State of Formation and Inter-Religious Prophetic Leadership
My work with State of Formation is exhilarating, mainly because it is built upon a beautiful model of emerging leaders empowering emerging leaders. We are an interreligious vocal minority rising to the pluralistic demands of our globalized society. And my work, as humbly as I walk, is to help recruit, inspire, enhance, and further the [...]
Transformation and Nature-Religious Leadership
To be in a state of formation as an earthy person, a nature-religious person, is to seek a dynamic balance and to reconnect with a sense of the whole. Pausing for context: I am a twenty-three year-old earth spiritualist and this is my first post, an attempt to explain the larger context of my future [...]
A Call to Care about the Environment
The world is in bad shape and not in a metaphorical sense. No I mean the earth – the giant rock that we all live on – is in really bad shape. As of May 31, 2012, carbon dioxide readings are above 400ppm, 50 ppm more than the generally accepted “safe levels” of carbon dioxide [...]
Two Ways Through Life: Reflections on The Tree of Life
Last week an old friend insisted that I see Terrence Malick’s recent film, The Tree of Life. The film instructs us from the beginning that we must choose which way we will follow through life, the way of nature or the way of grace. These paths are represented by the father and mother of three boys growing up in the 1950s, Mr. and Mrs. O’Brien (played beautifully by Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain).
I am who I am: Why I am not an atheist
Stop labelling me! I am far too suspicious and skeptical to be an ‘ATHEIST’. I am not Australian but I have two passports, New Zealand and United Kingdom. I’ve never believed in gods or religions but that doesn’t make me an atheist of any sort at all. I have always been fascinated, and sometimes moved, [...]
Best laid plans of mice and men
This mouse-and-man story is a chapter in my state of formation – well intentioned and increasingly in the gray.
Contributing Scholars
Alasdair EkpenyongAlasdair Ekpenyong is an undergraduate student at Brigham Young University and a full-time lover of letters. He wishes, at times, that he was John Henry Cardinal Newman. Or James Joyce, or John Cheever, or Jane Jacobs--but in the time that stands between being and becoming, he is very content to remain himself.
HusseinHussein Rashid is an academic and activist. He received his PhD from Harvard University, and his broad research project involves the representation and self-representation of Muslims in America. He has published on Islamicate musics in America, and has delivered talks on the Muslim-American blogistan and Muslims in graphic novels. He has taught at Hofstra University, Fordham University, Harvard University, Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, and Virginia Theological Seminary. He works in New York’s interfaith communities, teaching at Quest: A Center for Spiritual Inquiry. He has appeared on CNN, NPR, Fox News, CBS Evening News, and Russia Today. He is an Associate Editor at Religion Dispatches, and blogs at islamicate.
He is known for his teaching, research, public communication skills, media engagement, and use of Web 2.0 technologies. You can find out more about him at http://www.husseinrashid.com/
Recently, he turned his consultancy into an L3C. islamicate L3C specializes in improving conversations around religion generally, and Islam specifically. We work in education, media, and policy.
Bilal HassamBilal Hassam is a trainee Doctor at the University of Nottingham concurrently studying a Masters in Inter-Religious Relations at De Montfort University, Leicester. He spent a year as a Faiths Act Fellow for the Tony Blair Faith Foundation and the Interfaith Youth Core (Chicago) serving as an Inter-Religious Ambassador for the UN Millennium Development Goals; mobilising faith communities to work together in the fight against global poverty. He continues to be involved in a plethora of charitable and community organisations and initiatives across the UK and Europe and can be followed at twitter.com/bilalhassam