October 2007 Issue

Dear Friend of the Elijah Interfaith Institute,

It is our pleasure to present you with the latest issue of our Wisdom e-newsletter. Inside you will find:

* News Update: Elijah Board of World Religious Leaders' meeting coming up in India

* News Update: In preparation for the meeting: work of the Elijah Think Tank: "Sharing Wisdom: The Case of Love and Forgiveness"

* Sharing Wisdom: Key Insights into the Think Tank Meeting

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News Update: Elijah Board of World Religious Leaders' meeting coming up in India

The Third Meeting of the Elijah Board of World Religious Leaders is scheduled to take place in India, November 26-30, 2007. Following the tradition of previous meetings, it will be hosted by local religious leaders. The first part of the meeting will take place in Amritsar (pictured below), where it will be hosted by the Birmingham based Guru Nanak Nishkam Sewak Jatha in collaboration with Guru Nanak Dev University. The second part of the program will take place in Dharamsala, at the invitation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and at his residence.

The theme for the meeting is: "Sharing Wisdom: The Case of Love and Forgiveness". With seminars led by scholars of the Elijah Interfaith Academy, the meeting will look at how religious traditions should, or should not, learn from one another, and consider appropriate boundaries, mechanisms and ways of sharing wisdom. The scholars will prepare appropriate texts, based on the wisdom teachings of the different religions, along with academic position papers, which will serve as background for the meeting's discussions. Working collaboratively as a team will, as has been demonstrated from the Board's previous meetings, set the stage for a high level of discussion by suggesting in advance points of commonalities and areas of collaboration amongst the different religions and their leaders. Specific focus will be given to the theme of "Love and Forgiveness", a core concern of all religions and an urgent need for today's world.

The meeting will bring together about 50 world religious leaders and scholars from around the world and will include representatives from each of the major religions, including Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Buddhism and the Religions of India It will also serve the scholarly and student community at Amritsar, through involvement of the local university, Guru Nanak Dev University In order for such an impressive gallery of personalities to work effectively in delivering a common message to the world on the world's pressing needs, they need to strengthen their bonds and working patterns. Strengthening interpersonal relations and planning common future activities, in particular the ongoing work of the Response Process, is thus vital for strengthening the symbolic and practical import of this august body of religious leaders.

News Update: Third Annual Board Meeting, "Sharing Wisdom:The Case of Love and Forgiveness" Think Tank overview

Between June 3-8, 2007, the Elijah Interfaith Institute think tank convened at the 'Seasons' facility of the Fetzer Institute to prepare the India meeting. The meeting was attended by 12 members of the Elijah think tank, along with several Fetzer staff people. Think tank members included an expert in each of the following traditions - Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism, Sikhism. In addition, directors and experts who have worked for Elijah in previous projects and who have moderated and run earlier meetings of the Elijah Board of World Religious Leaders took part in the discussions. The meeting was both interreligious and interdisciplinary bringing together the expertise of scholars in the fields of religious studies, education, political relations and sociology.

Members of the Elijah think tank included (and pictured throughout the newsletter):

Therese Andrevon, Community of the Beatitudes
Meir Sendor, Young Israel of Sharon, Massachusetts
Miroslav Volf, Yale University
Sallie King, James Madison University
Anant Rambachan, St. Olaf College
Pal Ahluwalia, University of California, San Diego
Barry Levy, McGill University
Johann Vento, Georgian Court University
Vanessa Sasson, McGill University
Timothy Gianotti, University of Virginia
Alon Goshen-Gottstein, The Elijah Interfaith Institute
Kurt Schreiber, Vanderbilt University

The think tank is involved in the creation of several products in preparation for the India meeting and following it. These include:

1. Educational study units. One study unit representing each of the participating traditions will be prepared. The study unit will consist of primary texts of the tradition, guided questions for discussion and a short essay, providing a thesis and an orientation for the discussion.

2. Academic papers. One of the outcomes of the meeting is a book of academic essays that focus on the themes of the process. Books are currently slated for publication in a series Elijah runs at Fordham University Press.

3. Common Statement and Recommendations to be disseminated within religious communities. The meeting's conclusions, recommendations and specific case studies are disseminated through various media and educational channels available to participating religious leaders. They will be further disseminated with the expansion of the Elijah Educational Network.

In addition, one notes the importance of the India meeting for testing out the significance of love and forgiveness as foci for theological and inter religious conversations. The work of the think tank and the India meeting will help
establish love and forgiveness as important items on a theological and inter religious agenda. They will explore the viability of the topic as a meeting point for the reflections of different religious traditions.

Sharing Wisdom: Key Insights into the Think Tank Meeting

Highlighting role of sharing wisdom as antidote to violence, inter-group tensions and global vulnerability. The importance of sharing wisdom as a component of conflict reduction.

Identifying the theological particularity of each tradition in relation to sharing wisdom. For example: grounding the multilinguality of faith inthe incarnation, amounting to an invitation to share wisdom. Additional example: centrality of creation as basis for discovery of universal wisdom in Judaism and other traditions.

Alternative images of our religious traditions as these are seen through sharing wisdom. Viewing our traditions as well- springs, where human beings may be nourished, and not as fortresses to be defended.

Recognition of common human condition underlying project of sharing wisdom. Offering answers to common human predicament.

Quest and need for identifying the particular experience of each religious tradition and the ways it shapes its wisdom. Tension between universal human experience and the particularities of religious experience shaped within particular traditions.

Can wisdom be offered in 'nuggets'? Can it be taken out of the context of religious traditions in their totality and be made to address the needs of individuals and communities outside the context of the fullness of religious life in which it was originally articulated?

Recognition of religions in crisis. Earlier work of Elijah think tank. Sharing wisdom as a means of recovering one's own identity and addressing internal crises.

Sharing wisdom not a benign process; it invites a response from the other about a claim in which the other has already been included.

The problematics of sharing wisdom. Wisdom based on attainments that cannot be shared and cannot be disseminated quickly. Tensions between spiritual processes and the urgency of problems that sharing wisdom could address

Liberative character of wisdom. Can it be shared outside classical matrix and means of attaining liberation.

Some benefits of sharing wisdom: Insights from other traditions to stimulate a critical self-reflection, sharpen articulation of our own tradition; can remind us of an overlooked or forgotten part of our own tradition; the attempt to listen to the other refining our own humanity.

The dangers of sharing wisdom: Uncritical sense of commonality that can lead to unauthentic syncretism, false assumptions of sameness obscuring important differences; violating the integrity of the other; various limits to receptivity; particularly - the limits of integrity of faith.

Alon Goshen-Gottstein

Executive Director, The Elijah Interfaith Institute