1

Embracing diversity
Reflections on the transformation
of Christian identity
1


Manuela Kalsky


In the Summer of 1983 my life changed course completely though I
did not realise it at the time. I was 22 years old, studying Protestant
theology at Marburg, and I came to the decision that I would live and
study in a city which, for many, may evoke the dreams or memories of
drugs, stolen car radios and unheard-of liberties: Amsterdam. I wished
to live in the Netherlands for a year, acquaint myself with the people
and the country, and return to Germany with, in particular, many new
theological stimuli. I applied for a language bursary from the
Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (German Academic
Exchange Service), organised by the Dutch Ministry of Culture and
Science which I was then granted. For eight hours a day I immersed
myself in the Dutch language and culture together with other envoys
from around the world. I could not have wished for a better
integrational course. After a short while already I was able to speak
fluent Dutch and felt at home in the tolerant and multi-cultural city of
Amsterdam putting to one side the dents my car with its German
number plate had to suffer on a regular basis. Two years later I decided
not to return to Germany but rather to build my future in the
Netherlands.


The integrated other

I thus became part of a history of German migrants, constituting the
greatest foreign group in the Netherlands up until the 1960s.
2
Like it

1
This article was originally published in German: Vielfalt umarmen.
berlegungen zur Transformation christlicher Identitt, in: Doris Strahm,
Manuela Kalsky (eds.), Damit es anders wird zwischen uns. Interreligiser
Dialog aus der Sicht von Frauen, Ostfildern 2006, 57-69. Translated by Joanne
E. Orton.
2
In the second half of the 19
th
century 60% of those born outside the Netherlands
were German. See Marlou Schrover, Een kolonie van Duitsers. Groepsvorming
2
or not, I now belonged to those who had brought to the Netherlands
such things as Bratwurst, beer, the Christmas tree, gymnastics and
shopping for pleasure not forgetting the Second World War. What
concerned me in particular was the confrontation with the German
Nazi past from the perspective of a nation that had been besieged and
occupied by Nazi-Germany. The complexities of the associated
judgments and prejudices towards the Germans, towards the country
in which I had grown up, in which my family and friends still lived,
troubled me. It hurt when people spoke, in my presence, of the
moffen, a popular insult for Germans. When I then said, half
jokingly: By the way, there is also a mof among you now, people
would claim in shock that I was an exception and that, of course, they
did not mean me, and anyway: You can hardly hear youre a German.
You speak Dutch so well, much better than Prince Bernhard! A very
dubious compliment, since Prince Bernhard spoke Dutch with a terrific
German accent.
3

As long as I had lived in Germany, I had felt I had an
unambiguous identity. Like so many, I was outraged by the Second
World War and the Holocaust. Together with many others I asked
critical questions: How could it have happened? Why had it been
allowed to happen? The cry went out Never again Auschwitz, never
again War! and I was deeply convinced that my generation would do
all in its power to ban anti-Semitism and war. There was no doubt
about it. We would sort everything out. I was on the right side. This
self-certainty was abruptly destroyed when I went abroad. To my
surprise it made no difference there who I was as a person. Rather, I
was judged by the group I belonged to, my nationality. My name, my
accent betrayed my otherness. I was a German and thus subjected to
the experiences and projections which the Dutch automatically
connected with Germans. I began to see myself and my country
through their eyes. At first I didnt realise it, but as time went on I
increasingly attempted to hide my roots. If I spoke German at all, I
spoke it quietly, and I perfected my Dutch so that I spoke pretty much
without any accent. Did I do this because I was ashamed to be known
as a German, abroad? I cannot answer that question with a clear yes or

