Part I of Interfaith Roundtable Identifies Contrasts, Strengthens Common Ground:

Part I of the 2008 Interfaith Roundtable of Jews, Christians, and Muslims was held on March 4, 2008 at Clarion University of Pennsylvania. Jews, Christians, and Muslims all claim Abraham as a father of their faith. Though there are obvious differences in how these faiths express this shared heritage, there are also clear similarities that bind them together. The purpose of the Interfaith Roundtable is to explore what the Abrahamic traditions share, the challenges that confront them, and to enhance the awareness of the important religious and cultural contributions of these religious traditions.

Dr. Joseph P. Grunenwald, President of Clarion University, provided a warm welcome to those in attendance and noted the privilege the Interfaith Roundtable offers. He suggested that the Roundtable advances mutual understanding and respect among people who acknowledge the one God of Abraham, whose religious descendents share more in common than they often realize. He also acknowledged the generosity of Dr. Syed Ali-Zaidi and Dr. and Mrs. Stephen Gendler who help to underwrite the Roundtable through the support of the Mir Vilayat Husain Endowment of the Clarion University Foundation. Dr. Grunenwald noted the opportunity that the gathering afforded to break down walls of misunderstanding.

Fr. Jim Faluszczak, Catholic Campus Minister and Director of Campus Ministry for the Erie Diocese, then introduced the three keynote speakers: Rabbi Alvin Berkun, Dr. Eugene Fisher, and Imam Yahya Hendi. Their brief biographies can be found by clicking HERE. Faluszczak also acted as moderator for the evening. The format consisted of a keynote address by each speaker, followed by responses by the keynote speakers to each other. The second portion of the evening consisted of questions posed to the speakers by members of the audience. The formal part of the Roundtable lasted approximately two hours, but many participants remained until the close of the library to continue the conversation.

Rabbi Alvin Berkun began his presentation by acknowledging the collegial relationship he has shared with Dr. Fisher and Imam Hendi over several years. He described Abraham as the founder of ethical monotheism, the first religious tradition or perspective which demands an ethical lifestyle of its adherents. Given the familiarity of the three speakers with each other it is not surprising that Berkun spent time remarking about the hospitality that is a hallmark of each of the Abrahamic traditions. The ease with which Berkun, Fisher, and Hendi interacted over the course of the evening gave evidence of the ability of committed Jews, Christians, and Muslims to genuinely appreciate each other and the unique aspects of their traditions. Speaking of the particular history of interaction between Jews and Christians, Rabbi Berkun noted the Jewishness of Jesus: that he was born, lived, and died as a Jew. It was obvious, notwithstanding the belief by Jews that Jesus was a Rabbi, that most Jews of his time did not accept that he was the Messiah. This is evidenced by the fact that Josephus, the noted Jewish historian, does not mention Jesus at all in his writings. With regard to the major difference between Jews and Christians, Berkun acknowledged that the central issue is whether the messiah has come or has yet to come. Unfortunately, the relationship between these two religions has been extraordinarily problematic at times because of Christian subjugation of the Jews. The Roman Catholic Church did a complete about face with Vatican II, when previously unimagined openness was extended toward the Jewish community, and which continued most notably with Pope John Paul II. Recent revisions of the Tridentine Rite, while highly publicized and requiring clarification, merely represent a bump in the road in Jewish-Christian relations. In terms of Jewish-Muslim relations, Jews and Muslims interacted comfortably with each other in the days of Mohammad. Clashes began because Muslims adopted certain Jewish customs but Jews did not reciprocate. Muslim leaders then began to treat Jews in Moslem lands as second-class citizens. Moses Maimonides, the great Jewish philosopher and physician to Saladin, the Sultan of Egypt and Syria famous for recapturing Jerusalem during the Crusades, considered Christianity and Islam as daughter religious.

Christians and Jews can agree that Jesus lived, died, and rose from the dead as a Jew. But in his address, Dr. Fisher immediately noted that Jews and Christians differ not only on whether Jesus was the Messiah, but also on the doctrine of the Incarnation; that is whether Jesus was God made flesh. He noted that sustained difficulties between Jews and Christians began with the crusades; that up to that point, the Church followed the teaching of St. Augustine, who affirmed that Jews worshiped as God willed them to worship. For this reason Jews generally were the only religion that could worship freely in Christendom up to the point of the Crusades. In fact, Fisher asserted, Italy was the only country in Europe where Jews were not expelled because the Pope was "close enough to the scene" where he could enforce the Canon Law which protected the Jews. In time, Eastern bishops began to depart from teaching from Augustine. The Crusades were the "great dividing point" between Christians and Muslims, but there needs to be a recognition that much of the Crusades were led by groups of marauders who were often opposed by the bishops and Catholic kings, according to Fisher. The Crusades were, in some respect, a "counterblow" to Muslim aggression, but either way they were obviously destructive on all sides both spiritually and psychologically. And of course both Jews and Muslims were victimized by the Spanish Inquisition. Ultimately, Jews, Christians, and Muslims are united in the same God, and we are called to testify to the oneness of God. But even our points of commonality find significant differences of expression. Elements of the Jewish mystical tradition resemble the Christian mystical tradition in some obvious ways. That is less clear with regard to the Muslim tradition, though rosary beads may have been some derivation of Muslim prayer beads. Dr. Fisher suggested that we seem to have a shared sense of the reality of an endtime, judgment, heaven and hell. We seem to have a shared sense of humanity as "heading somewhere", and so we should have a sense of the need to work together in a similar direction. This is the point at which humanity will have reached its maturity. By building bridges and moving beyond our own "unique jargon" we see each other with greater clarity. There have been moments in history where Jews and Christians or Jews and Muslims lived in a spirit of dialog or even, with regard to all of the Abrahamic faiths, a period of "trialog"; a time which might be referred to as a type of Golden Age in the relationship of our faiths. In that spirit, God is calling us to productive dialog and to the unity of humanity.

Interfaith Dialog, in spite of our backgrounds, differences and sometimes "bloody past", is a sign that we are making history. Beginning with this belief, Imam Hendi considers it possible to come together as believers and as a human family. What binds us together? The challenge of tearing down walls and building tables around which people of faith can come together. The bitterness of the past can keep us from dealing adequately with the challenges of the 21st century. "The Abrahamic faiths share a common core of ethical belief". Hendi proposed five ways of binding humanity together, and maintained that the key to achieving that goal is by providing all people a place at the table. The Imam shared specific ideas which bind the Abrahamic faiths together: one God, promotion of justice, the importance of prayer, dedication to social justice, and shared narratives of how God has related to the human race. Most poignantly, Imam Hendi concluded by suggesting that even if we do not share a common faith or a common set of moral principles, that all people share a common set of social-political challenges: poverty, militancy, militarism, refugee crises, racism, and ignorance. We can choose to be bound by hope and dedication to our common task.