Ritröð Guðfræðistofnunar - 01.01.1991, Page 78

Kristján Búason
Sænskir kristniboðar, sem eg kynntist í Svíþjóð og störfuðu þar um
svipað leyti og séra Jóhann höfðu á sér svipað yfirbragð og hann. Þeir
sögðu mér frá heimsókn til hans í Hong Kong. Þeir minntust þess sérstak-
lega, þegar þeir á leið út til prestaskólans í útjaðri borgarinnar spurðu
ferjumann til vegar, að hann strauk hökuna eins og hann tæki um höku-
topp og horfði svo á þá spyrjandi. Þeir kinkuðu kolli. Þá glaðnaði yfir
karli og hann vísaði þeim til séra Jóhanns. Hann var einn af þeim.
Með þessum fátæklegu orðum vil eg minnast séra Jóhanns og þakka þá
innsýn í samhengi kristinnar trúar og menningar, sem hann miðlaði mér
ungum, og skilning á þætti trúfræðslunnar í lífi kirkjunnar.
Summary
Kristján Búason writes about Jóhann Hannesson's concem with religious
education within the church and especially with how the catechism has
shaped various Christian cultures. The author sees a link between this
concem and Jóhann Hannesson's years as a missionary in China. Jóhann
Hannesson had first-hand experience of the conflict between traditional
Chinese culture and the Christian mission, witnessing what effect both had
on education, the social services, and as counter-forces to the "political
religion" of communism. Jóhann Hannesson drew attention to the general
cultural implications of religion and to its negative as well as its positive
effects on society in general. This corresponded well with his view of
that man is always placed in a particular social context. The author
stresses that this provides an explanation for Jóhann Hannesson's wide
range of interests and for his lifelong commitment to teaching in both in
China and Iceland. Jóhann Hannesson was an unusually knowledgeable
man with an inquiring mind and an ability to adapt himself to other
people's ways of thinking. Moreover, he combined these qualities with a
capacity to regard history objectively, disceming clearly between the
permanent and the transient and the etemal and the ephemeral. With
regard to this last-named quality, the author sees Jóhann Hannesson as
having been at least parlty influenced by oriental philosophy and wisdom.
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