Art Exhibit: Three Faiths

 Three Faiths: Judaism, Christianity, Islam

Exhibition Review from the New York Times by Edward Rothstein

“The sweep of the new exhibition at the New York Public Library — “Three Faiths: Judaism, Christianity, Islam” — is stunning. It stretches from a Bible found in a monastery in coastal Brittany that was sacked by the Vikings in the year 917, to a 1904 lithograph showing the original Temple Emanu-El on Fifth Avenue. It encompasses both an elaborately decorated book of 20th-century Coptic Christian readings and a modest 19th-century printing of the Gospels in the African language Grebo. There are Korans, with pages that shimmer with gold leaf and elegant calligraphy, and a 13th-century Pentateuch from Jerusalem, written in script used by Samaritans who traced their origins to the ancient Northern Kingdom of Israel.

The library’s Gutenberg Bible is here, as well as its 1611 King James translation. The first Koran published in English is shown, from 1649, along with fantastical images from 16th-century Turkish and Persian manuscripts in which Muhammad is pictured with other prophets, his face a blank white space in obeisance to the prohibition against his portrait.

Out of many, one. That could well be the motto of this ambitious exhibition. It focuses on “the three Abrahamic religions” — Judaism, Christianity and Islam — each of which takes as a forebear an “itinerant herdsman” of the Middle East, Abraham, who affirmed belief in a single God. As the show puts it, Abraham rejected “the religions of antiquity with their plethora of gods, each imbued with a particular attribute, purpose and power,” replacing the many with the one.

The Abrahamic religions share other characteristics as well. Each believes that God has made himself known to his prophets through acts of revelation. And such revelations shape groups of believers by being incorporated in canonical written texts: the Hebrew Bible, the Christian Gospels, the Islamic Koran.

Though the exhibition does not point this out, the connection between monotheism and such texts is no accident. Once multiple divinities are discarded, along with their rivalries and conflicting powers, religion is concerned with just two poles: the human and the divine. Religious events take place not on Mount Olympus or in some imagined godly castle, but in the earthly realm. Religious history becomes fully part of human history. And the telling of that history, along with commentary and reinterpretation, becomes an aspect of the religion itself. These faiths are historical faiths.”

Selected Images from the Exhibit:

Images of Mecca and Medina, Dala ‘il al-Khayrat (Proofs of Good Deeds)” Jazuli, Istanbul (?) Ottoman Empire, AH 1207 (1792 CE)

 

“The Christian Bible, Gospels (Harkness Gospels),” in Latin, Landevennec, Brittany before 917

“The Binding of Isaac, Ketubah (Marriage Contract)” 16 August 1872 CE

“Matthew and Mark in Ge’ez, Gospels according to Matthew and Mark,” Ethiopia (1721-1730)

Detail from “The Whole Megilah (Scroll of Esther)” Raphael Montalto, scribe, Amseterdam, AM 5446 (1686 CE)

 

“Praises of the Prophet,” Religious Anthology, Ottoman Empire, 19th-century

“The Psalms, Psalter (De la Twyere Psalter),” in Latin, Enland, diocese of York, after 1304-ca. 1310

“The Qur’an, Qur’an,” Probably Turkey, AH 734 (1333 CE)

What Does Religion Mean To You?

Guest Blogger: Nick Norena is a senior majoring in Religion. He founded the Meditation Club at Davidson College. You can contact him at ninorena@davidson.edu

As a Religion major at Davidson College, I’ve been asked many times what religion I believe in.  Whenever I am met with that question, I wonder what religion means to me.  In my mind, answering this question is the first step in deciding what tradition an individual would like to subscribe to.  Having been very involved in the academic study of religion for several years now, I approach this question in an academic manner.  However, something became apparent to me recently, and that is the divide between the study of religion, and the practice of religion.  Is it truly possible to decide on one’s personal beliefs by studying them?

If I approach the question “What religion do I believe in” from an academic standpoint, it assumes a logical and rational thought process (for that is what academia is built upon).  However, that is not the way everybody makes decision about his or her own religious beliefs.  Now, I don’t mean to say that people do not question their beliefs, but rather that their religious beliefs have a more emotional tie to them rather than a rational tie. For instance, in academia, you cannot rationally discuss matters of the divine, or matters of prophecy and revelation the way religions speak of them (and the divine, revelation, and prophecy, are what religions are built upon).  In academia, one critiques these claims, and in a religion, one believes them.  So where do the two meet?

