THOUSAND OAKS : Theologian Decries Conflict, Violence

Lutheran theologian Krister Stendahl said he looks forward to the day the “Super Bowl becomes as taboo as smoking,” because he believes winning and losing beget violence.

About 100 students and faculty gathered in Cal Lutheran University’s Samuelson Chapel on Monday morning to hear Stendahl discuss “The Religious Roots of Violence.”

Too often, he said, religious leaders and followers interpret “salvation” to mean “victory,” which leads to conflict and violence.

That leads to everything from abortion protesters killing doctors to extremists bombing the World Trade Center in New York, he said.

He advised the audience to develop “ways of thinking that aren’t structured by the adversary systems.”

“It’s interesting to say this the morning after the Super Bowl,” Stendahl joked before adding that his comments were also ironic because of the proximity of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library near Simi Valley. Reagan, Stendahl said, was a promoter of the “we versus them” mentality that so often leads to violence.

Stendahl’s talk Monday was the last in a series of lectures the professor emeritus at Harvard Divinity School delivered at Cal Lutheran the past week. Stendahl is also the former bishop of Stockholm for the Church of Sweden, where he presided over the 1986 funeral of assassinated Prime Minister Olof Palme.

“He has had an enormous influence in this century on how we read the Bible,” said A. Joseph Everson, chairman of Cal Lutheran’s religion department.

Stendahl received an honorary doctor of divinity degree Wednesday from the Thousand Oaks university.