By Rudy Barnes, Jr.
Universalism is a religious concept based
on universal salvation. It rejects exclusivism—the concept that salvation
is limited to one religion and that all others are condemned to hell. The teachings of Jesus are universalist and provide
accountability to God and man with values and moral standards of legitimacy
based on altruistic love. They allow
free will, political freedom and democracy, and promote religious and political
reconciliation rather than division.
Universalism
originated within Christianity, and while most Universalists are now
Unitarians, there is a remnant of Christian Universalists who believe in universalist
principles based on the teachings of Jesus.
There are also Jews, Muslims and Unitarians who share belief in the
teachings of Jesus as the word of God but do not accept the divinity of Jesus. It is belief in Jesus as co-equal with God in
the Trinity that makes Christianity exclusivist.
Muslims
consider Jesus a prophet born of a virgin who taught the word of God and who
will return on the last day. That is
provided in the Qur’an, which Muslims consider the perfect and immutable word
of God. But while the Qur’an accepts
Jews and Christians as believers, it condemns all Christians who believe in the
Trinity as blasphemers, since the Trinity conflicts with the unitarian nature
of God that is explicitly provided in the Qur’an.
Mustafa
Akyol has presented an Islamic Jesus who was not divine, but a messenger
of God’s word, much like Muhammad. In
fact, Jesus never taught that he was divine.
His divinity is based on Paul’s atonement doctrine, which evolved into the
holy Trinity and made Jesus a co-equal with God. Jesus taught his disciples to follow him, not
to worship him, and his teachings provide timeless and universal values and
moral standards based on the altruistic love of others.
Religious
fundamentalists believe in the divine perfection of their holy books, including
their religious laws. When Islamist fundamentalists
seek to enforce ancient apostasy and blasphemy laws, they are not only
exclusivists but political oppressors who deny the freedoms of religion and
speech. Religious standards of
legitimacy must be voluntary moral standards rather than religious laws in
order to be consistent with freedom and democracy.
Progressive
Christians and Muslims believe that their scriptures should be interpreted as consistent
with freedom and democracy. Over 200
years ago, Thomas Jefferson, who was a Unitarian deist and a child of the
Enlightenment, asserted “the unalienable rights to life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness” in our Declaration of Independence, and he also asserted that
the teachings of Jesus were “the sublimest morality that has ever been taught.”
Jesus
was a Jew who never promoted any religion, not even his own. He taught that all who did the will of God
were his spiritual brothers and sisters in a universal family of God. (Mark 3:33-35).
Jesus taught the greatest
commandment was to love God and our neighbors as we love ourselves; and
when asked who is my neighbor? he
told the story of the good Samaritan
in which an apostate Samaritan was a good neighbor to a Jew. (Luke
10:25-37)
The
teachings of Jesus rejected rigid religious laws and opened the door to the
libertarian values of the Enlightenment, and Western religions have since
conformed their doctrines with individual rights and democracy. But Christianity and Islam continue to be
exclusivist, perhaps because rejecting their unique claims to salvation would eliminate
negative incentives that are needed to retain their believers and their worldly
power.
Both
Christianity and Islam accept the universalist teachings of Jesus as the word
of God. Christians and Muslims should reject
their exclusivist and divisive doctrines, and as universalists who follow the
teachings of Jesus they can then promote religious and political
reconciliation.
Notes:
On universalism generally, see Universalism: A theology for the 21st
century, by Forrest Church, November 5, 2001, at http://www.uuworld.org/articles/universalism-theology-the-21st-century.
