Why Monty Python Makes for Good Religion: Reflections on Religion and Film, Part 3
(This is Part 3 of a 3-part series. See Part 1 and Part 2) OFFENSE Jesus was most recently portrayed in celluloid form by a Portuguese model with great hair. I’m talking about The Bible, a miniseries broadcast on The History Channel. In it we learn that Jesus was gentle and strong; that Jews really [...]
Wandering Through the Desert: Sifting Through Our Past on our Way to Revelation
During Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur we cast our sins in to the desert, freeing ourselves from their oppressive burden, unshackling our hearts and minds so that we can begin the year anew. Six months later another new year arrives (Exodus 12:12). After a period of enslavement we find ourselves once again loosening our chains and opening our souls, ready to reencounter that which we cast away.
Why Monty Python Makes for Good Religion: Reflections on Religion and Film, Part 2/3
(This is Part 2 of a 3-part series. See Part 1 here.) AUTHORITY There is another hot issue in a discussion about religion and the Bible: the question of who has authority over the telling of a narrative? How about The Bible miniseries on The History Channel? It’s a very confident little piece, isn’t [...]
Why Monty Python Makes for Good Religion: Reflections on Religion and Film, Part 1/3
Humor; humor is difficult. Religion; religion is difficult. They can both be reassuring, and discomfiting. They can affix labels, or they can liberate. They can be subversive, or they can uplift the dominant paradigm. Both can be thrilling and boring. They can be unifying, or alienating. Religion and humor both aspire to help us live [...]
Is Biblical Literacy Really the Problem?
If you’ve listened to NPR or read blogs like this one over the past six months, you’ve probably heard something about the Pew Forum’s latest study on religious practice in America. The survey confirmed statistically what has been conventional wisdom for quite a while. Mainline Protestants are losing members, more Americans are describing themselves as [...]
Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Women Writing: She Answers Abraham on “Faithful Advocacy” and More
My Christian friend LeeAnne got the conversation about Faithful Advocacy started by reflecting on a passage from the Gospel of John: “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth…” (14:16-17a). In LeeAnne’s reflection, she explains that advocacy—“speaking up for the [...]
The Megaphone of Money in American Politics
While the sums are larger and the stakes are higher in recent times, the fear that money corrupts those in power is an age-old issue. As far back as the Hebrew Bible those concerned with justice warned against the powerful and dangerous effects of money in politics.
A Woman is Acquired
“A woman is acquired [in marriage] in three ways…by money, by document, or by intercourse.” This is how the first mishnah in the tractate Kiddushin begins. In just this sentence alone we gain a window into how women were seen in the world of the rabbis. As each subsequent generation—from the Talmudic sages of 600 CE to 20th century feminist scholars—probe this Mishnah, the meaning of this statement is investigated, challenged, and, ultimately, transformed.
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 [...]
To Work the Earth of My Heart: Memorizing the Sermon on the Mount
I just returned from my last final of the semester. It was…unconventional, to say the least. Instead of sitting in a wood-paneled classroom for three hours getting intimate with a blue book, I spent the last weekend sitting on a couch by a fireplace at a Mennonite retreat center in Michigan. This was my final. [...]
Contributing Scholars
Rozemarijn VanwijnsbergheBorn in Antwerp (Belgium) and currently based in Brussels (Belgium), trained as a classical singer at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Antwerp, and obtained Master Degrees in Musicology and in Religious Studies, World Religions and Interfaith Dialogue of the Catholic University of Leuven. Has professional experience in performing arts, international cooperation and human rights, as well as in education to development and intercultural dialogue, and is an alumna of the Institute of Bossey (World Council of Churches, Geneva Switzerland).
Leslie HilgemanLeslie Hilgeman is a fifth-year student at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, to be ordained as a rabbi in June 2013. She also serves as student rabbi of Congregation Am Haskalah of Allentown/Bethlehem, PA. Since joining rabbinical school, her passion for inter-religious engagement has led her into inter-seminary workshops and classrooms, organizing inter-seminary student programs, internship work at the Interfaith Center of Greater Philadelphia, social-justice delegations to four countries, interfaith prayer and blessing circles, conferences and occasional blogging. Previous to her rabbinical studies, Leslie held a 15-year career as a foreign correspondent and editor, mostly covering business and technology in Latin America & the Caribbean.
Simran Jeet SinghSimran Jeet Singh is a doctoral student in the Department of Religion at Columbia University. His research focuses on South Asian Religions, particularly the Sikh tradition and the life of its founder, Guru Nanak.