Wesley Ariarajah

INTRODUCTION

              Wesley Ariarajah is a theologian as well as a professor. He was the former director of inter-religions relations at the world council of churches (wcc) he is also a Methodist minister in Sri Lanka, he served both in the pastoral ministry of the church and as lecturer in the history of religions and New Testament in the common protestant seminary of the churches in Sri Lanka.

 In 1981 he was invited to join the staff of the world council of churches, where he was leading the council’s interfaith dialogue for ten years. From 1992 he served as the deputy general secretary of the wcc.  Today he is professor at drew university, Madison, USA.

He has given lectures and written a number of books and articles on interfaith dialogue and Ecumenism. His publications include 'not without my neighbour - issues in interfaith relations', 'did I betray the gospel? - Letters of Paul and place of women' and 'axis of peace - Christian faith in times of violence and war’, The Bible and People of Other Faiths (in 12 languages), and Christians and Hindus – A Century of Protestant Ecumenical Thought.

 His latest volume is “Your God, My God, and Our God –Rethinking Christian Theology for Religious Plurality.”

PLURALISTIC UNDERSTANDING

Aria rajah’s faith was challenged by religious plurality. According to him his own religion was not able or unwilling to take the religious life of his neighbours seriously. At times it trampled on that faith; often it misrepresented it; always it refused to face its challenge. Ariarajah felt that his faith was too narrow. He says that my God can’t be - too small.

 According to him God is a God of all people which he supports with "the everlasting covenant between god and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth". (Genesis)

Ariarajah contended that the writers of the bible weren't aware that what they were writing would become scripture, and that "Jesus never intended for the whole world to be Christian.

Aria rajah  took ecumenism to its extreme limits , suggesting Muslims, Hindus and others achieve salvation in the same way as Christians and warning the latter against "narrow thinking." it was unbelievable to him that god listened to Christian prayers but ignored those praying to their particular versions of god.

Dr. Ariarajah said being a good Christian did not include going around telling people of other faiths that their faith is wrong but as Christians should speak of relationship with other faiths.

 He says that For Christians it is necessary to leave the idea that all other religions are living in darkness without any experience of god."

 IS JESUS THE ONLY WAY?

In the May 1987 issue of international Christian digest, Ariarajah said, "I know many Buddhists for whom the conviction about the divinity of the lord Buddha is so central that they will give their lives to defend it. Can a Christian turn around and say to the Buddhist that he or she is misguided to think this about the lord Buddha? We have no grounds to do so. ... Exclusive claims, presents as absolute truths, only result in alienation."

At the WCC general assembly in Australia in 1992, Ariarajah said, "As a Sri Lankan Christian who has read the Hindu writings and the scriptures of the Hindu saints I simply cannot believe that there have not been other people [than Christians] who are familiar with God. It is beyond belief that other people have no access to God or that god has no access to other people.

THEOLOGY OF ARIAH RAJAAH

A PROPHETE OF REFORM

            According to Ariarajah Jesus was the prophet of reform who did not seek to start a new religion but wanted to Reform Judaism.

 HIS CHRISTOLOGICAL UNDERSATANDING

According to him Lordship of Christ is   self-giving which based on love for others but not conquest of other religions. Similarly, the profound understanding of the way in which Christ exercises his Lordship has been missing in today’s pluralistic context. Christ himself has spoken about this: "Whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be the first among you must be slave of all" (Mk. 10: 43-44).

AUTHORITY OF SCRIPTURE

Ariarajah says that the authority of the Bible had been understood within the Christian tradition. This course has three phases: The first is indeed about the traditional discussions, the second phase we move into the study of the understanding of the authority and interpretation of scripture in the context of feminist/womanist criticism, and within the theological traditions of Asia, Africa and Latin America, and In the third phase we look at the living religions of the world and their scriptures, to learn how the authority of scripture is understood by our neighbours. This effort is beginning to teach us not only the diverse understandings of authority but also the many different roles that scriptures play within faith communities.

ROLE OF THE CHURCH ACCORDING TO ARIA RAJAH

The churches have not taken initiatives to help Christians to understand how to relate to those who had heard the Gospel, but have chosen to remain Hindu, Buddhist or Muslim also churches have not taken any steps to encourage the Christians to engage together with persons of other faiths in the struggles for justice, reconciliation and peace. So the present church has to be very active in relationship building.

CONCLUSION

Most of the time, we stay together with other faiths. But we are “separated" when it came to religion. We engaged in no common religious activity, so the time has come, participate or engage ourselves in the religious life of our neighbours. So that a peace oriented ,theocentric world can be built . 

Bibliography:

Ariarajah, Wesley. Hindus and Christians - A century of Protestant Ecumenical thought .1st edition in 1991jointly by Wm.B.Eerdmans Publishing co.

S. J. Samartha, Religious Pluralism and the Quest for Human Community" in: No Man is Alien. Essays on the Unity of Mankind, J. Robert Nelson (Ed.), E. J. BrilI, Leiden, 1971

The Kingdom of God in a Religiously Plural World"