In the end, I feel that choosing one’s own practice depends almost entirely on what makes you feel happiest.  This feeling can evolve from a prolonged study of a religion, but in the end, no matter what, it becomes a matter of feeling what is right for you.  I don’t know if I necessarily have found what I am looking for as far as my own personal practice is concerned.  But I do know that my feeling of happiness will come out of my study, because that is largely who I have become over the past few years: an academic of religion.

Inclusion Community

Inclusion Community opens its arms, and doors, for worship

an article reposted from DavidsonNews.net (October 1, 2010)

Inclusion Community has adopted the mandala, a Buddhist symbol, to convey its spirit of unity.

After a year of organizing, a new group called Inclusion Community makes its debut this Sunday, Oct. 3, offering what it calls “a safe place to experience God” for those turned off by traditional churches.

The Rev. Susan Heafner-Heun leads the group, and said about 30 founding members have been meeting for months under the generic label of “a new faith community” in Davidson. They’ve picked a name, designed a meeting format, and are now open to the wider community.

Inclusion Community is a partner of Davidson United Methodist Church and an outgrowth of initiatives by the United Methodist Church. The Rev. Heafner-Heun was appointed a year ago, and began working with about a dozen other people to explore and shape the new community.

Pastor Susan Heafner-Heun

The group has since grown to more than 30. Their first public meeting Sunday will include voices from Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered (LBGT) communities. It begins at 10:30 a.m. at Our Town Cinemas, in Sadler Square at 227 Griffith St. in Davidson.

NOT YOUR TYPICAL CHURCH SERVICE

Inclusion Community’s unorthodox approach extends to its weekly meetings, which don’t look or feel like those at a traditional church, the Rev. Heafner-Heun said. “We start with ringing a Buddhist bell to call us for a moment of silence,” she said.

Readings come both from Christian scripture and a wide variety of other sources, both secular and from other faith traditions. There may be short reflections on readings by clergy, members or guests, but nothing like “a typical 20-minute sermon,” she said. This Sunday, guests will include Rabbi Michael Shields of Lake Norman Jewish Congregation and Muntazir Somji, a Muslim from Charlotte, as well as people from the area’s LGBT community.

“We want to make sure we are a place of welcome,” Rev. Heafner-Heun said.

Meetings also will have silence, discussions, writing exercises or other activities, movie clips and a variety of world and traditional musics. Theresa Woody of Davidson is the group’s music director. “The music is mostly global, with hand drums and other neat sounds,” she said this week. “Traditional hymns show up from time to time, too.” Eventually, Ms. Woody hopes to have a choir and a permanent percussion section that draws on sounds from Latin America, Africa, the Caribbean and other regions.

Questioning and discussion are an important part of the group’s approach. A traditional church service conducted from the pulpit is not a venue for people to raise questions or engage in a discussion about the meaning of scripture, the Rev. Heafner-Heun said. But that’s exactly the goal of Inclusion Community.

METHODIST OUTREACH

It’s a bit unusual to find a new religious group incubated and then spun off from an established congregation like Davidson United Methodist Church. The local Methodist church sees Inclusion as a “satellite” or a “mission.”

The Rev. Jody Seymour, the Church’s senior pastor, was at a conference a couple of years ago and heard discussion about ways of “energizing” the church. He came back with the idea of fostering a new faith community in and around Davidson United Methodist.

Last July, Methodist officials tapped the Rev. Heafner-Heun, who at the time was serving two congregations in Denver, in Lincoln County, as pastor for the new group. Inclusion now also has an assistant pastor, the Rev. Dutch Handlang.

The Rev. Heafner-Heun’s own background is somewhat non-traditional. A Charlotte native, she attended Duke University for a year before shifting to Union Theological Seminary in New York City. She later went on to earn a doctor of ministry in social justice from Hood Theological Seminary in Salisbury, which is affiliated the the historically African-American AME Zion Church.

Church officials see what they’re doing as an addition to the area’s faith communities, one that will bring in new members, not replace or take away from an existing congregation.

