In Gratitude and Solidarity: A Love Letter to Boston from A Former Student
Dear Boston, I owe you so much. I really do. You are the place where my interfaith journey began. At the beginning of my freshman year at Boston University, I never met anyone who wasn’t a Christian of some sort. I was already interested in other faiths, but *knowing* people of other faiths turned an [...]
“Give them hope, not hell:” A thing left undone
Conversations in the cafeteria are where much of the real theological work gets done at my seminary, where students hash out their thoughts on what was discussed in the class just ended or the readings for the class soon to begin. Throw in some pop culture references, season with puns, and you’ve got a party. [...]
Towards Acceptance, Holiness and Removing Stumbling Blocks
This week, we are once again reading Parashat Kedoshim (Leviticus 19:1-20:27). Biblical scholars commonly refer to these two chapters of Leviticus as the holiness code due to the numerous interpersonal commandments (mitzvot) that are found within. These mitzvot form the foundation of Torah and are applicable to everyone. In addition to loving our neighbor as [...]
On Building Relationships with those from Different Traditions
Managing Director’s Note: beginning in the Spring of 2013, all Contributing Scholars will answer the following question as their first post: Why are you committed to building relationships with those from different religious or ethical traditions? I never thought much about religion until I was in high school, and even then, it was in the [...]
Five Lessons in Ecumenical, Interfaith, and Extrafaith Organizing
The Princeton New Jim Crow Project is a coalition of local organizations working for awareness and reform of injustices in the criminal justice system. The group takes its name from Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (2010). The book has sparked a conversation across the country on racial [...]
Project Conversion: Rebuilding the Shattered Mirror
A few months ago when the request came on the State of Formation email group for reviewers for a book called ‘Project Conversion’, my literary greed took the better of me as I rushed to get hold of yet another book to add to my collection. I have to say that right from the word [...]
Pacem in Terris and Mercy Mild
With almost daily reminders that War is Coming, it gets hard to imagine an alternative. Over the last month our media has been banging the drums of war suggesting that Kim Jong-un is borderline psychotic and is ready, at any moment, to drop a bomb. With images of their prison camps, videos of their propaganda, [...]
Why This Devotee of God Doesn’t Think To Be Atheist Is To Be A Demon
There are two kinds of people in this world. Devotees and demons. I think this is absolutely true. But let’s parse this out a bit. First of all, what is the source of my seemingly eccentric and dogmatic statement? In the sixteenth chapter of the Bhagavad-Gita, Krishna speaks of two kinds of natures that exist in this [...]
Making Sense of Religion and Democracy.
‘Religion and Democracy: Thursdays, 1:00-4:00 pm, Divinity School, 2nd floor.’ The title of this class sounded intriguing and right up my alley. We would study how religion affects democracy, and vice versa. Yet, sitting in lecture during week 3, I admit: I didn’t really understand the point of this class. What was the question we [...]
Pope Francis: How to Make New Artifacts from Old Power
“We have many experts on the terrain of conflict, but not many leaders. Good Christian leadership radiates a very different presence in a broken world.” I came across these words by Emmanuel Katongole and Chris Rice—from their 2008 book entitled Reconciling All Things—the day after Pope Francis raised the Christian practice of foot-washing to new [...]
Contributing Scholars
Rachel A. HeathRachel Heath is currently completing her graduate studies at Yale Divinity School. While living in New Haven, she has been both a community organizer for public housing residents and an interfaith chaplain at a local hospital. In between cups of hazelnut coffee she works as an intern for the Yale Chaplain's Office and focuses on the positive convergence of interfaith dialogue and community service.
Stephanie Varnon-HughesStephanie Varnon-Hughes is a Founding Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Inter-Religious Dialogue™ and a graduate of Union Theological Seminary, where she earned her Master's in Church History in 2008 and her STM in 2009. A schoolteacher, Stephanie received the Most Promising New Teacher of the Year Award of 2005 in St. Louis, Missouri and has taught English and Performing Arts in public schools in St. Louis and the Bronx. She is a PhD student at Claremont Lincoln University, focusing on building and piloting a multi-religious curriculum for public secondary school students. Follow her on Twitter @SVarnonHughes.
Gretchen KochGretchen recently received her PhD in the Study of Religion from the University of Aarhus in Denmark. She currently lives in Plano, Texas and is working on forming her dissertation into a book, and she serves on the Cognitive Science of Religion Consultation for the American Academy of Religion.