onder Duitse immigranten in Utrecht in de negentiende eeuw, Amsterdam
2002.
3
See on the topic German migrants in the Netherlands the dissertation by Mira
Peeters-Bijlsma, Duiters in Nederland, Ubbergen 2005.
3
no. I simply wished to belong and be accepted as the person that I am.
However well I adapted to the customs and morals of the Netherlands,
I still remained, and remain, the integrated other now perhaps
mostly on my own account.
I share this identity of an integrated other and the related
insider/outsider position with migrants from other countries. It
contributes to the uncertainty of ones own identity, but at the same
time it encourages a new perspective on things. The question: Who
am I? can no longer be given a simple answer. I am Dutch in my
case means: I have a Dutch passport, I have lived and worked in the
Netherlands for 22 years, but am German, born and bred, have German
parents who lived through the Second World War, and the first 23
years of my life were shaped by the German (national) culture. I am a
German Dutch woman. I experience my identity, my I, neither as
unchanging nor as bound to a national essence. It is a German-Dutch
construct, in which many various facets of (life) experiences that
equally determine my identity as white, economically independent,
heterosexual woman play a role. It is not a persons unchanging
qualities that determine this process of forming an identity, but the
self-chosen areas of belonging.
Those who have left their original homeland or who have been
confronted in a different way with their otherness towards a cultural
majority have to deal with this uncertainty of identity and the search
for an identity that is adapted to their new circumstances. Though
identity never has been a static or unambiguous concept, in Europe it
has never been as complex as it is at the beginning of the 21
st
century.
The reason for this is found in the worldwide emancipation and
migration movements that reached Europe in the second half of the
20
th
century.
4
Multiple identities

The unease felt today among the western European population is not
only a consequence of the attacks of 11 September 2001. It is a
reaction to the developments that mainly took place in the second half
of the 20
th
century. The feminist movement may be regarded as one of
the related factors as well as the gender research that it provoked.
Patriarchal constructs of masculine and feminine identity were
criticised, and the search began for new concepts of identity
4
under the
banner of distinction between men and women, but also between
women. Traditional hierarchical gender relations are coming under
pressure. New, emancipated forms of coexistence between both
genders are developing but slowly, however, and often their
achievement still requires laborious effort in everyday life. Many
women, in particular, are demotivated by these often tiny steps of
progress and return to their traditional role patterns.
There is a further development, which is kindling an all but
nostalgic desire for certainty and security and the demand for a
national identity in western European countries: globalisation and the
associated worldwide migration movements. Europe, in the meantime,
has become an area of immigration, in which people of various
cultures and religions live. The others who, fifty years ago, were at a
safe distance, have now shifted to within reach. Whether we like it or
not, the reality is that a third of Frankfurts citizens do not possess a
German passport and almost a third of Londons population is of Asian
or Afro-Caribbean origin. Paris is the second largest Portuguese city
and Rotterdam is approaching the Canadian city of Torontos levels,
where 44% of the population are of foreign origin.
5

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)s Human
Development Report 2004
6
shows that one of the greatest migration

4
See on the topic of identity and gender Claudia Breger, Identitt, in: Christina
von Braun / Inge Stephan (eds.), Gender@Wissen. Handbuch der Gender-Theo-
rien, Cologne/Weimar/Vienna 2005, 4765.
5
Manuela Kalsky, Die Suche nach einem multikulturellen Wir unter Berck-
sichtigung der Unterschiede. Gedanken zur Entwicklung einer cross-kulturellen
Theologie im Kontext Europas, in: Christian Bauer / Stephan van Erp (eds.),
Heil in Differenz. Dominikanische Beitrge zu einer kontextuellen Theologie in
Europa, Mnster 2004, 106117.
6
Human Development Report 2004. Cultural Liberty in Todays Diverse World,
United Nations Development Programme, New York 2004.
5
movements in human history took place in the last twenty years of the
20
th
century. Between 1980 and 2000 the number of migrants from
Asia, Africa and the American continents increased by 75%. The
number of foreigners in the United States rose from 14 to 36 million,
an increase of 145%. The authors of the report point out that this
migration surge accompanied revolutionary developments in the
technological sector. Migrants all over the world are now able to
develop dual or multiple cultural identities. They form a new identity
in their new home and simultaneously retain their identity of origin
with the aid of the most recent technological methods of
communication and transport. According to the report, countries that
take in migrants should not expect them to assimilate, but should be
open to this shaping of new, multiple identities as well as taking
political measures to correspond to this development for example,
allowing dual nationalities. The reports authors argue that multiple
identities are a fact in this dynamic world. It is an illusion to assume
that these developments can be stopped. They are inherent to
globalisation. The only durable path towards stability, peace and
democracy is to embrace diversity.


