“If God’s world is so vast, why did you fall asleep in a prison?” With this quote from the Persian poet and Sufi mystic Rumi, the Protestant theologian Ines Charlotte Knoll criticized the omnipotence of politics and condemned resistance to it as a sacred duty. At the European Forum of Denk.Raum.Fresach at the Club Carinthia of BKS Bank Vienna, the former city pastor stated that “the most important weapon” against war and injustice is dialogue.
The devil has entered humanity The philosopher unequivocally condemned the current political conditions and the resistance to them. She denounced the contempt of the rich and powerful, the patronage, the greed, the envy, and the blatant injustice in all its forms and all wars, even to the point of the devil’s “complete antitransubstantiation.” The devil has possessed humanity: “People nowadays think they are God,” Knoll quoted the Dutch singer Herman van Veen.
“The death of human empathy is one of the earliest and clearest signs that a culture is disintegrating into barbarism,” Knoll recalled, echoing a thought of the writer Hannah Arendt. We are the mirror of the world theater, and the world theater holds up a mirror to us. Our task is to “resist sin and live resistance.” Sin is a state of alienation from God and from ourselves, Knoll stated, citing the Swiss theologian Karl Barth.
Resistance: A Misunderstanding
Resistance is a misunderstanding; there are as many forms of resistance as there are people, and there are also as many misunderstandings as there are people. But when it comes to gaining clarity about the situation, let us recall the farewell letter of the resistance fighter Klaus Bonhoeffer, executed by the Nazis, to his children: “Do not remain in the semi-darkness, but strive for clarity without hurting what is delicate and desecrating what is unapproachable.” He died for his longing for freedom without resorting to violence.
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