Szabó Árpád (szerk.): Isten és ember szolgálatában. Erdő János emlékezete (Kolozsvár, 2007)

John A. Buehrens: A House for Hope. Liberal Theology and the Challenges of the 21st Century

peace. Within the context of Japanese Buddhism, they resemble us in other respects. They come from a lay reform tradition, one critical of priestly Buddhism and temple ritual; they promote personal spiritual growth through small lay-led groups, emphasize compassion in serving the common good, and cooperation across differences of culture and creed. They have 6 million members.

One night in Kyoto, Japan’s ancient spiritual center, they held a banquet for me at an historic inn. The guests were other liberal religionists and local religious leaders. Seated across from me was the abbot of Japan’s most famous traditional Zen monastery. Food came in seemingly endless, exquisite little courses, each accompanied by lively toasts. Everyone found glasses of beer and sake refilled quickly after each„kampai!"

After a while, I noticed that the abbot was showing signs of, well, having absorbed his quota. He'd grown rather silent and unhappy. „Why am I here?” he kept saying. „Why am I here? All of you are modernists! But I, I am traditionalist.”

My hosts seemed to feel awkward. So I tried to salvage the situation.

„Venerable friend,” I ventured, „You remind me of a koan" Now Zen, of course, a koan is a seemingly strange question set by a teacher for a student to ponder. Like the question, „What is the sound of one hand clapping?” And each has a proper answer.

„You know some koan?" said the abbot.

„Only a few,” I replied.„But I use this one with my own people in America, especially those who say, »We are modern people in religion; and this is a new time. So why have words from the Bible? Why observe old holidays, like Easter and Christmas, Passover or High Holidays?« And I ask, »Why does the stork stand on one leg?«"

„Why does stork stand on one leg?” repeated the abbot. Then a smile flashed across his face, and he burst out laughing. „Because otherwise bird fall on rump, right?”

„Right! Otherwise, bird fall on rump!” I then proceeded to tell my Japanese friends how in North America there had been several religious reform movements — the Free Religious Association, Ethical Culture, the American Humanist Association - that simply put aside the Judeo-Christian tradition, considering the attempt to reinterpret that heritage mostly a waste of time. And each flourished briefly, but then had a hard time becoming a tradition, unable to pass wisdom from generation to generation.

The genius of Unitarian Universalism, on the other hand, I suggested been to stand with one foot clearly rooted in that heritage, and the other one, well, in mid-air — ready to step across any creedal boundary, to see things from another human perspective. My friends in the Rissho Kosei-kai

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