Interreligious Reflections Six Volume Set

This set includes all six volumes of Interreligious Reflections. ABOUT VOLUME ONE: Friendship is an outcome of, as well as a condition for, advancing interfaith relations. However, for friendship to advance, there must be legitimation from within and a theory of how interreligious relations can be justified from the resources of different faith traditions. Friendship Across Religions explores these very issues, seeking to develop a robust theory of interreligious friendship from the resources of each of the participating traditions. It also features individual cases as models and precedents for such relations—in particular, the friendship of Gandhi and Charlie Andrews, his closest personal friend. Contributors: Balwant Singh Dhillon, Timothy J. Gianotti, Alon Goshen-Gottstein, Maria Reis Habito, Ruben L. F. Habito, Ryan McAnnally-Linz, Stephen Butler Murray, Eleanor Nesbitt, Anantanand Rambachan, Meir Sendor, Johann M. Vento, and Miroslav Volf ABOUT VOLUME TWO: This book tackles the core problem of how painful historical memories between diverse religious communities continue to impact—even poison—present-day relations. Its operative notion is the healing of memory, developed by John Paul II. Chapters explore how painful memories of yesteryear can be healed and so address some of the root causes. Strategies from six different faith traditions are brought together in what is, in some ways, a cross-religious brainstorming session that identifies tools to improve present-day relations. At the other pole of the conceptual axis of this book is the notion of hope. If memory informs our past, hope sets the horizon for our future. How does the healing of memory open new horizons for the future? And what is the notion of hope in each of our traditions that could lead to a common vision of good? Between memory and hope, this book seeks to offer a vision of healing that can serve as a resource in contemporary interfaith relations. Contributors: Rahuldeep Singh Gill, Alon Goshen-Gottstein, Maria Reis Habito, Flora A. Keshgegian, Anantanand Rambachan, Meir Sendor, Muhammad Suheyl Umar, and Michael von Brück ABOUT VOLUME THREE: The essays collected here, prepared by a think tank of the Elijah Interfaith Academy, explore the challenges associated with sharing wisdom—learning, teachings, messages for good living. How should religions go about sharing their wisdom? These chapters, representing six faith tradition (Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, and Buddhist), explore what wisdom means in each of these traditions; why and how it should be shared, internally and externally; and the role of love and forgiveness in sharing. This book offers a theory that can enrich ongoing encounters between members of faith traditions by suggesting a tradition-based practice of sharing wisdom, while preserving the integrity of the teaching and respecting the identity of anyone with whom wisdom is shared. Contributors: Pal Ahluwalia, Timothy Gianotti, Alon Goshen-Gottstein, Sallie B. King, Anantanand Rambachan, Meir Sendor, Miroslav Volf ABOUT VOLUME FOUR: All the world’s religions are experiencing rapid change due to a confluence of social and economic global forces. Factors such as the pervasive intrusion of globalizing political and economic developments, polarized and morally equivalent presentations seen in the media, and the sense of surety demanded in and promised by a culture dominated by science are some of the factors that have placed extreme pressure on all religious traditions. This has stimulated unprecedented responses by religious groups, ranging from fundamentalism to the syncretistic search for meaning. As religion takes on new forms, the balance between individual and community is disrupted and reconfigured. Religions often lose the capacity to recall their ultimate purpose or lead their adherents toward it. This is the situation we call “the crisis of the holy.” It is a confluence of threats, challenges, and opportunities for all religions. This volume explores the contours of pressures, changes, and transformations and reflects on how all our religions are changing. By identifying commonalities across religions as they respond to these pressures, The Crisis of the Holy recommends ways religious traditions might cope with these changes and how they might join forces in doing so. Contributors: Vincent J. Cornell, Alon Goshen-Gottstein, Sidney H. Griffith, Maria Reis Habito, B. Barry Levy, Deepak Sarma, Michael von Brück ABOUT VOLUME FIVE: The chapters collected in this book, prepared by a think tank of the Elijah Interfaith Academy, address the subject of religious leadership. The subject is of broad relevance in the training of religious leaders and in the practice of religious leadership. As such, it is also germane to religious thought, where reflections on religious leadership occupy an important place. What does it mean to be a religious leader in today’s world? To what degree are the challenges that confront religious leadership today the same perennial challenges that have arrested the attention of the faithful and their leaders for generations, and to what degree do we encounter challenges today that are unique to our day and age? One dimension is surely unique, and that is the very ability to explore these issues from an interreligious perspective and to consider challenges, opportunities, and strategies across religious traditions. Studying the theme across six faith traditions—Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism, Hinduism, and Buddhism—The Future of Religious Leadership: World Religions in Conversation recognizes the common challenges to present-day religious leadership. Contributors: Awet Andemicael, Timothy J. Gianotti, Alon Goshen-Gottstein, Anantanand Rambachan, Maria Reis Habito, Meir Sendor, Balwant Singh Dhillon, Miroslav Volf VOLUME SIX: One of the biggest challenges for relations between religions is the view of the religious Other. The question touches the roots of our theological views. The Religious Other: Hostility, Hospitality, and the Hope of Human Flourishing explores the views of multiple religious traditions on how to regard otherness. How does one move from hostility to hospitality? How can hospitality be understood not simply as social hospitality but as theological hospitality, making room for the religious Other on theological grounds? What is our vision for the flourishing of the Other, while respecting his otherness? This volume is an exercise in constructive interreligious theology. By including Abrahamic and non-Abrahamic traditions, it approaches these challenges from multiple perspectives, highlighting commonalities in approach and ways in which one tradition might inspire another. Contributors: Vincent J. Cornell, Alon Goshen-Gottstein, Richard P. Hayes, Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Deepak Sarma, Stephen W. Sykes, Dharma Master Hsin Tao, Ashok Vohra

