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The essays collected here, prepared by a think tank of the Elijah
Interfaith Academy, explore the challenges associated with sharing
wisdom-learning, teachings, messages for good living-between
members of different faith traditions. In a globalized age, when
food, music, and dress are shared freely, how should religions go
about sharing their wisdom? The essays, representing six faith
traditions (Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist),
explore what wisdom means in each of these traditions, why it
should be shared-internally and externally-and how it should be
shared. A primary concern is the form of appropriate sharing, so
that the wisdom of the specific tradition maintains its integrity
in the process of sharing. Authors reflect on specific wisdoms
their tradition has or should share, as well as what it has to
receive from other faiths. Special emphasis is placed on the themes
of love and forgiveness and how these illustrate the principles of
common sharing. Love and humility emerge as strong motivators for
sharing wisdom and for doing so in a way that respects the
tradition from which the wisdom comes as well as the recipient.
This book offers a theory that can enrich ongoing encounters
between members of faith traditions by suggesting a tradition-based
practice of sharing the wisdom of traditions, while preserving the
integrity of the teaching and respecting the identity of the one
with whom wisdom is shared.
All religions are experiencing rapid changes due to a confluence of
social and economic global forces. The modern world threatens the
foundations of the world's religions and the cohesive assurances of
their societies. Factors such as the pervasive intrusion of
globalizing political and economic developments; polarized and
morally equivalent presentations seen in the media; the sense of
surety demanded in and promised by a culture dominated by science
are but some of the factors that have placed extreme pressure on
all religious traditions. This has stimulated unprecedented
responses by religious groups, ranging from fundamentalism to the
syncretistic search for meaning. The totality of pressures and
responses is pushing religious people into controversial forms. As
religion takes on new forms, balances between individual and
community are disrupted and reconfigured. Religions often lose the
capacity to recall their ultimate purpose or to lead their
adherents towards it. This is why we call this complex situation
"the crisis of the holy." This crisis is a confluence of threats,
challenges, and opportunities for all religions. The present volume
explores the contours of pressures, changes, and transformations,
and reflects on how all our religions are changing under the common
pressures of recent decades. By identifying commonalities across
religions as they respond to these pressures, it suggests how
religious traditions might cope with these changes and how they
might join forces in doing so.
The essays collected here, prepared by a think tank of the Elijah
Interfaith Academy, address the subject of religious leadership.
The subject is of broad relevance in the training of religious
leaders and in the practice of religious leadership. It is also
germane to religious thought as such, where reflections on
religious leadership occupy an important place. What does it mean
to be a religious leader in today's world? To what degree are the
challenges that confront religious leadership the perennial
challenges that have arrested the attention of the faithful and
their leaders for generations, and to what degree do we encounter
today challenges that are unique to our day and age? One dimension
is surely unique and that is the very ability to explore these
issues from an interreligious perspective and to consider
challenges, opportunities and strategies across religious
traditions. Some challenges confront leaders of all traditions, and
therefore unite them. Studying the theme across six faith
traditions-Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism, Hinduism, and
Buddhism-we recognize the common challenges to present day
religious leadership. Chapters examine the nature of religious
leadership in each tradition in relation to the goals of the
tradition. They then present a typology of leadership in each of
the traditions. These provide the background to a review of both
systemic and contemporary challenges to religious leadership, and
allow us to consider points of connection and intersection between
the different faith traditions. This leads us to a reflection on
religious leadership for the future, including the role of
interfaith engagement in the profile of the ideal future religious
leader.
This book explores the notion of interreligious friendship.
Friendship is one of the outcomes as well as conditions for
advancing interfaith relations. However, for friendship to advance,
there must be legitimation from within and a theory of how
interreligious relations can be justified from the resources of
different faith traditions. The present volume explores these very
issues, seeking to develop a robust theory of interreligious
friendship, from the resources of each of the participating
traditions. It also seeks to feature particular individual cases as
models and precedents for such relations. In particular, the
friendship of Gandhi and Charlie Andrews, his closest personal
friend, emerges as the model for the project.