“We are still Christians, we are still United Methodists, but we are not the same every place you go,” the Rev. Heafner-Heun said. “We’re not creating this to split the Davidson church. This is a mission, an opportunity to reach out to those who are not comfortable in the traditional church.”

WANT TO GO

This Sunday’s and future Sunday meetings will be at 10:30 a.m. at Our Town Cinemas, at Sadler Square, 227 Griffith St. For more information go to www.inclusioncommunity.org

Sufjan Stevens on Religion

Jeremy Allen from The Quietus interviews Sufjan Stevens about his new album The Age of Adz and his religious beliefs:

Being an artist of some repute do you find the calling to spread the Good News sits awkwardly with your profile? Is it difficult?

SS: Not necessarily, you know, I think the Good News is about grace and hope and love and a relinquishing of self to God. And I think the Good News of salvation is kind of relevant to everyone and everything.

I find as I get older due to a sequence of events spirituality becomes more intriguing, though having been indoctrinated with the hard line dogma that I’d go to hell if I didn’t follow certain practices and believe very specific things, I was quite angry about Christianity for a while.

SS: Oh dear.

I suppose you could call it Protestant guilt.

SS: The church is an institution and it’s incredibly corrupt obviously, but that’s because it’s full of dysfunctional people and people who are hurt and battered and abused. It’s very normal in any institution to have that kind of level of dysfunction. That’s unfortunate. I find it very difficult, I find church culture very difficult you know; I think a lot of churches now are just fundamentally flawed. But that’s true for any institution you know, that’s true for education, universities and it’s definitely true for corporations because of greed, and I think part of faith is having to be reconciled with a flawed community. But the principles, I don’t think the principles have changed. They can get skewed and they can get abused and dogma can reign supreme, but I think the fundamentals, it’s really just about love. Loving God and loving your neighbour and giving up everything for God. The principles of that, the basis of that is very pure and life changing.

Do you believe that God can be reached through other faiths? John 3:16 categorically states Jesus is “the way, the truth and the life” and nobody can get to the Father expect through him. A lot of people take that very literally and don’t believe you can find spirituality through Buddhism or Islam or whatever…

SS: Yeah, I mean who can know the mind of God and who can be his counsellor? It’s not man’s decision, you know. If God is infinite and he’s in all of us and he created the world then I feel there is truth in every corner. There’s a kind of imprint of his life and his breath and his word and everything. You know, I’m no religious expert, and I don’t make any claims about the faith. All I can account for is myself and my own belief and that’s a pretty tall order just to take account of myself. I can’t make any claims about other religions. There’s no condemnation in Christ, that’s one of the fundamentals of Christianity.

The Gospels are a good read, and then you get Paul ruining everything with his right wing attitudes.

SS: Well Paul is a good reference for the character of church institutions, the setting down of cultural principles. Because God is the church and the church is an institution and the institution is culture; you have to reckon with all the trappings of culture and that’s kind of what Paul designed. You know, that was his role. You can’t read it without looking at it in the cultural context of the time and place, it’s inherent you know.

Church originally was a body of people and it had nothing to do with a building.

SS: I mean it’s weird. What’s the basis of Christianity? It’s really a meal, it’s communion right? It’s the Eucharist. That’s it, it’s the sharing a meal with your neighbours and what is that meal? It’s the body and blood of Christ. Basically God offering himself up to you as nutrition. Haha, that’s pretty weird. It’s pretty weird if you think about that, that’s the basis of your faith. You know, God is supplying a kind of refreshment and food for a meal. Everything else is just accessories and it’s vital of course, baptism and marriage, and there’s always the sacraments and praying and the Holy Spirit and all this stuff but really fundamentally it’s just about a meal.

And there’s the cross of course. It’s an extremely powerful symbol and it has permeated into some of the greatest art and literature of the last couple of thousand years, but it’s peculiar that people wear an object that represents the putting to death of their Lord.

SS: It’s really morbid. It’s a really morbid symbol you know. It is very grotesque when you start thinking about it. But it’s also beautiful you know, it’s the ultimate sacrifice. And I think it relates to the meal as well because it’s Christ giving up his blood and flesh as food and that then itself is the giving up of his body for eternal life, therefore salvation. Whatever that means…”

I don’t know. It’s all a bit of a mystery to me.

