Homaranismo

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The term homaranismo (literally about 'doctrine of the members of mankind'), also called cosmopolitan humanism , comes from the Esperanto movement and includes Zamenhof's doctrine of the brotherhood of humanity.

history

Zamenhof designed this doctrine around 1900 and published it anonymously in a brochure in 1906 and then in a revised edition in 1913 under his real name. First (1906) Zamenhof named this doctrine after the Jewish scholar Hillel Hillelism , since it was actually only supposed to be a reformed form of Judaism . A Judaism without the difficult to understand dress code, purity and food laws, he hoped, would no longer be exposed to the anti-Semitic agitation. As a basis, he took the sentence under which, according to Hillel, the entire Tanach can be summarized. What is meant is the so-called golden rule : " What you don't want, what people do to you, don't do that to anyone else."

Zamenhof specifically formulated the following three rules:

  1. We feel and acknowledge the existence of the supreme power that rules the world and that we call God.
  2. God placed his laws in the heart of every person in the form of conscience. Therefore, always obey the voice of your conscience, as this is the never-ending voice of God.
  3. The essence of all laws that God planted in the heart manifests itself in the saying: Love your neighbor and act in dealings with others as you wanted them to deal with you. Never do anything openly or covertly that your inner voice tells you to displease God. All other teachings that you hear from your teachers and guides that do not relate to the three main points are just human comments and they can be true and false.

Zamenhof commented:

“By Hillelism we do not understand a new denomination, but only a new socio-religious organization within the framework of the long-standing Jewish religion. Any morally acting person can join this religion with a clear conscience, whatever their religious convictions may be, which they had up to now. "

This mindset led him to expand it to all religions. That's why he renamed it Homaranismo. In contrast to other early members of the Esperanto movement, for Zamenhof the planned language Esperanto was a means to facilitate the peaceful coexistence of peoples. Zamenhof's daughter Lidia adopted this philosophy and taught it side by side with Esperanto and her religion, the Baha'i .

The Homaranismo has striking similarities to the project in teaching and worship Global Ethic of Hans Kung on.

Extract from the declaration of homaranismo

I. I am a human being and I regard all of humanity as one family; I consider the division of humanity into various hostile peoples and ethnic-religious communities as one of the greatest evils, which sooner or later must disappear and whose disappearance I must do my utmost to promote.

II. In every person I only see the person, and I judge every person only according to their personal worth and actions. Any offense or oppression of a person because he belongs to a different people, language, religion or social class than me, I consider barbarism.

III. I am aware that every country does not belong to this or that people, but to all its inhabitants with complete equality, regardless of what their alleged origin they are, what language, religion or social role they have; the identification of the interests of a country with the interests of this or that people or this or that religion as well as the pretext of any historical rights that allow one people in the country to rule over the others and deny them the most elementary and natural right to the fatherland, I consider a holdover from the barbaric times when there was only the law of the fist.

IV. I believe that every person in his / her family life has the natural and undeniable right to speak any language or dialect and to profess any religion as he / she wishes; however, while communicating with people of different origins, he / she must aim, if possible, to use a neutral language and to live accordingly according to neutral, religious principles. Any attempt by a person to elevate his / her language or religion to that of other people, when not really necessary, I consider barbarism.

literature

  • Andreas Künzli: LL Zamenhof (1859-1917) Esperanto, Hillelism (Homaranism) and the “Jewish question” in Eastern and Western Europe . Wiesbaden 2010, ISBN 3-447-06232-0 .
  • Welger, Helmut: Cosmopolitan Humanism (Homaranismo). 1999, ISBN 3-933417-02-3 .

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