This book tackles the core problem of how painful historical
memories between diverse religious communities continue to impact,
even poison, present day relations. Its operative notion is that of
healing of memory, a notion developed by John Paul II. The
different papers explore how the painful memories of yesteryear can
be healed in the framework of contemporary efforts. In so doing,
they seek to address some of the root causes that continue to
impact present day relations, but which rarely if ever get
addressed in other contexts. Strategies from six different faith
traditions are brought together in what is, in some ways, a
cross-religious brainstorming session that seeks to identify the
kinds of tools that would allow us to improve present day
relations. At the end of the conceptual pole of this project is the
notion of hope. If memory informs our past, hope sets the horizons
for our future. How does the healing of memory open new horizons
for the future? And what is the notion of hope in each of our
traditions, so that it might be receptive to opening up to a common
vision of good for all? Between memory and hope, the project seeks
to offer a vision of healing and hope that can serve as a resource
in contemporary interfaith relations.
One of the biggest challenges for relations between religions is
the view of the religious Other. The question touches the roots of
our theological views. The Religious Other: Hostility, Hospitality,
and the Hope of Human Flourishing explores the views of multiple
religious traditions on how to regard otherness. How does one move
from hostility to hospitality? How can hospitality be understood
not simply as social hospitality but as theological hospitality,
making room for the religious Other on theological grounds? What is
our vision for the flourishing of the Other, while respecting his
otherness? This volume is an exercise in constructive
interreligious theology. By including perspectives of Abrahamic and
non-Abrahamic traditions, it approaches these challenges from
multiple perspectives, highlighting commonalities in approach and
ways in which one tradition might inspire another.
One cannot think of Judaism without taking some stance relating to
Israel's special status, its election. The present collection
highlights the challenges that Judaism faces, as it continues to
uphold a sense of chosenness and as it seeks to engage the world
beyond it-nations, as well as religions. The challenge is captured
by the dual implication of election: divine love on the one hand
and enmity with others on the other. Israel's election, mission and
vocation are played out within this tension of love, grounded in
God and extending to humanity, and the opposite of love, as this
finds expression in Israel's relations with others. Israel must
work out the purpose of its election and its realization in history
in the tension between these two extremes. This challenge takes on
great urgency in the context of advances in interfaith relations.
These lead us to reflect on the meaning of Israel's election as
part of developing a contemporary Jewish theology of world
religions.
One cannot think of Judaism without taking some stance relating to
Israel's special status, its election. The present collection
highlights the challenges that Judaism faces, as it continues to
uphold a sense of chosenness and as it seeks to engage the world
beyond it-nations, as well as religions. The challenge is captured
by the dual implication of election: divine love on the one hand
and enmity with others on the other. Israel's election, mission and
vocation are played out within this tension of love, grounded in
God and extending to humanity, and the opposite of love, as this
finds expression in Israel's relations with others. Israel must
work out the purpose of its election and its realization in history
in the tension between these two extremes. This challenge takes on
great urgency in the context of advances in interfaith relations.
These lead us to reflect on the meaning of Israel's election as
part of developing a contemporary Jewish theology of world
religions.
This book sets forth a new area in the study of extraordinary
individuals in religious traditions. It develops the category of
"Religious Genius" as an alternative to existing categories,
primarily "saint." It constructs a model by which to appreciate
these individuals, suggesting key characteristics such as love,
humility, and self-surrender. Religious geniuses transform their
traditions and their legacies endure through these very
transformations. They also inspire changes across religious
boundaries and traditions. The study of religious geniuses in
various faith traditions therefore advances interfaith engagement
today. The book complements existing, primarily historical, studies
of saints by offering a phenomenological approach that seeks to
touch the subjectivity of these individuals, and how they have
affected the unfolding of their religious traditions.