SS: It’s the most important thing to me really but it’s also really important I don’t get too caught up in it. There’s a necessity for casualness, you know, because I think fear and anxiety are not elements in faith. And I think doubt is important and questioning and all that. I think there’s been too much made from fear and condemnation to manipulate people. I think that’s an atrocity really.

To read the full interview: http://thequietus.com/articles/05085-the-age-of-adz-sufjan-stevens-interview

 

The Invocation (2010)

A film directed by Emmanuel Itier produced by Sharon Stone

An exploration of the notion of ‘God’ and World Peace through Religion, Spirituality, History, Science, Politics and Arts.

Interfaith Fair Trade

Delicious Peace

Living in the wake of collapsed coffee prices and lingering intolerance created by the Idi Amin regime of terror, a group of Christian, Muslim and Jewish Ugandan coffee farmers challenged economic and historical hurdles by forming “Delicious Peace Coffee Cooperative” in 2004. The co-op had twin goals: economic development and the building of peaceful interrelationships. Partnering the next year with a Fair Trade US buyer, the standard of living of the farmers is improving, harmony is flourishing, and their messages of peace and fair wages are spreading to their neighbors as well as their coffee customers in the US.

Interfaith Dialogue Must Include Atheists

Chris Stedman, managing director of “State of Formation,” a blog of the Journal of Inter-Religious Dialogue, wrote a piece for the Huffington Post about the importance of including atheists in interfaith dialogue.

The views expressed in this article are incredibly important for Davidson College. Despite Davidson’s Presbyterian affiliation we have many students that identify as belonging to other religious or secular traditions. All of these students can and should be a part of the interfaith dialogue happening at Davidson College. To get involved in Davidson’s “Better Together” campaign for interfaith cooperation contact Kaela Frank at  kafrank@davidson.edu

“Advocating for religious people has often put me at odds with my own community. As an atheist I hear a lot of anti-religious talk from other nonreligious people, and speaking out against it has made me somewhat of an unpopular figure among some atheists. Yet it is precisely because I am an atheist, and not in spite of it, that I am motivated to do interfaith work.

Why? For one, without religious tolerance and pluralism, I wouldn’t be free to call myself an atheist without fear of retribution. Not that long ago, I could not have been a public, vocal atheist at all…”

“…Any discomfort religious people experience over engaging with the nonreligious must be set aside for the sake of truly inclusive interfaith collaboration. This isn’t to say that such hesitancy is entirely unmerited; just as there are Christians who seem to have the sole mission of converting others to their religion, there are many atheists who only engage with people of faith in hopes of convincing them to abandon their tenants. But there are also atheists who are content to listen and to share, to dialogue instead of debate. They are part of a growing population of people who don’t believe in God but still want the same things everyone else wants: meaning, community, and a better world…”

“…Atheists interested in collaboration instead of confrontation deserve to be included. We bring a unique set of experiences and insights to conversations on religion and ethics. Don’t leave us out.”

For the entire text: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-stedman/dont-leave-atheists-out-o_b_756120.html

Theological Education Day

Theological Education Day 2010

Monday, October 18
1:00 – 4:30 p.m.
Alvarez College Union, Brown Atrium

Whether you have decided on a career in ministry or you are still exploring your options, come gather information and talk to representatives (some of them Davidson alums) from seminaries and divinity schools from around the country.

Thanks to the Imam, My Son Got Serious About Synagogue

An article from The Huffington Post

October 8, 2010

It was three days before Rosh Hashanah, and I was predictably anxious about my identity, my life, about my family’s Jewish future. As a good and fractious Jew, I was somewhat ambivalent about which synagogue I would go to: The one I sometimes go to? The one I would never step foot in? The one that I really should create on my own, maybe?

This Rosh Hashanah was different for two reasons. My 87-year old mother, who lives alone 400 miles away in Boston, had pneumonia. So we were on our way to Boston, but I had to honor a commitment to my dear friend Yahya Hendi, who is an imam. He wanted the whole family, the whole world, it seems, but especially Jews and Christians, for an iftar, a very sacred celebration as a part of Ramadan. He wanted us all to share in every aspect of the evening, and so made his backyard into a center of prayer and his house into a feast.

