 |
About Woodstock | Programs | Publications | Search |
In Focus: Interreligious Dialogue on Education
(from Woodstock Report No. 76, December 2003)
At its 34th general congregation in 1995, the Society of Jesus declared that to be religious in this age of pluralism is to be interreligious. Dialogue among the world's religions is a vital part of loving God and neighbor in these times, and this conviction is helping to shape the projects and priorities of the Woodstock Theological Center.
"Finding God in Our Differences" will be the sub-theme of Woodstock's work in 2004, a way of grasping the main focus, which is, "Reaching for the Human Good." The realities of global religious diversity have already figured prominently in research undertaken by Woodstock in such areas as globalization and forgiveness in conflict resolution.
More directly, the Center has pursued this mission through its project, Interreligious Dialogue on Education, directed by Woodstock senior fellow James D. Redington, S.J., and P. Michael Timpane, former president of Columbia Teachers' College and co-chair of the Aspen Institute Program for Education in a Changing Society. The core of this initiative has been an ongoing dialogue involving nine people from faith traditions covering the major world religions: Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism.
There have been nine sessions held since January 2002, as well as a small public gathering last spring at Georgetown University that featured presentations by several dialogue participants. The conversations have revolved around the question of what, and how, the world's religions are teaching their followers. The idea is to take insights from these traditions and use them as a basis for recommending improvements in education, both public and private.
The stated presupposition of the dialogue is that the teaching practices of the world religions are important for human education in general, which is to say they are factors of the human good. The dialogue also has an eye toward the role of religions in peacemaking, understanding that it is easier to reconcile with followers of a religion that they are regularly learning from.
It is believed to be the first interreligious dialogue that focuses entirely on education. "This has not been done, and it badly needs doing," Dr. Timpane said when he first approached Woodstock with the idea early in 2001.
That was before September 11, and Father Redington notes that the dialogue took on a more urgent as well as somber tone in light of that tragedy and later with the war in Iraq. "There's a great need for mutual knowledge, and for the friendships and relationship building that knowledge can bring," said Father Redington, a scholar of Hindu literature and interreligious dialogue who has served in Jesuit missions in India and Africa.
This Woodstock initiative comes at a time when Georgetown University President John J. DeGioia is seeking to make interreligious dialogue a cornerstone of the university's Catholic and Jesuit identity. The project, Interreligious Dialogue on Education, is also one way Woodstock is putting the words of the General Congregation into action.
In its decree, Our Mission and Interreligious Dialogue, the Society declared, "To be religious today is to be interreligious in the sense that a positive relationship with believers of other faiths is a requirement in a world of religious pluralism."
That statement committed the Jesuits to pursuing the fourfold interreligious dialogue recommended by the Church:
- the dialogue of life, in which people of different faiths strive to live in an open and neighborly spirit,
- the dialogue of action, in which Christians collaborate with others in building a just society,
- the dialogue of religious experience, in which people steeped in their spiritual traditions share their ways of searching for God or the Absolute, and
- the dialogue of theological exchange, involving specialists who seek to deepen their understanding of other spiritual heritages. (These types were laid out in the 1991 document, Dialogue and Proclamation: Reflections and Orientations on Interreligious Dialogue and the Proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, by the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.)
Father Redington said the dialogue undertaken by his project has been in large part a dialogue of religious experience, involving people who share their own spiritual stories while relating what their traditions teach. But it is also a professional dialogue, involving experts and educators. And, it will increasingly become a dialogue of action, ultimately through policy recommendations for public and private schools.
The venue of this project is shifting partly to California, where Father Redington will soon begin teaching at the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley in a joint appointment with Woodstock. The dialogue sessions will continue in Washington, and Father Redington, together with Dr. Timpane, will coordinate the further stages of the effort. These will include plans to be made for public outreach, possibly though forums and publications explaining what each of the traditions teach their followers.
One possibility being discussed is to produce materials and guidelines for teaching about virtues espoused by the different traditions, in both public and private schools. (Members of the dialogue are quick to note that it is not unconstitutional to teach about religion in public schools, although how to do that is often a matter of contention.)
Monika Hellwig, a Catholic theologian and educator who is one of the participants, pointed out in the context of the Western tradition that the virtues are useful not just in religious formation but in human formation generally.
"You can't do without these virtues, although separators of church and state try to," said Dr. Hellwig, who is executive director of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities. She was alluding especially to Christian virtues of faith, hope, and charity, together with secular Western virtues of prudence, justice, courage, and moderation.
Besides her, Father Redington, and Dr. Timpane, dialogue members include: Hashim El-Tinay, a Muslim participant who is a Sudanese diplomat, journalist, and founder of the peacemaking foundation Salam Sudan; Rabbi Joseph Lukinsky, professor emeritus of Jewish education at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York; D.C. Rao, a Hindu representative who is a retired World Bank economist and president of the Interfaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington; K.N. Siva Subramanian, a Hindu who is chief of neonatology at Georgetown University Hospital and founder of the Sri Siva Vishnu Temple; Venerable Uparatana, president of the International Buddhist Center in Wheaton, Maryland, and Buddhist chaplain at the American University; and the Rev. Elizabeth Orens, an Episcopal priest and chaplain at the National Cathedral School in Washington.