Tag: Death
Careful Forgiveness: Atoning with Life in the New Year
“Let us forget with generosity those who cannot love us.” Pablo Neruda Yom Kippur is the Jewish day of atonement between humanity and the divine. Jewish tradition dictates that atonement between h... Read More
Holy Grief
My friend died last week, from suicide. It was a surprise and a shock. I have spent the last few days in a haze, moving slowly and deliberately. Getting things done as has been possible, but not well... Read More
When a rabbinical student says Kaddish for his non-Jewish parents…
Having grown up in the Catholic faith, death, dying, and mourning were always such surreal experiences. Although one begs to ask, what isn’t surreal about the entire process for anyone? It always fe... Read More
What’s “Religious” About Interreligious Dialogue?
Anyone who has embarked upon the study of religion immediately runs into a debate of the meaning of the very word religion. Definitions abound and debates rage about whether a general definition of re... Read More
Methodological Challenges to Measuring Transformation
When I set out on my dissertation research, my main question was whether and how interfaith dialogue functions to transform people. I had a hypothesis that people do interfaith dialogue because when d... Read More
How Do We Tolerate the Intolerant?
What do tolerant people do with the intolerant? We tolerate them. We ignore them. We insult them. We try to change them: By explaining. By demonstrating. By oppressin... Read More
“I see the smiling faces, I know I must have left some traces”: A Reflection On Death, God, And Friends
Death is a topic that a lot of us avoid like the plague. It’s not something people are willing to talk about or engage with on a theoretical level, let alone directly when someone you know dies.... Read More
Can the Cross Be an ‘Inclusive’ Symbol of Violence?
In a recent post on his facebook page, Rev. Cornel West of Union Theological Seminary invited all people of conscience to join in a National Day of Mass Direct Action against racist state violence. Th... Read More