Global Learning: Prompt 3

  "Do not let your love be a pretense, but sincerely prefer good to evil. Love each other as much as brothers should, and have a profound respect for each other…Do all you can to live at peace with everyone." -The Letter of Paul to the Church in Rome

   The major religions of the West, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, all promise salvation after death. All of these religions reach back in to ancient history; they are linked together, yet there is fighting between them and even within them. Could it be that their related history yet different doctrines gets in the way of faith, does it limit it? Or would history help contribute to faith? 

    The letters of St. Peter and St. Paul both urge Christians to love their neighbor no matter what; St. Peter said to the churches "have respect for everyone and love for our community" (The Smiles of Rome, 75).  Throughout history, and not only Christian history but history in general, the major religions of the West have fought, sometimes quite viciously, against each other despite the fact that the three each claim to have Abraham as their origin. It does not seem as if history should limit faith, people continue to believe in God. Although, it is true that there are some who look at all of the horrible things that happen and unfortunately give up their beliefs because of the actions of some that supposedly shared their beliefs in love and respect but do terrible things. So really, it does seem that history, the violent parts, can get in the way of loving one another due to those past (and continuing) conflicts and therefore limit some peoples’ faith. When someone has personally been affected because of religious conflicts, past and present, it would seem as if this would make it harder to follow the advice of the saints to love one another as if they were our brother or sister. Nothing is simple.

     On the other hand, history can also contribute to faith. If one studies the doctrines of their faith, and those of the others, one can find among the differences, some similarities. One God, the themes of love and justice, and future salvation are some of these similarities. History, at the very least, can also be used to inspire us today. The stories of the saints and their lives and deaths can be sources of inspiration to examine our own faith and relationship to God and to other people. As Margaret Visser reflects in her writing, The Geometry of Love, visiting churches or other sacred places can have a profound impact not only on believers but those who thought they were just there to take pictures as well. She said, “a church…is meaningful-absolutely nothing in it is without significance…a church stands in total opposition to the narrowing and flattening of human experience…the building has been made in order to communicate with the people in it” (94-95). The experience of looking at and touching a piece of history should not leave someone with empty feelings but rather remind them of everyone who believed before them, when it was just as difficult.

      It is possible that history has the potential to limit one’s faith, especially if someone is personally affected by the cruelty that people can sometimes show to each other. However, history also has the ability to make us more responsive to our faith, or if nothing else, to inspire us.