Post-colonial religious identity

The developments described here hold consequences not only for
cultural but also for religious identity. Multiple, fluid and hybrid
7

identities have now also become the topic of theological discussion.
Since the 1980s, publications by women in so-called Third World
countries, in particular, have made clear that there is no speaking
straightforwardly of We women. Even though worldwide gender
commonalities among women cannot be disputed, the power and
dependence relations between women, differences of ethnicity,
religion, class and culture, must not be overlooked. Issues regarding
the interrelation of women from the North and the South through the
history of colonial mission thus came to the fore. Postcolonial studies
appeared in which imperialist thought structures and methods of

7
Hybrid here means: mixed, of dual descent, compiled of various elements,
crossed origin.
6
management were highlighted and criticised.
8
The social, cultural,
economical, religious and psychological effects of colonialism on the
formerly colonised peoples and on the colonisers were critically
analysed. Even though colonialism has formally come to an end,
postcolonial studies make it plain that its effects still continue.
9

From a feminist-theological perspective, the Chinese-American
theologian Kwok Pui-lan and Botswanan theologian Musa W. Dube
have presented the beginnings of a feminist-theological postcolonial
critique.
10
Both have criticised Christianitys exclusive claim to
universality and the concomitant imperialist spread of Christian
religion and of western culture. Dube highlights this within the biblical
tradition starting with the Exodus up to the Great Commission in
Marks Gospel. According to both Kwok and Dube, the accounts of the
Syro-Phoenician woman (Mk 7:24-30) and the Canaanite woman
(Matt 15:21-28) serve as a Christian legitimation for the liberating
character of mission among the heathens.
11
In her postcolonial reading
Kwok underlines the multiple identity of the Syro-Phoenician woman.
As a foreigner, she is oppressed by a patriarchal society, but as a
Greek-speaking woman she comes from a higher caste. It can,
therefore, be assumed that she would marginalise others, because of
her social position. Kwok concludes from this that marginalisation is
not one-dimensional, but that it must be analysed in its many forms.
There is always an other in the other. In this way, postcolonial
thinkers expose a dualistic division into ruler/oppressed,
powerful/powerless, coloniser/colonised as an over-simplified analysis
of power relations. From a postcolonial viewpoint, the identity of the

8
Bill Ashcroft / Gareth Griffiths / Helen Tiffin (eds.), The Post-Colonial Studies
Reader, London 1995; Peter Childs / Patrick Williams, An Introduction to Post-
Colonial Theory, London/New York 1997.
9
On the term Postcolonialism: Hendrik Pranger, Redeeming Tradition.
Inculturation, Contextualization, and Tradition in a Postcolonial Perspective,
Groningen 2003, 313316; Gaby Dietze, Postcolonial Theory, in: Von Braun
et al., Gender@Wissen, 304ff.
10
Pui-lan Kwok, The Sources and Resources of Feminist Theologies. A Post-
Colonial Perspective, in: Elisabeth Hartlieb / Charlotte Methuen (eds.), Quellen
feministischer Theologien, Jahrbuch der ESWTR 5, Mainz/Kampen 1997, 5
23; Laura E. Donaldson & Pui-lan Kwok (eds.), Postcolonialism, Feminism &
Religious Discourse, New York/London 2002; Musa W. Dube, Postcolonial
Feminist Interpretation of the Bible, St. Louis 2000.
11
Pui-lan Kwok, Introducing Asian Feminist Theology, Cleveland 2000, 5962.
7
Syro-Phoenician woman is not only determined by her gender, but also
by her class, language, ethnicity and so forth.
12

