Original scientific paper
The sacred foundations of monotheistic religions Drawing on Mardešić's Concept of Sacredness
Ivan Šarčević
; Franjevačka teologija Sarajevo
Abstract
The article discusses the two phases of Mardešić's engagement with sacredness and religions. The first phase centers on sacredness as a phenomenological and anthropological fact, while the second phase Mardešić devotes to the role of religions in society. Furthermore, the article examines the foundational historical events of monotheistic religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam – which are the tribute and ritual commemoration of God's unexpected redeeming intervention in the history of the community doomed to destruction. For Christianity and the Christian church, the foundational event was the resurrection of Jesus. It is in the hope of resurrection that Christians understand Jesus' cross, not the other way around. It is in the key of resurrection that our personal and collective „ways of the cross”, our distressing past, shall be read and interpreted. The hope of resurrection shapes the identity of believers and restores the trust in God's active love in the world that is, rather than by outward atheism, more threatened by practical atheism, which sees God as utterly self-explanatory though in fact inefficient in peacemaking or even violent for others, all the way to the sacred terror.
Keywords
sacred; religion; foundational events; resurrection; cross; remembering wrongs; hope; open identity
Hrčak ID:
192655
URI
Publication date:
21.12.2017.
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