Over forty premier world religious and scholars, of all major faith traditions, were asked the following: •Who is a figure who inspires your interfaith work? •How does this figure inspire you, and what lessons, applications, and concrete expressions has this inspiration taken in your life? The result is a stunning overview of the interfaith movement, its history, role models and heroes. Historical presentation complements the personal and experiential voice of the authors, making this not only a work for interfaith education but also a resource for spiritual inspiration.

One of the biggest challenges for relations between religions is the view of the religious Other. The question touches the roots of our theological views. The Religious Other: Hostility, Hospitality, and the Hope of Human Flourishing explores the views of multiple religious traditions on how to regard otherness. How does one move from hostility to hospitality? How can hospitality be understood not simply as social hospitality but as theological hospitality, making room for the religious Other on theological grounds? What is our vision for the flourishing of the Other, while respecting his otherness? This volume is an exercise in constructive interreligious theology. By including Abrahamic and non-Abrahamic traditions, it approaches these challenges from multiple perspectives, highlighting commonalities in approach and ways in which one tradition might inspire another. Contributors: Vincent J. Cornell, Alon Goshen-Gottstein, Richard P. Hayes, Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Deepak Sarma, Stephen W. Sykes, Dharma Master Hsin Tao, Ashok Vohra

This book introduces the when, why, who, how and what of interfaith. It is illustrated with personal reflections and photos from more than ninety interfaith and academics from around the world, reading like a Who's who of the movement.

This book tackles the core problem of how painful historical memories between diverse religious communities continue to impact—even poison—present-day relations. Its operative notion is the healing of memory, developed by John Paul II. Chapters explore how painful memories of yesteryear can be healed and so address some of the root causes. Strategies from six different faith traditions are brought together in what is, in some ways, a cross-religious brainstorming session that identifies tools to improve present-day relations. At the other pole of the conceptual axis of this book is the notion of hope. If memory informs our past, hope sets the horizon for our future. How does the healing of memory open new horizons for the future? And what is the notion of hope in each of our traditions that could lead to a common vision of good? Between memory and hope, this book seeks to offer a vision of healing that can serve as a resource in contemporary interfaith relations. Contributors: Rahuldeep Singh Gill, Alon Goshen-Gottstein, Maria Reis Habito, Flora A. Keshgegian, Anantanand Rambachan, Meir Sendor, Muhammad Suheyl Umar, and Michael von Brück

Gregory the Great was pope from 590 to 604, a time of great turmoil in Italy and in the western Roman Empire generally because of the barbarian invasions.Gregory s experience as prefect of the city of Rome and as apocrisarius of Pope Pelagius fitted him admirably for the new challenges of the papacy. "The Moral Reflections on the Book of Job" were first given to the monks who accompanied Gregory to the embassy in Constantinople. This first volume of the work contains books 1 5, accompanied by an introduction by Mark DelCogliano."

This groundbreaking volume gathers an array of inspiring and penetrating stories about the interreligious encounters of outstanding community leaders, scholars, public intellectuals, and activist from the United States, Europe, and the Middle East. With wisdom, wit, courage, and humility, these writers from a range of religious backgrounds share their personal experience of border-crossing, and the lessons learned from their interreligious adventures. We live in the most religiously diverse society in the history of humankind. Every day, people of different religious beliefs and practices encounter one another in a myriad of settings. How has this new situation of religious diversity impacted the way we understand the religious other, ourselves, and God? Can we learn to live together with mutual respect, working together for the creation of a more compassionate and just world? Contributors include: Mary Boys, Rita Nakishima-Brock; Arthur Green; Ruben Habito; Paul Knitter; Michael Lerner; Eboo Patel; Judith Plaskow; Paul Raushenbush; Arthur Waskow; and many more.

Written by some of the world's leading scholars of theology and interreligious dialogue, the essays in this volume provide a number of original voices to conversations around Nostra Aetate, bringing new ferment to the field of interreligious understanding.