Understanding through music

Currently, Corona dominates the majority of the news. But all the problems, that had kept the world in suspense before, didn’t vanish overnight. And now as then applies: Whoever dares to tune in to the news these days is informed with every new terror attack about what differentiates „us“ from „the others“. They hear that walls are needed. They hear that migrants coming to Europe will lead to a hyperxenesis of the western cultures. They hear that the different spiritual and religious traditions cannot live side by side.

In these situations we most easily forget the ethical similarities the different traditions and philosophies are based on. Values like love, altruism, or respect for creation. Values that are normally seen as the basis of humanity and that include everyone, disregarding their beliefs. These values normally ensure a positive social environment. However, these values are negated ever so often: because it seems easier to define oneself by differentiation, not by association. This is The same Word’s starting point.

As an international, intercultural and interreligious project, The same Word focusses on the musical and ethical commonalities of the world religions Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam and comments on them with humanistic philisophical ideas. In a large-scale collaboration, artists from around the world with links to these spiritual and cultural traditions, create a work of art. This piece enables an open-minded dialogue between groups with otherwise minited interaction.  Thus the project aims at nothing less than furthering the understanding among followers of different spiritual and cultural traditions through the arts – which has been proven to be one of the most successful ways to promote understanding between groups of different backgrounds. Or in other words:

Nothing is as beneficial to society as music. If everybody studied music, would that not be the best way to create world peace? (attributed to Molière)