My son Isaac is so attached to baseball that he brings his glove and ball everywhere, just in case: you never know when you might meet another seven-year-old in search of round objects to bat, pound, throw and kick. Sure enough, Imam Hendi’s young son was outside pounding a soccer ball, furiously, back and forth, by himself! Ah, a delicious sight for my son, all the right signals of a fellow juvenile madman in motion, a mark of the truly committed, those who play even by themselves!

So Isaac lunged toward the boy, but what is this? A soccer ball?! Where is the baseball? And so I witnessed a moment of cultural crisis, that great Atlantic Ocean divide between the obsession with soccer and the obsession with baseball. Not to worry, I turned away for just a few minutes, and they were tossing the baseball. Peace on earth, goodwill toward mankind, Arab/Jewish conflict resolved, game, set, match.

Then something strange happened to my son. The crowds parted on the grass, the Muslims came to the center and lined up precisely, and Imam Hendi called his boy to the front. The imam then gave an impassioned speech on the intense love he felt for everyone there, for all Jews and all Christians, and on how indeed there was no proper way to be a Muslim other than through love.

My boy was watching all these men and women gather. Then Yahya’s boy led the call to prayer, and my son’s face was aglow with his beautiful eyes full of wonder. I stared at Isaac staring at Yahya’s boy in reverence, and I, on the side, in the cool of the night, underneath brilliant stars, prayed that maybe we should just stay in that moment.

You see, Imam Hendi felt especially motivated to gather everyone because we were days away from the spectacle of an American Quran burning. He was on television, and I was being called for a television spot that night. So here we were, Yahya and a hundred guests, prayers and blessings, my girls and his girls, my boy and his boy, and also a world gone mad.

I noticed a change in Isaac after that night. He came to Synagogue with me, with the glove, as usual, but I caught him watching and listening intently to ceremony, mouthing many of the words he did not know yet. I saw him begin to explore his identity as a spiritual being.

I watched a second birth, the birth of a human being who seeks out what is beyond, at first through the worship practices of the fathers and the mothers, through the ceremonies of the ancients, through engaging what has come before.

For that second birth of my son, I have Imam Yahya Hendi to thank, a Palestinian who just buried his father back home in bad circumstances, who is fatherless now, just like me, trying to make the world safe for his beloved children. I see him there on the grass, hands raised, palms up, the stars blazing above, saying his ancient words, Allahu Akbar. I think to myself, yes, sometimes God is great, when we find the Divine Presence in the eyes of strangers, and in the loving words of long lost cousins. And I think that this year I inaugurated my Isaac on a good journey.

Rabbi Marc Gopin, author of To Make the Earth Whole, is the James Laue Professor and Director of CRDC, George Mason University, and a co-founder of MEJDI (www.mejdi.net), a Jewish/Arab social enterprise that offers educational peace tours in support of honest businesses and social change activists.

 

Charter For Compassion

 

 

The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves. Compassion impels us to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures, to dethrone ourselves from the centre of our world and put another there, and to honour the inviolable sanctity of every single human being, treating everybody, without exception, with absolute justice, equity and respect.

It is also necessary in both public and private life to refrain consistently and empathically from inflicting pain. To act or speak violently out of spite, chauvinism, or self-interest, to impoverish, exploit or deny basic rights to anybody, and to incite hatred by denigrating others—even our enemies—is a denial of our common humanity. We acknowledge that we have failed to live compassionately and that some have even increased the sum of human misery in the name of religion.

We therefore call upon all men and women ~ to restore compassion to the centre of morality and religion ~ to return to the ancient principle that any interpretation of scripture that breeds violence, hatred or disdain is illegitimate ~ to ensure that youth are given accurate and respectful information about other traditions, religions and cultures ~ to encourage a positive appreciation of cultural and religious diversity ~ to cultivate an informed empathy with the suffering of all human beings—even those regarded as enemies.

We urgently need to make compassion a clear, luminous and dynamic force in our polarized world. Rooted in a principled determination to transcend selfishness, compassion can break down political, dogmatic, ideological and religious boundaries. Born of our deep interdependence, compassion is essential to human relationships and to a fulfilled humanity. It is the path to enlightenment, and indispensible to the creation of a just economy and a peaceful global community.

Add your name to the Charter for Compassion