This postcolonial method of observation demands that static
assumptions of identity be broken up and that differences be no longer
thought of in terms of hierarchy. A mode of thinking is sought after
that no longer forces the self and the other into a standard concept
or divides it into an us/them scheme, but enables the other to be
understood, in fact, as other and allows the positive challenge of
cultural and religious differences to be taken seriously. In order to
achieve this, a process of decolonising our own thinking and its
epistemological foundations is needed. A thorough analysis of mutual
power relations and privileges must take place building on the
realisation that we are both coloniser and colonised in an unjust
world. In this context US-American theologian Letty Russell talks of
postcolonial subjects who must work together.
13
She supports Musa
W. Dubes proposal of developing a strategy of postcolonial subjects,
which calls upon both the dominator and the dominated to examine the
matrix of past and present imperialism and to map ways in which they
can speak as equal subjects who meet to exchange words of wisdom
and life.
14



Transformation of Christian identity

I endorse Musa W. Dubes plea. I am convinced that a hermeneutics of
difference must be developed with the aim of an ethical practice of
solidarity and responsibility, that extends across the boundaries of
Europe and those of our own religion. The latter is now referred to as
multiple religious belonging.
15
This relates to people who feel a

12
See Pui-lan Kwok, Postcolonial Imagination and Feminist Theology, Louisville,
Kentucky 2005, 7785.
13
See Letty M. Russell, Postkoloniale Subjekte und eine feministische Hermeneu-
tik der Gastfreundschaft, in: Heike Walz / Christine Lienemann-Perrin / Doris
Strahm (eds.), Als htten sie uns neu erfunden. Beobachtungen zu Fremdheit
und Geschlecht, Lucerne 2003, 99112. See also the contributions by Heike
Walz and Katja Heidemanns on postcolonial approaches and issues.
14
Musa W. Dube, Go Therefore and Make Disciples of All Nations, in:
Fernando Segovia / Mary Ann Tolbert (eds.), Teaching the Bible. The
Discourses and Politics of Biblical Pedagogy, New York 1998, 233.
15
See Catherine Cornille (ed.), Many Mansions? Multiple Religious Belonging
and Christian Identity, Maryknoll, New York 2002.
8
connection with more than one religious tradition. Besides the
moments of crisis that such a transformation of religious identity may
produce, it is a feeling of a spiritual transformation, profoundly
enriching and existentially decisive, accompanied by a feeling of deep-
felt gratitude
16
that finally prevails. In the Asian field this
phenomenon of dual or even triple religious belonging is nothing new,
but in the West it is cause for intense philosophical, theological and
dogmatic questions and discussions. What are the consequences if one
wishes to remain loyal to ones own religious tradition, but at the same
time discovers the truth of God in another religious tradition? Is this
just a problem for the Christian self-conception or rather also an
opportunity to expand ones own horizons, if one believes in a truth
that lies beyond the boundaries of a fixed (Christian) identity?
17

Despite the dismissive attitude of many western theologians, the
transformation of a Christian identity that is understood as fixed, seems
to be a mere question of time, in Europe too. In a society increasingly
shaped by different cultures and religions, hybrid and multiple
religious identities are unavoidable. They emerge quite simply from
daily living and dealing with one other. This requires a rethinking on
the part of churches and all religious authorities, which to date have
not made life but dogmatic concepts and the associated absolute truth
in Jesus Christ the basis for their dealings with other religions. The
document put forth by the Evangelical Church in Germany to the inter-
religious dialogue, Christian faith and non-Christian religions,
18
is an
example of this. I am of the opinion that the authors have allowed
themselves to be too strongly led by dogmatic premises rather than
intersubjective relations, so that an oppositional Us-and-Them
thinking determines the tone of the document. Differences are
determined in the light of the Gospel and not in the personal
encounter with the other. I believe that beneficial interreligious

16
Perry Schmidt-Leukel, Gott ohne Grenzen. Eine christliche und pluralistische
Theologie der Religionen, Gtersloh 2005, 495.
17
See Raimundo Panikkar, On Christian Identity. Who is a Christian?, in: Cor-
nille, Many Mansions?, 121144. Panikkar himself is a Christian-Hindu-
Buddhist.
18
Christlicher Glaube und nichtchristliche Religionen. Theologische Leitlinien.
Ein Beitrag der Kammer fr Theologie der EKD, EKD Texte 77, August 2003.
9
discourse does not start from ones own dogmatic Christian
convictions, but from everyday life and the ethical dealings there.
19