This book sets forth a new area in the study of extraordinary
individuals in religious traditions. It develops the category of
"Religious Genius" as an alternative to existing categories,
primarily "saint." It constructs a model by which to appreciate
these individuals, suggesting key characteristics such as love,
humility, and self-surrender. Religious geniuses transform their
traditions and their legacies endure through these very
transformations. They also inspire changes across religious
boundaries and traditions. The study of religious geniuses in
various faith traditions therefore advances interfaith engagement
today. The book complements existing, primarily historical, studies
of saints by offering a phenomenological approach that seeks to
touch the subjectivity of these individuals, and how they have
affected the unfolding of their religious traditions.
Jews often consider Hinduism to be Avoda Zara, idolatry, due to its
worship of images and multiple gods. Closer study of Hinduism and
of recent Jewish attitudes to it suggests the problem is far more
complex. In the process of considering Hinduism's status as Avoda
Zara, this book revisits the fundamental definitions of Avoda Zara
and asks how we use the category. By appealing to the history of
Judaism's view of Christianity, author Alon Goshen-Gottstein seeks
to define what Avoda Zara is and how one might recognize the same
God in different religions, despite legal definitions. Through a
series of leading questions, the discussion moves from a blanket
view of Hinduism as idolatry to a recognition that all religions
have aspects that are idolatrous and non-idolatrous.
Goshen-Gottstein explains how the category of idolatry itself must
be viewed with more nuance. Introducing this nuance, he asserts,
leads one away from a globalized view of an entire tradition in
these terms.
Hinduism has become a vital 'other' for Judaism over the past
decades. The book surveys the history of the relationship from
historical to contemporary times, from travellers to religious
leadership. It explores the potential enrichment for Jewish
theology and spirituality, as well as the challenges for Jewish
identity.
Jews often consider Hinduism to be Avoda Zara, idolatry, due to its
worship of images and multiple gods. Closer study of Hinduism and
of recent Jewish attitudes to it suggests the problem is far more
complex. In the process of considering Hinduism's status as Avoda
Zara, this book revisits the fundamental definitions of Avoda Zara
and asks how we use the category. By appealing to the history of
Judaism's view of Christianity, author Alon Goshen-Gottstein seeks
to define what Avoda Zara is and how one might recognize the same
God in different religions, despite legal definitions. Through a
series of leading questions, the discussion moves from a blanket
view of Hinduism as idolatry to a recognition that all religions
have aspects that are idolatrous and non-idolatrous.
Goshen-Gottstein explains how the category of idolatry itself must
be viewed with more nuance. Introducing this nuance, he asserts,
leads one away from a globalized view of an entire tradition in
these terms.
Elisha ben Abuya is one of the most intriguing figures in early
rabbinic literature, consistently capturing the Jewish imagination
as the arch-heretic, apostate, and great sinner. Because of the
vague nature of the rabbinic sources relating to him, later
generations, particularly in modern times, have been able to
project upon him the visions of whatever they saw as either
negative or ideal in the figure of the rebel apostate.
This book systematically analyzes all sources referring to Elisha
ben Abuya, and in so doing, confronts the difficulties of deriving
reliable information from rabbinic materials and of writing the
biography of a rabbinic hero. The author argues that we have no way
of discovering the historical Elisha ben Abuya; he is the product
of the creative handling of traditions by later generations. Later
generations do not fancifully invent the figure of Elisha but
interpret and transmit earlier traditions, trying to resolve the
contradictions and to interpret the enigmas they encounter. In the
context of this interpretive process, a unique historical image is
created, a sage who is born out of tradition, not historical
memory.
The book also studies Rabbi Eleazar ben Arach. Here, too, the image
of the sage does not stem from a historical memory of the sage but
from an ideological function which the image of the sage fulfills.
Eleazar has come down to us as one who forgot his Torah. Thus, both
the sage who is said to have become the greatest of rabbinic
sinners and the sage who is said to have forgotten his Torah are
products of the literary creativity of rabbinic storytellers, who
convey a particular ideology through the image of the rabbinic
heroes they portray.
Hinduism has become a vital 'other' for Judaism over the past
decades. The book surveys the history of the relationship from
historical to contemporary times, from travellers to religious
leadership. It explores the potential enrichment for Jewish
theology and spirituality, as well as the challenges for Jewish
identity.
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