Spirituality and Beliefs On the transcendence of religious ideas

From the Peace Monument you can see the Jerusalem on the Rhine. There began the difficult relationship in the German-Jewish relations. During the Crusades, the great Jewish culture on the Rhine was destroyed. An accounting for the past never took place.

This reference, however, was a coincidence in the construction of the Peace Monument; also that the "Jerusalem on the Rhine" or the SchUM cities of Speyer, Worms and Mainz were recently elevated to the status of World Heritage Sites because of their Jewish past. This happened only after the Jerusalem Friedensmal had already been built. For the monument bore the name "Jerusalem Friedensmal"even before the story with the "Jerusalem on the Rhine" had been made known to the public at all.

In the meantime, the name "Jerusalem" refers to the 'Stone of Encounter' at the Friedensmal. It turned out that naming the entire monument 'Jerusalem Friedensmal' was too bold, even though the historical reference to the 'Jerusalem on the Rhine' was there. However, there was no support for this idea in society, especially in politics and religion. So the 'Jerusalem' remains as part of the history of this monument and also is reflected within the 'Yerushalayim' on the 'Stone of Encounter'.

The artist had initially chosen the name 'Jerusalem' for a reason other than the historical reference to the former 'Jerusalem on the Rhine': Jerusalem translates as 'place of peace'. In order for peace to come to the outer Jerusalem in the world, it needs the Jerusalem in us, i.e. the place of peace in our own soul. This goes beyond a particular religion and means the transcendence of religious ideology. Then peace also enters Jerusalem; in the inner and the outer world. - But this is not a new thought. The mystics of all religions agree on it. In relation to the religion of our own culture this means: "The Christian of the future will be a mystic - or he will not be" (Karl Rahner).
The Friedensmal opens the space for the encounter of people who have their own beliefs, who have their religions, who may have no religion at all.

The "bright area" in the peace painting stands for the "space of encounter" (with the 22 values in togetherness). But this "area" is in oneself and about the encounter with the other person I get necessary things reflected about myself, which helps me to free myself from the beliefs, from the ideologies and my "patterns" (the dark ring in the monument). The "tree of life" in the monument, which breaks through the "dark ring" from the inside, stands for the connection of "heaven" and "earth": the human being grows as a developmental step into an expanded consciousness, which is not possible without a foundation of values, how we humans treat each other. Inside and outside are interwoven.

Without a faith that gives you a foothold in the depths, it is difficult to get through hard times when many illusions collapse. I know that there is consciousness. Consciousness forms its world. Out of this world, reflected consciousness tries to grasp the source. This is also what distinguishes man from the animal. But isn't this endeavor much more of an eternal fall in / within G-d than a religious ideology with its fixed declaration about a level that human consciousness can't grasp at all?

I want to respect religions because they are ways to approach this higher level, because they give support and a foundation of values, without which there is no further development. Thus, however, one must leave people the freedom to tread their own path, within or outside of an existing religion, to decide again and again, to expand their faith, to deepen it - up to the numinous.

In Christianity, the name "Jesus" comes from the Aramaic name Yeshua. This translates as: God saves. The mystic will be able to affirm the statement of the name. "Christ" is a title. It means to have come into the knowledge of God. It could mean that one no longer projects salvation or healing onto something external or someone external, not even onto a religious ideology, but that one knows that it is oneself that is meant, that it is a process that happens within oneself.