Room for encounters

The US-American Buddhist Rita M. Gross, who has participated for
many years in interreligious dialogue, is of the same opinion. She
argues in support of a theology of religions and believes that every
religion has something valuable and interesting to contribute to the
great mosaic of the mystery of the world. She wishes to learn from
other religions through study and dialogue. The aim is to live together
peacefully without competition. This pluralist position does not,
however, mean that she is preaching relativism: Pluralists are not
saying that religious phenomena cannot be judged; we are saying that
one cannot evaluate religious phenomena; we are saying that no
religion has a monopoly on either truth or falsity, relevant or harmful
teachings and practices.
20
Her opinion is that one can recognize a tree
by its fruit. Religions are judged by the ethical consequences that arise
from their theological ideas.
The first step towards a successful interreligious dialogue should
be to gain knowledge of the respective religion. This information
should then be dealt with in a second step, where Gross introduces the
tool of the comparative mirror, which reflects both your self and
the other: In the comparative mirror, we see ourselves in the
context and perspective of many other religious phenomena, inviting,
even necessitating self-reflection about our own religious and cultural
systems.
21

In this way each individual becomes a phenomenon for him-
/herself, so that we learn to understand ourselves better. While looking
in the mirror at the diversity of religions, we reflect on our own belief.
Alternatives appear, new symbols and approaches to which we are not

19
See more extensively: Manuela Kalsky, Een veelgelovig bestaan. Ethisch
handelen en interreligieuze dialoog, in: Manuela Kalsky / Andr Lascaris / Leo
Oosterveen / Inez van der Spek (eds.), Ons rakelings nabij. Gedaanteverande-
ring van God en geloof, Nijmegen/Zoetermeer 2005, 94109 [94103].
20
Rita M. Gross, Feminist Theology as Theology of Religions, in: Susan Frank
Parsons (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Feminist Theology, Cambridge
2002, 66.
21
Gross, Feminist Theology as Theology of Religions, 67.
10
accustomed. In this way, for example, a study of non-theistic religions
such as Buddhism may clarify the advantages and limits of theistic
beliefs. The question can then also be raised as to what it means to be
confronted by all the patriarchal elements in religions and cultures that
are unacceptable from a feminist viewpoint. We must learn, Gross
says, to discuss the things we see in the comparative mirror. The
passing of initial judgment must be delayed. The first step is the
attempt to understand with empathy why this or that practice exists, in
order to avoid mutual distance and disdain.
Viewed in this way, interreligious dialogue is not a disguised
missionary activity or a debate that one intends to win. To enter into
dialogue means to listen carefully to others and to be prepared to
change oneself on the basis of what one has heard. This change is in
relation to oneself, not the other. The Jewish-Christian dialogue
should, therefore, not be aimed at convincing the Jews to recognise
Jesus significance for their religion. Rather, as the US-American
theologian John Cobb writes, it is more the case that the Christian
efforts in their dialogue with the Jews should be to transform
Christianity.
22
The practice of interreligious dialogue offers the
chance to see ourselves and our religion through the eyes of others and
so make the wide variety of religious experiences of the divine
beneficial to our own Christian identity.
23

The US-American theologian Paul Knitter, who has been active in
interreligious dialogue for many years, has come to the conclusion that
dialogue with other religions works best in interreligious collaboration.
As an example for such interreligious practice he names the
International Peace Council, which has been formed within the
framework of the World Parliament of Religions. The Council calls
together renowned theologians, including Knitter, who are prepared to
travel on invitation to crisis areas, in order to make an interreligious
contribution to a peaceful and fair resolution of conflict. The members
of this Council do not in the first instance convene for religious
reasons, but because they observe an ethical responsibility to devote
their efforts to the resolution of conflict. Faith is not the basis of the

