Ameen Rihani and the Unity of Religion: The Politics of Time and the Politics of Eternity

Abstract

In a world that is shaken daily by violence, hatred, and destruction, we are drawn to reflect on the urgent need for reconciliation and mutual understanding between nations if such atrocities are to be avoided in the future. It is sobering to reflect that Tomás Masaryk’s words, written in The Making of a State (1925), remain as pertinent as ever over seventy-five years later: “Chauvinism, racial or national intolerance, not love of one’s own people, is the foe of nations and humanity. Love of one’s own nation does not entail non-love of other nations (435).”