World Cultures and World Religions: The Coming Dialogue

The meeting of Christianity and the non-Christian religions, the impact of East on West, and West on East, the clash of cultures and the movement of divine and human forces that are changing the pattern of man’s life, form the basis of Kraemer’s text. He deals historically with the world situation as he sees it because history determines the mood in which East and West approach this coming dialogue . Kraemer surveys the position of the world’s religions deeply enmeshed in socio-cultural systems that create both barriers to change but impetus towards evolution. The dialogue with the grand, elusive, Eastern systems of humanist thinking demands searching thought, fundamental re-adjustment of methods and readiness to find fresh points of contact. It aims, however, to vindicate the personal conception of the living God as manifest in Jesus Christ. The key word of Oriental philosophies is harmony, glossing over the glaring disharmonies of man’s life . This is the heart of the dialogue that Kraemer discusses backed by his experience and learning. Kraemer aims to provide a formative and fundamental tool for Christians and all who are aspire to an intelligent and penetrative understanding of the religious and cultural life of the world.