In a place where the religious other quite recently meant the invading army that killed your father, Pontanima's work is remarkable.
interfaith
When I first came to Harvard, the weekly worship service was recognizably Protestant but flexible and welcoming. Over the years, our students have urged us toward new ways of gathering.
Miroslav Volf believes that Christians and Muslims worship the same God. On November 3 he took that argument to Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.
How we relate to the "other," ethnically, nationally, religiously, is the most important moral and theological issue of our time.
We should respect people with whom we disagree. Should we also respect their convictions, even when these comprise an overarching interpretation of life with which we fundamentally disagree?
One of the chief ramifications of the protests that overthrew Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak was the way religious divisions were set aside in the process.
Americans have become accustomed to picking and choosing among religious traditions and practices. But some have taken religious pluralism in a deeper and more radical direction.
In recent conversations with my seminary classmates, we've been lamenting the state of Christian education. In many churches it is evident that the average member hasn't grown in religious or biblical knowledge since he or she heard moralistic tales of Noah, Esther or Daniel as a child. Some even resist pastoral attempts to expand their Christian knowledge, and they simply refuse to learn about other religions. As seminarians, we are struggling with how to respond to this.
The deep attention and reverence that Thomas Merton and Abdul Aziz brought to each other's books, traditions and lives undergirded their friendship, and the frank way they explored their similarities and differences enlivened it.