Interreligious Communication: How Does it Look, How Should it Look? Models from the 19 th, 20 th, and 21 st Centuries Dr. Deanna Ferree Womack Candler School of Theology Emory University Religion Communicators Council Atlanta, GA - April 6, 2018
What roles might communicators play in promoting religious literacy, fostering understanding of various traditions, and cultivating relations between people of different faiths?
Interreligious Communication: How Does it Look, How Should it Look? Introduction: Context & Definitions 1. 19 th Century Models 2. 20 th Century Models 3. Models for the 21st Century
Terminology Interfaith Relations: positive or negative ways that members of different faiths have interacted with each other throughout history and/or interact in the contemporary world Interfaith Dialogue: the practice of positive interfaith relations through face-to-face interaction and formal or informal conversation
Why isn t deep, meaningful interfaith engagement the norm for more people in the United States? Lack of opportunity Fear & distrust of difference Perceived threat to religious convictions Conversionary orientations Confusion about interfaith terminology
http://www.pewforum.org/2015/04/02/religious-projections-2010-2050
19 th Century Models of Interreligious Communication
Empire established 1453 end of Ottoman Europe, 1913 collapse, 1918-1920
Ottoman Syria, 1900 Syria & Lebanon today Lebanon & Syria before World War I American Syria Mission 1823: established in Beirut by American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions Population: Muslim, Druze, Jewish, Maronite, Greek Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox, Protestant
19 th -Century Missionary Models in Ottoman Syria Henry Harris Jessup (1832-1910) Publications: The Women of the Arabs, 1873 The Mohammedan Missionary Problem, 1879 The Setting of the Crescent and the Rising of the Cross, 1898 Fifty-Three Years in Syria, 1910 Courtesy of Yale Divinity School Special Collections
19 th -Century Models from the Arab Renaissance in Syria Arabic Press in Beirut, 1908 Photo Courtesy of Yale Divinity School Special Collections
An Arabic Protestant Periodical al-nashra al-usbu iyya (Weekly Bulletin) Women of the Arab Renaissance in Syria Defied missionary characterizations of Arab women as ignorant and oppressed Challenged the Western view of primordial rivalries between Muslims, Christians, & Jews in the Middle East Image courtesy of the Near East School of Theology library in Beirut
19 th Century: Syrian Christian Women Rujina Shukri The Necessity of Libraries al-nashra al-usbu iyya (Weekly Bulletin)1888 We lift our palms in prayer and supplication to the merciful God to sustain his great majesty [Sultan] Abdulhamid Khan * *For details on the work of Rujina Shukri and other women in Ottoman Syria, see Deanna Ferree Womack, Protestants, Gender and the Arab Renaissance in Ottoman Syria (Edinburgh University Press, forthcoming).
19th Century: Syrian Christian Women Hannah Kurani Manners & Customs Beirut: American Mission Press, 1891 The Creator has blessed us with a Sultan who is unequaled among Sultans May his days of success and reform last as long as the earth continues spinning on its axis. Photo from Oldham, The Congress of Women, 1894. (After attending the women s congress at the Chicago World s fair, Kurani travelled the US on a lecture circuit).
19 th Century: Syrian Christian Women Farida Atiya Caution & Warning al-nashra al-usbu iyya (Weekly Bulletin)1887 As one of the scholars (ulama) says: Refrain from lies and falsehoods. Despise liars and keep away from slanderers. Your affairs will begin to fail, so far as their effects both in this world and the other world are concerned, as soon as you give access to a liar. Jeremiah 4:9 Beware of your neighbors, and put no trust in any of your kin; for all your kin are supplanters, and every neighbor goes around like a slanderer (NRSV). American School for Girls, Tripoli ( Atiya s alma mater)
Syrian Jewish & Muslim Women Esther Azhari Moyal (1873-1948) Jewish writer in Beirut who later moved to Palestine al-hasna A women s journal in Beirut that featured Esther s articles Protestant mission school graduate President of the first Syrian women s association Attended the Chicago World s Fair, 1893 Public speaker on women s education Qur an 13:11 God does not change a people s status until they change their own disposition.
Syrian Jewish & Muslim Women Zaynab Fawwaz (c. 1860-1914) Syrian Shia feminist Nahda journalist & poet Sent Scattered Pearls, a biographical dictionary of Arab women to be displayed at the Chicago World s Fair, 1893 Advocated for women s equality in public life, saying, The veil does not prevent us from doing men s jobs. Zaynab s Diwan, or poetry collection
20 th Century Models of Interreligious Communication
Why did this shift from the nineteenth-century missionary model occur among some American Christians? Missionary experiences Voices of global Christians Failure of Western Civilization: WWI Post-Colonial Movements Immigration
Interreligious Communication in the 20 th Century Examples from a growing number of initiatives Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) o Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, 1964 World Council of Churches dialogues o o Christian-Muslim and Christian-Jewish consultations (1969, Switzerland) Consultation on Dialogue between Men of Living Faiths (1970, Lebanon) Temple of Understanding (1960) Religions for Peace (1961) International Council of Christians and Jews (1975, Germany) Council for a Parliament of the World s Religions (1988) The Interfaith Alliance (1994, USA) The Elijah Interfaith Institute (1997, Jerusalem) Scriptural Reasoning (1990s)
Forms of Interfaith Dialogue The dialogue of life The dialogue of common action The dialogue of theological exchange The dialogue of religious experience ~Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue, Dialogue and Proclamation, 1991.
Models for the 21 st Century
Interfaith Atlanta
Interfaith/Interreligious Studies
We pretend that these differences are trivial because it makes us feel safer, or more moral. But pretending that the world s religions are the same does not make our world safer.
The visceral nature of today s most heated can only be understood against the backdrop of white Christians anxieties as America s racial and religious topography shifts around them.
Developmental Model of Intercultural/ Interreligious Sensitivity Image courtesy of Rev. Dr. Eric H. F. Law. Adapted by from the work of Milton J. Bennett at the IDR Institute: http://www.idrinstitute.org/page.asp?menu1=15