition or by emotional group identification. These typical symptoms of
poorly understood religion have, over time led again and again to horrendous
atrocities under the pretext of religion. Secular Jews (Christians, Muslims …)
always warned against these dangers. And for their watchfulness they deserve to
be called true followers of Abraham, because they are in fact following their
own inner guidance very closely, which makes them awake to the dangers of
poorly understood religion. They are upright, and they are committed, and they
deserve respect and indeed appreciation for that.
Abraham, the original Muslim (Christian, Jew…),
and the essence of “Islam”:
Abraham’s frame of mind at the
instant of his test was a state of watchful surrender, of accepting reality as
a challenge. This attitude of surrendering to the all-embracing reality and the
creative force that guides it – therefore called “Lord” – was and still is
called “Islam” in Arabic. That attitude was later to manifest in the religion
of Islam; it is of course not only Abraham’s; it is present throughout all Holy
Scriptures. In all spiritual traditions throughout the world, such a surrender is known to be the only source of true peace.
The Dome of the Rock therefore
stands on that significant site as a witness to all peoples of the planet. It
documents that special frame of mind which first gave birth to Judaism. The
same frame of mind was far later confirmed by the actual self-sacrifice of
Jesus [that would need to be explained more deeply to fully understand its
meaning]; and again later it was formulated in the notion of “Islam” by the
spirit inspiring the Prophet Mohammed, and affirmed by his ascension to Heaven from this place.
Understood thus, “Islam” is the
basis of Judaism, of Christianity, and of the religion called Islam. Therefore
the Dome of the Rock must remain where it is and be protected by all three of
these religions.
The essence of Judaism:
Essentially, the Jews are “God’s
chosen people”, the people dedicated to the creative force which brought forth
the entire universe, which still guides all, and which guides each human being.
Therefore the function of the Jews is to heed their task of being chosen, to
keep watch lest that innermost truth of human beings and of all Creation be
forgotten, because we humans are always in danger of succumbing to animal
emotions and becoming enslaved to ideologies – as the Middle East conflict
again shows.
This vision of peace will therefore remind
the Jews of what it means today to be “God’s chosen people”: Obviously, if “the
chosen people” accept their role, they will have to be a model that can be
imitated by other peoples of the world; the Jews will have to become an
integrative force {in the world}, helping the world as a whole to become one,
and the different peoples to find their most beneficial place in this whole.
In order to fulfil that role they
need a space that gives an overview; in symbolic terms, they need an elevated
place. – Here it is important to remark that an elevated position will not make
them morally “better” than others, but it may awaken in them the desire to be
consciously sensitive and alert – which they have obviously been in the past,
as is evidenced by the prominence they have gained in the world.
The now possible function and position of a
Jewish temple:
The Jews dream of the Messiah
building a new temple when he comes. Since Christians and Muslims believe no
less seriously in the coming of the Messiah, that coming must be one and the
same for all three.
The new temple which the Messiah
will bring will therefore certainly not be identical in function with the past
temples which were built according to the needs of their times. As prophesied,
it will rather be a manifold sanctuary for all peoples. Most likely, it will
contain not only a new Jewish temple but sanctuaries at least for the other two
Abrahamic religions.
The place for “God’s
chosen people” in that
structure will certainly be outstanding, in keeping with its historic role. As a
symbol of the higher perspective His people must always aim at, their inner sanctum will symbolically need a position that
permits an overview, a position “above the ground” – irrespective of whether this
part of the overall shrine is built on supports from the ground or is floating,
held in position by some kind of airships – and, to accord with the intention
of the founding-father Abraham, preferably a position exactly above the site of
his final test, above the Dome of the Rock – and above the Holy of Holies of
the last Temples.
The present surface of the Temple
Mount can accordingly remain untouched – the buildings there will even have to
be protected by “God’s chosen people”, since they document that surrender,
which is the basis of all three Abrahamic religions.
