Menanggapi resensi buku Karen Armstrong yang pernah diposting sebelumnya, dari Pak Martin Tocik:
Regarding article written by Karen Armstrong, original English version might be read here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1978154,00.html in case that some fine meaning was "lost in the translation". I must say, I highly respect Karen Armstrong for trying to bridge tensions between religions by explaining deeper reasons for mutual tolerance and giving certain background for historical events and developments as described in various holy and historical texts. By doings so, she risks that instead of finding mutual tolerance and some common ground, she will instead get scorn and wrath of both camps. Yes, she downplays importance of revelation and some hotly disputed core principles of faith (the cross, resurrection ... revelation through Koran) etc. and talks about religion mainly from cultural point of view - as a means how to accomodate spirituality and religious aspirations of the people. I am ready to be called theologically stupid by certain people on this forum, but so be it. I find reading her books really informative, well-argued, quite well-researched (really not sampah) and I am not ashamed about it. I am an ordinary guy who is really fond of seeking knowledge and education... but I am not a theologian, like 99% of other people. I am quite simply convinced that we need more bridges, not more hot disputes. Even though these bridges might have some errors, better to have flawed bridge than abyss of intolerance. We can have rock-solid faith in our hearts, but we should let the other people have their own, as long as they do not limit ours. Regarding relevance of forwarding of this disputed article (without any comments from forwarding person): I find it perfectly acceptable. I would appreciate any comment of the forwardee, but I dont really need it, I can form my opinion without any help. But it seems to me that somebody here is really afraid that without proper theological explanation, people can actually make their own (in his eyes wrong) conclusions. I am almost 100% sure that if K.A. lived in Indonesia, somebody would demand her arrest because of being "aliran tersesat". I would also like to ask people to use bahasa Indonesia yang sedikit lebih halus, especially people who see "sampah" in the work of others (what does it mean "ngereply", for example ? ... I think that would-be theologians should not speak in slang). I appologize for speaking in English, but I can't debate easily in bahasa Indonesia and sometimes I dont understand slang. If anybody objects, I would not use English at all. I did not aim to offend anybody... sorry, if I did unintentionally. I promise this is the end of my contributions to similar topics. Have a nice time, M.T. mediacare http://www.mediacare.biz [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
