Jesus Christ in the Understanding of World Religions

After a brief introduction on the relation between phenomenology of religion and Christology, the understanding of Jesus Christ according to major world religions is outlined. Jesus as Servant of God Redeemer Conquerer and Lord corresponds to the African ideas of healer, liberator and acestor. For Judaism Jesus only re-inforces the same messages of the old Prophets. The Sermon on the Mount and the beatitudes can be found in Isaiah and the Psalms, Judaism has nothing to learn from the negative teaching of Jesus. Among the Prophets in Islam Jesus holds a unique place; he was born of the Virgin Mary purified above all women, and was the promised Messiah. But he was somewhat a superman wo worked miracles by the power of God. He cannot be the Son of God, for God neither generates nor is generated. Jesus did not die on the Cross there was bo collective guilt of mankind to be atoned for. The common belief in modern Hinduism is that God incarnates himself to elevate man when humanity is at low ebb. Christ is one such figure without being unique. Buddhists accept Christ as onee of the Bodhisattvas but not as the only Son of God. The Confucian idea of the Sage is that he has a conscious mission to save the world from socio-political and moral degration, without the uniqueness of the historicaldimension. For Taoism there is no existential distinction between formless (God) and form (creation). Both are interdependent principles, joined in the one flow of life. All men are children of God just as Jesus is the child of God. The difference is that Jesus has experienced himself as such, while all order men are not yet fully aware of this fact. After a Christian theological understanding of Jesus' Gentile mission, of the absoluteness, uniqueness and univerality of Jesus Christ the book concludes with the Christian theology of the convergence of religions, followed by an elaborate bibliography