According to all three religions,
the Messiah intends to save all peoples and he will bring them to worship in
Likewise he will respect the
different views that exist in respect of a new
Difficult
though it may be for orthodox Jews to view such an image unprecedented in the Halacha, they might be well advised to try it – if only as
a visualization exercise aimed at paving the way for the surprises which the
Messiah will surely bring. It might help the Messiah if we visualize the new
And that
is where the [symbolic]
twelve tribes reappear, showing up in the multiplicity of this new symbol.
By that multiplicity, Israel will be reunited and in her simultaneously all
peoples will be united with the whole of the world and with the force that
guides it, because now all are free to follow their path, whatever it may be,
as long as it is their innermost truth.
Once the
Jews can view this lofty image, the worshippers of all religions will be able
to visualize their common sanctuary at that prophesied place – and then they
can come…
The Christian part of the vision:
In essence, Christianity comes down
to seeing the Christ, the exemplarily
manifested Son of God, as the axis of
the world that points the way to Heaven. And as Jesus called himself the “son
of man” – which is what his true followers strive to become – the axis of his
project is the human axis, the axis of being humane, a true child of God.
This axis will be manifested in this
architectural model by mirroring the Dome of the Rock on the platform above –
also as a symbol for the Prophet Mohammed’s ascension to Heaven from that
place. This virtual axis will make people’s minds revolve around the question
of what it means to be truly human. It will help them to receive guidance from
their innermost truth, to utilize truth’s creative power, and to trust, in a
spirit of surrender. For it is not the privilege of a few to attune themselves
to that frame of mind and, as Abraham, Jesus and Mohammed have shown, this
great gift of the spirit is offered personally to every human being.
This is the historic role of
Christianity. And, as with the roles of Islam and of Judaism, it can be appreciated
by the other two religions – without any need for the Jews to accept Jesus as
“the Messiah”, or for the Muslims to believe that God has only one Son. All
need accept only what the Bible says about the creation of man, that the
creative force made man in its own image
– as a copy of itself – meaning that God manifests
Himself in human nature, and that it is possible to perceive His manifestation,
and to live out that reality.
Christianity’s architectural
contribution to the overall sanctuary is to draw a cross with, as its
horizontal axis, the platform on which the house of prayer stands, while its
vertical axis symbolizes the link between Heaven and Earth and, at the same
time, the Ascension of Jesus, and the Prophet Mohammed’s Journey to Heaven. The
place of the Christians literally hangs from the Place of the Jews, also in
order to show that the Christian revelation depends upon that of God’s People
from of old.
Conclusion:
In this way, each one of the three
religions is by its position shown in relation to the others and can at the
same time be seen as a fully valid and sufficient way to realize the relation
between man and the creative force – and in this way all three religions can
rejoice together; mutual respect will be naturally present.
The consequence will be cooperation
and a new form of integration, in which each part will preserve its identity,
thereby neither taking anything away from the other, nor having to combat the
difference, but being enriched by it.
Of course, there will also be something
missing. But that something is only the artificial inflation of people’s ego,
through believing themselves to be the sole possessors of the truth. What will
be missing is the sick part of religion, the belief in one’s own superiority
that entitles one to kill everything that does not comply with one’s own ideas.
What will remain is the one point
which is primary in all religion: that a human being may realize his divine
origin, and treat himself and his fellow men accordingly.
The traditional ways can then lead
to that goal without any dilution or impurity, yet without having constantly to
remind themselves that only together do they make up the great image.
Dear Reader:
Since all three Abrahamic
religions expect the Messiah’s coming, all will have to exercise an attitude of
peace and mutual appreciation. I suggest that we facilitate this attitude by
contemplating the architectural symbol of unity which I have described.
To contribute
to cover the costs of this project, please give a tax deductible donation to “The
Temple-Project Association e.V.”,
|
Account number: 927 086 856 |
BLZ : 760 100 85
Postbank Nürnberg |
For more
information please go to:
Analysis of the Inner Logic of the Middle East Conflict
Even more you will find at www.Temple-Project.de