Interfaith
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Who do you say that I am?
Words don’t come easily – like sorry…. [and] forgive me, forgive me. Tracy Chapman Some years ago I was with a group of Christians and Jews travelling to Israel and Palestine at the invitation of the Council of Christians and Jews. The hope was that by visiting together, each of us carrying our incomplete understanding of the situation in the Holy Land, including of course unconscious cultural, religious and political biases, would see things through others’ eyes and return partially enlightened: gifted with a more nuanced understanding and greater openness to other readings of a notoriously complex situation. In Jericho, an ancient and predominantly Muslim Palestinian city which, nevertheless, for people…
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Armed Resistance, Islam, and the Limits of Secular Approaches
Who writes and who doesn’t? I was asked to write about the ongoing assault on Gaza, from a religious perspective (disclaimer: If I write about the topic from a religious perspective, it is not because what we are currently witnessing in Gaza and the region is a religious conflict. Religion may occasionally be part of it, often used strategically by various actors, but at its core, it is a political conflict). One of my first thoughts was if I was the right person to ask. What do I have to contribute that others, especially those most affected by the current violence, could not say better, have not already said better?…
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Putting oneself in someone else’s shoes: Engaging inter-religious dialogues from within
The expression “putting oneself in someone else’s shoes” is used in situations in which we should try to understand what another person is feeling or the hardships they are going through. But sometimes we have to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes to understand that person’s worldviews, mindsets, and even emotions. Empathy, solidarity, and compassion arise from this mental and bodily action. In Mahāyāna Buddhist traditions compassion (Skt. karuṇā; Tib. སྙིང་རྗེ་), loving-kindness (Skt. maitrī; Tib. བྱམས་པ་), joy (Skt. muditā; Tib. དགའ་བ་), and equanimity (Skt. upekṣā; Tib. བཏང་སྙོམས་) arise from the developing process of the altruistic resolution to become a Buddha (Skt. bodhicitta; Tib. བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་), beginning with the first step of…
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The God we don’t believe in: Rowan Williams and Richard Dawkins on faith and atheism
Rowan Williams writes “…the examination of where the points of stress [between faith and atheism] are…allows us to test the resources of what we say as believers – and, ideally, to emerge with a more robust sense of those resources.”[1] Prominent among these points of stress is the perceived conflict between “science” (often used as a proxy for atheism) and “religion.” Here, taking as an example the dialogue between Williams and militant scientific atheist Richard Dawkins, I will outline ways of clarifying areas of belief and disbelief, consider whether belief is actually essential to faith and look at ways of separating the territories of science and religion. I will show…
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Personal Reflections on Interfaith Dialogue and its role in BIAPT: An Interview with Owen Griffiths
As part of interfaith week, we are interviewing a number of people connected with Practical Theology Hub about their work on interfaith dialogue. In this interview we ask Chair of the British and Irish Association for Practical Theology (BIAPT) and our Assistant Editor, Owen Griffiths, about his personal experiences with interfaith dialogue and its role within BIAPT. Tell us about yourself. I live in the Rhondda valley in South Wales and having been the minister of a small independent congregation for the past twenty years I will soon take up a new role as Minister of South East Wales Presbytery for the Presbyterian Church of Wales. I am the Chair…
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“The Apocalypse as a Cosmotheandric Communion: A Hindu-Christian Dialogue” – An Interview with Shruti Dixit
As part of interfaith week, we are interviewing a number of people connected with Practical Theology Hub about their work on interfaith dialogue. In this interview we ask former member of our editorial team, Shruti Dixit, about Hindu-Christian dialogue and her recently published paper, “The Apocalypse as a Cosmotheandric Communion: A Hindu-Christian Dialogue.“ Tell us about yourself. I am currently a second-year doctoral researcher at the Centre for the Study of Religion and Politics, School of Divinity, University of St Andrews, researching the plausibility of a Hindu-Christian dialogue based on the notion of end times. Due to my strong belief in impactful research, I am involved in multiple interfaith projects.…
