We (eBook)

What does it mean for us today to exist, to exist as human beings and to exist as human beings in a human way? We are not responsible for the fact that we exist. But we can and must decide how we want to live. To do so, we must consider not only our human capacities, but also the multiple challenges we face today - from our moral responsibility, our finite freedom, our contested dignity, our diversity and the struggle for justice, to our finitude, passivity and creaturehood. Our we is complex and kaleidoscopic. This results in opportunities and dangers that we need to be aware of. The fundamental existential challenge today lies not in the intersectionality and plurideterminacy of our concrete humanity, but in the fluidity, flexibility and complexity of our we and the various groups to which we belong or can belong. It is always we who respond to the challenges we face, but each time the we is different. The consequences are particularly evident in religious traditions that use the intimate language of family. We are never just members of a group. We have a right to be different. Not all religions do justice to this.

Born 1948; 1977 Promotion; 1982 Habilitation; Professor Emeritus of Systematic Theology, Symbolism and Philosophy of Religion at the University of Zurich; Danforth Professor Emeritus of Philosophy of Religion at Claremont Graduate University in California; Fellow at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study in South Africa.