PRACTICING PREACHING

Jesus and Confucius both died more than 2,000 years ago, but, to their followers, their teachings always sound fresh and helpful. At the forum, Confucius's famous doctrine "Don't do to others what you don't want others to do to you" has been repeatedly cited by both Confucianists and Christians to encourage dialogue, as Jesus gives a similar instruction, "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you."

But the practice of these teachings is not easy, many scholars pointed out.

Yan Binggang thought Hungtington's predictions not completely unjustified. While events in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Chechnya, the Middle East, Afghanistan, India and Parkistan all seemed to verify his predictions, people were paying more attention to the assertion of Hans Kuhn, the German liberal theologist, that there was no peace among nations without peace among religions, and no peace among religions without dialogue between religions.

China's growing influence on the world made it imperative for the country to explain itself to the world, said Wu Jianmin, executive director of the presidium of the forum's organizing committee.

"Since the world has entered a historical period of drastic change, people have to choose to confront or to seek harmony with diversity.Western civilizations have dominated the world over past centuries and will continue to dominate in the future," he said.

"Because Chinese civilization is the only civilization that has sustained itself successfully over thousands of years, but remains foreign to the outside world, dialogue is the premise to clearing up misunderstandings and cementing healthy relationships," he said.

Professor Du Weiming, of Harvard University, summarized Chinese civilization as "a tolerant civilization constantly learning from others."

He hoped the world could establish a "dialogue civilization" though constant dialogue, and more dialogues could be held between Chinese civilization and Islamic, Indian, Latin American and African civilizations.

In his message to the opening ceremony of the forum, former French President Jacques Chirac said China, with rich cultural and philosophical diversity, had been very good at the art of dialogue since ancient times.

"As the current world is struggling amid turmoil, the wisdom of China in seeking harmony will be beneficial... and having dialogues among civilizations will display the capability of mankind in tackling global crises," said the message.

Editor: Li Jing

Source: Xinhua