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In view of the Akan understanding of core and peripheral values of all societies it is unthinkable for anyone to consider the Christian doctrine of Christology as a major obstacle to interreligious dialogue and fruitful Christian-Muslim relations. The Christian doctrine of Christology, then, becomes a problem for dialogue and intercultural exchanges when what it stands for is either misinterpreted or narrowly interpreted. When confronted with the issue of the Christology, Hick found it expedient to deny entirely the doctrine in his book, God and

the Universe of Faiths in order to expound his theory of religious pluralism (Hick, 1973). The

denunciation of the Christology to make room for dialogue of religions and cultures is disingenuous. For the denial approach feeds on the wrong interpretation of the incarnation and the Christ-event in history, often by Christians which has led to the denial of the central and unique position of Jesus in every religion.

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Tim 3:16; 1 Jn 4:2) Jesus is the epitome of the core values of society. He personifies in Himself what the Akan call the core virtues of every society and religion. These core values are essential values which enhance communal interests and promote welfare of the individuals. They are love, truth, mercy, humility, forgiveness, reconciliation, justice, cooperation, etc. Jesus is the embodiment of the main aspects of the moral values of cultures. In other words, the core values of society which Jesus embodies in Himself are essentially those values which function to ensure the continual survival of society in harmony and peace, with the eventual aim of promoting common human fraternity. These core values are the foundation, the heart of the every culture. They are divine, permanent, eternal and they are found (actually the same) in every society and religion on earth. It is these core values that the

Nostra Aetate affirms and considers as “true and holy” in all religions and which point to a “a

ray of that Truth which enlightens all men” (Nostra Aetate, 2).They are sharply contrasted with peripheral values of each society which are primarily human inventions and traditions, the result of human attempts to understand and apply the core values. They are usually the less important aspects of culture. They are less important because they are temporary and susceptible to change.

In the light of the Akan perception of religious and moral imperatives, Jesus’ statement: “When I am lifted up I will draw all people to myself” (Jn 12:32) is properly understood. By this statement, Jesus is actually saying that when the core values, the cultural universals of each society are cherished, upheld and given the necessary attention they deserve, it is Him who is being upheld and in that sense he is been lifted up. A lot of studies have been conducted to come to the meaning of the pronouncement of Jesus in the Gospel of John 14:6 which reads, “I am the way, and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (Jn 14:6). To Cracknell, instead of reading Christian exclusivism into the verse we should rather understand it with the element of “...mystery, of redemptive suffering of life through death” which are essential elements of all cultures (Cracknell, 2005:60). In the view of scholars like Cracknell, Jesus by Jn 14:6 is actually calling on all people to focus on Him, the Word (Logos) of God, and the core values of society. It is only by upholding the core values of society that human beings submit to the will of the Supreme Deity.

The redemptive suffering of Jesus, in Cracknell’s view, is likened to “the anguish of God” for the entire universe of creation, his “tender forgiveness” for the marginalised, his “ready pardon” for all sinners irrespective of culture and religion (Cracknell, 2005: 60). In

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this way Cracknell and others like him, gives Christology an all-inclusive, all-embracing, comic and true universal character, just as the Akan give to the core virtues of society, presenting Christ as the pre-existent reality which fills the entire universe. The rejection, betrayal (Jn 18: 1-11), suffering and death (Jn 18:28-30; Lk 23: 44-48) and even burial (Jn 19: 42; Lk 23: 50-56) of Jesus is the most important aspect of the doctrine of Christology. It basically and actually stands for the denunciation of core values of society, it is the betrayal of selfless love, truth, trust and friendship (Lk 22:54-61; Jn 18:15-18, 25-27) and everything that promote social cohesion. The suffering (Lk 23: 26-38) and humiliation of Jesus (Lk 22: 63- 65; Jn 19: 17-24) represent the humiliation, the denial of the values of justice, mercy, forgiveness, reconciliation of societies, and communities of the world. Just as the rejection of Jesus (Lk 23: 13-25) meant the acceptance of the criminal Barabbas (Jn 19: 39 & 40), so the rejection of the mainstay values of society has always meant the adoption of the peripheral values of the lie of the ‘non-essentials’ which lead to extremism, fanaticism and fundamentalism, relativism and individualism, greed, the farthest quest for the satisfaction of sensual desires and the like. When these peripheral, non-essential values and the cultural particulars are wrongfully and sadly adopted and made to function as core, central values and as such cultural universals, society and individuals eventually plunge into chaos because these superficialities promise what they cannot give and they turn to rob society of peace and continual survival. Suffice it to say that history abounds moments when “fallible conceptions of universals” in both intellectual and ethical forms and principles, are transposed or imposed upon other peoples as infallible and eternal universals (Wiredu, 1996:2). In other words, cultural particulars or peripheral values (non-essentials of cultures) are presented as core and universals. Not unnaturally, the practice has earned universals and essentials a bad name. But, the culprits are the hasty purveyors of universals, not the idea of universals itself.

The resurrection of Jesus (Lk 24: 1-12; Jn 20: 1-10) is the absolute testimony of the permanence of the mainstay values whose rejection, betrayal and even utter destruction are only temporal. By the resurrection of Jesus is meant the re-emergence, the eventual victory, the triumph of the core values of societies which are indestructible and eternal. In this way the Christian would realise that Jesus Christ is already present in all cultures and society, though on ‘rays of the Truth’ and ‘seeds of the word’.

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