What’s the Big Deal About Interfaith Marriage?
I attended the 2009 Parliament of the World’s Religions in Melbourne, Australia. I was amazed by the preponderance of sacred fashion statements (the hats!), the number of New Age practitioners from the North American West Coast, and the ubiquity of the phrase “interfaith dialogue.” As former chair of the Union Theological Seminary Interfaith Caucus, a [...]
How Paul Tillich Helped Me Matter
I recently received an email from the fine editorial staff at State of Formation informing me that I am officially a lapsed contributor and my posting account might be deleted. This is very true. I have lapsed in my public reflections about all things religious. When I ask myself why I lapsed, my answers are [...]
Recoding the Conflict: What Chanukah Has to Teach Us About How We Speak
When I was young, my dad used to tell us stories. The stories always involved two young children, a girl and a boy, adventurous analogues for my brother and me, who would be sent off by their parents to undertake great adventure. When the going got rough and the children couldn’t go on, they would [...]
Reflections on Social Media and Politics
Note: this essay draws on material originally published in two posts on my personal blog, Historicisms. Having just read Mark McCormack’s post, “Dialogue in the Age of Unfriending,” I felt that I should share my own experience with social media in the run-up to the election. As I’ve written elsewhere, the last few years have [...]
Malala Fever and the Challenge of Sustaining Belief
When 14-year-old Malala Yousufsai was tragically shot in the head earlier this month by the Taliban, it seemed that the entire world came down with “Malala fever.” The wounded Pakistani girl was instantly thrust onto the international stage and one writer even declared her an American hero. Even Pakistani institutions that are often critiqued for their substandard leadership [...]
What is Holy to Others
I do not pretend to understand how an asinine video like “The Innocence of Muslims” can drive crowds to violent and even murderous anger. Many commentators insist that the ultimate cause is not religion, but, perhaps, local politics, Western imperialism, or other political grievances. Without denying the truth in these claims, my own suspicion is [...]
Politicians Say the Darndest Things
Politicians say the darndest things. Of course, it’s never as cute as when kids say the darndest things. In fact, it’s usually downright awful. For example, on Sunday, Representative Todd Akin, who is running for the U.S. Senate in Missouri, was quoted as saying, “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to [...]
Catholics at the Polls
Since Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney announced his vice presidential running mate as Represetative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin on August 11, articles have been periodically appearing referencing Ryan’s Roman Catholic background, even calling this election a battle of two Catholics (referring to Vice President Joe Biden on the opposing side). There is speculation over the [...]
The World to Come
Shabbat is not only the way we as Jews sustain ourselves, it is how anyone dissatisfied with the world as it is visions and creates the world as they imagine it should be. In the fallout from the tragic Sikh Temple shooting, our attention has been drawn to the culture and practices of the neo-Nazi skinhead groups that the shooter belonged to.I may not be able to change the orientation of these hate groups or affect their vision of paradise. But I can use their vision and mission as a means to examine my own idea of the world to come.
The Israeli Chroniclers and the Am Ha’Aretz of Palestine
He only says, ‘Good fences make good neighbors’. Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder If I could put a notion in his head: ’Why do they make good neighbors? Isn’t it Where there are cows? But here there are no cows. Before I built a wall I’d ask to know What I [...]
Contributing Scholars
Andrew SchwartzI am a 3rd year M.Div student at Union Theological Seminary in NYC. I am focusing primarily on interfaith studies and social ethics, studying how the two fields intersect with environmental justice.
Tiffany PuettTiffany Puett is a PhD candidate at the University of Waterloo. Her research focuses on religious diversity and multiculturalism in North America, the ongoing construction of ‘religion’ in a liberal democratic society and the politics embedded in these processes. She’s especially interested in the intersections of religion with education, citizenship, and religious freedom.
David FisherDavid is a 2012 graduate of Oberlin College, where he completed majors in Jewish Studies and Environmental Studies and launched Interfaith Appalachia in his senior year. Interfaith Appalachia brings people together across differences of faith, politics, and environmental perspective for service, dialogue and community development in central Appalachia.