New Initiative: “On the Spiritual Road: Seeking Faith and Religion in the United States”
“On the Spiritual Road: Seeking Faith and Religion in the United States” is an exciting new Interfaith project that has started in Rochester, NY and may be coming to a city near you. Andrew Harrison is traveling the United States looking to interview people of different faiths. His goal is to learn about 12 religions [...]
Russell Berrie Fellowship in Interreligious Studies
This is a note from our colleagues and friends at the Russell Berrie Foundation. We think it is a wonderful fellowship program and opportunity. Please share it widely among your contacts. We are pleased to announce the call for applications for the Russell Berrie Fellowship in Interreligious Studies for the academic year 2013-14. The initiative, [...]
Experiencing Islam: An Interview with Homayra Ziad, PhD
In January, Hebrew College and Andover Newton Theological School offered for the first time a joint winter seminar on Islam for rabbinical, cantorial and ministerial students. This one-week intensive course, “Experiencing Islam,” was led by Homayra Ziad, assistant professor of religion at Trinity College. Following her time on our hilltop campus, Ziad spoke with the [...]
2013 Spring Call for Contributing Scholars is Open!
Over the past two and a half years, emerging religious and ethical leaders from around the country and the world have engaged each other and readers by sharing their stories and views on State of Formation. Conversations once dominated by established leaders are now readily embraced by the up-and-comers, and accessible to contributors from many different moral, faith, political, economic, and social backgrounds. Currently, the site garners over 150,000 views per year.
“The Islamic Ritual of Hajj: Ancient Cosmology and Spirituality,” by Majed S. Al-Lehaibi
Hajj, an annual pilgrimage to Mecca, can be understood within the cyclical nature of ancient cosmology. The sun or light is the Platonic symbol of knowledge and a sign of the life-giving force of God; the light is also the Aristotelian unmoved mover that sets everything in motion just by being desired and sought after. [...]
“Evangelical Christians at the Inter-faith Dialogue Table? How?,” by Bob Robinson
Evangelicals deserve attention because of their numbers, global influence, and missional, activist inclinations, but they typically believe the practice of inter-faith dialogue would compromise their self-understanding. This article deploys six sets of reasons to persuade them otherwise: biblical precedents for dialogue; a neglected biblical stream concerning the religions; Jesus as exemplar of dialogue given his [...]
“Swinburne on the Atonement: Reflections on Philosophical Theology and Religious Dialogue,” by Amir Dastmalchian
This study examines an important part of Richard Swinburne’s case for the plausibility of Christianity, namely his Atonement theory. My examination begins by presenting Swinburne’s theory before alluding to the many criticisms it has attracted. I conclude with some lessons which can be learnt about philosophical theology and its use in inter-religious dialogue. My main [...]
“A Dialogical Theism: Francis X. Clooney’s Comparative Theology as a Resource for Interreligious Models of Ultimate Reality,” by Richard Hanson
Francis X. Clooney is a seminal figure in the emerging approach to religious diversity known as Comparative Theology. Much of his work in this field has been concerned with engaging particular texts from Hindu and Christian traditions in the praxis of context-specific, in-depth comparison. Even though it begins with such particular, limited comparisons, Clooney maintains [...]
“When Soldiers Speak: From Acts of Violence to Open Communication,” by Anne Read
Inter-religious conversations are essential in transforming current relations in Israel and West Bank, Palestine from combat to communication. This paper presents the case study of a Jerusalem-based dialogue group, Combatants for Peace (CFP), which utilizes contact theory to match West Bank Palestinians with Jewish Israeli participants to speak of their experience of war and violence. [...]
“One Candle, One Life, One Planet: The Jewish Festival of Hanukkah and the Deep Meaning of Small Differences,” by Robert Pollack
How do we measure the importance of an event, the meaning of the difference it makes? As a scientist my answer is simple: the bigger the difference, the more important the event. By this measure the most important event by far must have been the beginning of the world of Nature of which we are [...]
Journal of Inter-Religious Dialogue
The Journal of Inter-Religious Dialogue™ is a forum for academic, social, and timely issues affecting religious communities around the world. It is designed to increase the quality and frequency of interchanges between religious groups and their leaders. The Journal seeks to build an inter-religious community of scholars, in which people of different traditions learn from one another and work together for the common good.
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Contributing Scholars
Ben SchewelBen Schewel, 24, is a Bahá'í and doctoral student in philosophy at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium, studying process philosophy, focusing in particular on questions of history, science, and religion. Ben is very involved in the Bahá’í community’s projects of social and economic development (http://www.ruhi.org/).
Robyn Henderson-EspinozaSelf-identified as a Christian Agnostic and QueerMestizo (of Mexican & Anglo heritage), Robyn is a Ph.D Student at the University of Denver/Iliff School of Theology, Denver, CO focussing on Social Ethics with an primary interest in ethics in the US Borderlands. Robyn uses queer theories, Critical Chican@ Studies, and queer epistemologies to consider Ethics.
Joshua OxleyJoshua Oxley is a 2nd-year Master of Divinity student at the University of Chicago. He also serves as Humanist Advisor for the University, working primarily with secular students.