On Mustafa Akyol’s Islamic
Jesus (St. Martin’s Press, New York, 2017), see https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/13/opinion/what-jesus-can-teach-todays-muslims.html?rref=collection%2Fcolumn%2FMustafa%20Akyol&action=click&contentCollection=Opinion&module=Collection®ion=Marginalia&src=me&version=column&pgtype=article;
Akyol has also affirmed the importance of fundamental freedoms in Islam (see https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/27/opinion/is-free-speech-good-for-muslims.html?rref=collection%2Fcolumn%2FMustafa%20Akyol&action=click&contentCollection=Opinion&module=Collection®ion=Marginalia&src=me&version=column&pgtype=article);
and Akyol has suggested that an Islamic Enlightenment might follow the model of
the Jewish Enlightenment (see https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/13/opinion/shariahs-winding-path-into-modernity.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region®ion=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region).
Thomas Jefferson embraced the
moral teachings of Jesus but considered the church an obstacle to freedom. He wrote Henry Fry on June 17, 1804: "I
consider the doctrines of Jesus as delivered by himself to contain the outlines
of the sublimest morality that has ever been taught; but I hold in the utmost
profound detestation and execration the corruptions of it which have been
invested by priestcraft and kingcraft, constituting a conspiracy of church and
state against the civil and religious liberties of man." Thomas Jefferson, The Jefferson Bible,
edited by O. I. A. Roche, Clarkson H. Potter, Inc., New York, 1964, at p 378;
see also Jefferson’s letter to John Adams dated October 13, 1813, at pp 825,
826; Jefferson's commentaries are at pp 325-379. See also, Introduction to The Teachings of
Jesus and Muhammad on Morality and Law: The Heart of Legitimacy, at page
10, note 2, posted at https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3gvZV8mXUp-aTJubVlISnpQc1U/view.
The Teachings of
Jesus and Muhammad on Morality and Law: The Heart of Legitimacy is a study
guide for interfaith groups that compares those teachings of Jesus selected by
Thomas Jefferson with comparable provisions of the Qur’an and hadith, with
commentary. It is posted at https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3gvZV8mXUp-aTJubVlISnpQc1U/view.
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(12/15/14): Faith and Freedom
(1/4/15): Religion and New Beginnings: Salvation and Reconciliation in the Family
of God http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2015/01/religion-and-new-beginnings-salvation.html
(1/11/15): The Greatest Commandment: A Common Word of Faith
(2/8/15): Promoting Religion Through Evangelism: Bringing Light or Darkness?
(2/15/15): Is Religion Good or Evil?
(5/3/15): A Fundamental Problem with Religion
(8/23/15): Legitimacy as a Context and Paradigm to Resolve Religious Conflict
(9/20/15) Politics and Religious Polarization
(1/23/16): Who Is My Neighbor?
(1/30/16): The Politics of Loving Our Neighbors as Ourselves
(2/27/16): Conflicting Concepts of Legitimacy in Faith, Freedom and Politics
(8/5/16): How Religion Can Bridge Our Political and Cultural Divide
(11/5/16): Religion, Liberty and Justice at Home and Abroad
(11/19/16): Religion and a Politics of Reconciliation Based on Shared Values
http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2016/11/religion-and-politics-of-reconciliation_19.html
(11/26/16): Irreconcilable Differences and the Demise of Democracy
(2/25/17): The Need for a Revolution in Religion and Politics
(3/4/17): Ignorance and Reason in Religion and Politics
(4/22/17): The Relevance of Jesus and the Irrelevance of the Church in Today’s
World
(5/27/17): Intrafaith Reconciliation as a Prerequisite for Interfaith
Reconciliation
(6/10/17): Religious Exclusivity and Discrimination in Politics http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2017/06/religious-exclusivity-and.html
(6/17/17): Religious Exclusivity: Does It Matter? http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2017/06/religious-exclusivity-does-it-matter.html
(6/24/17): The Evolution of Religion, Politics and Law: Back to the Future? http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2017/06/the-evolution-of-religion-politics-and.html.
(6/24/17): The Evolution of Religion, Politics and Law: Back to the Future? http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2017/06/the-evolution-of-religion-politics-and.html.
(7/1/17): Religion, Moral Authority and Conflicting Concepts of Legitimacy
(7/15/17) Religion and Progressive Politics
(7/8/17): Hell No!
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