22
John B. Cobb, Beyond Dialogue. Towards a Mutual Transformation of Chris-
tianity and Buddhism, Philadelphia 1982, 49.
23
See my search for an interactive universality: Manuela Kalsky, Christaphanien.
Die Re-Vision der Christologie aus der Sicht von Frauen in unterschiedlichen
Kulturen, Gtersloh 2000, 326329.
11
collaboration, Knitter writes, but rather the actions that arise from this
faith. Bonds of friendship between Hindus, Buddhists and Christians
develop from this joint action which, in Knitters experience, are more
intensive than when they discuss or meditate in a traditional way with
each other on the message of Jesus or Buddha: Acting, struggling, and
suffering together for the cause of peace or justice make for special
friendships. But such friendships, because they were between religious
people, also bear their religious, dialogic fruits.
24
Knitter encourages
us to engage in an ethical dialogue with the others that is based on
action. Religious dialogue emerges from this ethical action, which in
its turn feeds into theology.


Eschatological identity

For Rita Gross and Paul Knitter ethical action in an interreligious
context has precedence over theological reflection. The interaction
based on mutual trust makes possible an empathic and simultaneously
critical view of ones own religion. The comparative mirror, with
which we learn to look through the eyes of others allows us to
recognise the insufficiencies and the wealth of our own tradition. And
the interreligious friendships developed from joint action make it
possible to learn to understand the significance of the respective
religions from concrete life experience. In this way a space is created
for encountering the histories of people from a variety of cultures and
religions, who together are searching for answers to the question of
what oppression and liberation mean today, from the perspective of
people in all their diversity. It is my opinion that interreligious
dialogue should be concerned with such a soteriologically formed
concept of searching, which considers religious identity in a flexible
and relational way and does not regard differences as threatening but
as enriching. Moments of divine truth are then no longer sought in
predetermined claims to truth by the respective religion, but they are
sought in the interaction, in the encounter with people who have other
religious experiences of divine presence.
From a Christian viewpoint this would mean that Christian
identity should not seek a historical foundation in the figure of Jesus,

24
Paul Knitter, Introducing Theologies of Religions, Maryknoll, New York
2
2003,
244.
12
but should be inspired in ethical action by Jesus life story which tells
of the Kingdom of God. Then it is not belief in Jesus and the
uniqueness of his person that determine Christian identity, rather the
belief we share with him in a Kingdom of peace and justice, the aim of
which is the good life for all people.
25
Viewed in this way, it would be
better to speak of a Christian process of identity that was initiated by
the life of Jesus and during the course of history has been and is
transformed again and again by life itself a continually changing
eschatological identity, oriented towards relationship and
communication.
26



An interreligious community of postcolonial subjects

What we need in Europe are interreligious communities of postcolonial
subjects, who obtain new insights into the good life for all, with the
help of interdisciplinary context analyses cultural, religious, social,
economical, gender specific and through the exchange of daily
stories of weal and woe. It is a matter of narrative and interpretative
communities which allow cultural and religious diversity to benefit on
a local level, not just by tolerating the peculiarity of each other but
by regarding it also as an enrichment. We need plural communities in
which peoples voices and freedom of thought are linked with mutual
respect, astonishment, empathy and sympathy and with the willingness
to open ones heart and understanding for the other without wishing
to find oneself and ones own concepts of salvation reflected in the
other. Such communities of postcolonial subjects are curious, in the
positive sense of the word, to find an alien world (of thought). They
wish to learn to see through the eyes of others in order to break
through either/or-type thinking that is trapped in hierarchical
oppositions. This search for the good life for all is not always easy and
feeds off an interreligious spirituality
27
that does not avoid
confrontation with the ambivalence of daily reality, that does not
capitulate out of fear of terror and violence, but in spite of it all

25
See Kalsky, Christaphanien, 303329.
26
Kalsky, Christaphanien, 311ff. On the theme of eschatological identity see also
Pranger, Redeeming Tradition, 7880.
27
On the theme of interreligious spirituality see Perry Schmidt-Leukel, Gott ohne
Grenzen, 490496.
13
embraces life in all its diversity trusting in the promise of justice for
all.
14