International Conference on Christian Studies
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Item Luther’s Antagonism towards Jews: Some Lessons for Religious Conflict with Special reference to Sri Lanka.(The Department of Western Classical Culture & Christian Culture,University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka., 2017) Saddajeeva, N.base on the Hebrew text in which he translated into German. He attempted conversion of Jews into Christianity through the relationship he maintained which he failed and there commenced his ideological battle with the Jews. He deployed his knowledge of the First Testament to take a position that his contemporary Jews are not really Jews and that they cannot be the chosen people of God. This position was further aggravated by the use of the crucifixion of Jesus and he instigated German royalty and people against the Jews which also had a social background and the regular practice of the Jewish masses, caricaturing them as money lending Jews and accusing them for poisoning the wells to kill German people. These acts led to an overall displeasure towards the Jews, and many Jews left Germany expanding its Diaspora. The second phase of Ani Jewish sentiments can be identified with the rise of German Nationalism under Hitler who seemed to have admired Luther. It is in this background I wish explore the religious conflicts in Sri Lanka. Obviously there are inter religious and intra religious suspicions among all religious communities in Sri Lanka, they love and hate each other for various reasons. Some of that can be described to be historical, socio-political, about space and majority- minority dispositions and their implications. The complex confrontations are among the communities, they come alive and recede depending on the issues that float across the country among Christians, Buddhists, Hindus and Muslims also other groups that campaign for each of the above traditions. This paper will draw some of the ideas that Luther maintained on Jews and to focus particularly on the early Lutheran ideological positioning and determine some parallels in order to propose some lessons that Sri Lanka could learn from such hegemonic ideological explanations that could have devastating influence such as on the Third Reich and German Nationalism. Ethnic nationalism once woken unjustifiably, then it is proven beyond that its reciprocal responses are equally antagonistic.Item The Revolutionary Theological Impact of Lutheran Reformation and its Effective Approach to the Church.(The Department of Western Classical Culture & Christian Culture,University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka., 2017) Fernando, R.D.Roots of the Lutheran reformation remind us that the medieval theology has taken certain measures that in way disturb the basic realities of the Scriptures. Avarice in Rome, benefices and taxations, the great schism and moral collapse of those days implied a radical change in the church’s prevailing system. It was simply a dark age of the church that blocked and created many sub-cultures with regard to the concept of redemption. Luther’s reformation, basically, could be discussed in two major areas, which are most essential elements in the reformation as such. 1. An elementary cry for conversion 2. A call for a genuine renewal (reformation) The hierarchy and authority of the church of the medieval age was running away from the real biblical and scriptural tradition. Its theology and all other implications did not allow man to be free from his social, political, religious and economic bondages. The church became more of an obstacle to the human growth of that time. All responsible authorities according that did not fit enough to the man’s liberation created a theology. Luther’s revolutionary arrival therefore on one-way or another is a rebellious and threatening voice. It was truly a voice in the wilderness crying for a reformation. Luther was not merely the creator and head of the new movement, he was the movement. Luther’s reformation reminds us one single matter, which is quite important. The abuses of the church of that era were not the real cause as such, but only the occasion of the reformation and the reformation first brought a theological renewal and then extended up to certain internal changes of the church. The universal church therefore had to face those challenges constantly. Reformation was not ever an effort of establishing another CHURCH but a renewal to the PREVAILING CHURCH itself.