The GLILA Book Group has been meeting for almost two years and has read a number of books.
ISLAM:
…Islam does share much with its predecessors. Jews, Christians and Muslims are all the “people of the Book”, who believe in one God Who Speaks to His people through prophets.
Jihad: Muslims have traditionally understood it to point to two kinds of struggle. The spiritual struggle against pride and self-sufficiency; and the physical struggle against the “house of war”, namely the enemies of Islam.
Quran condemns suicide unequivocal –”Do not Kill yourselves” (4:29) and promises hell for those who do so.
Like Jews, Muslims reject the Christian and Hindu notion that God can incarnate in a human body. Muslims also join Jews in rejecting visual images of God on the ground that such images, which cannot possibly capture the reality of divine, tempt us toward idolatry.
Allah is called Forgiving, Generous, Loving, Powerful, Eternal, Knowing, Wrathful and Just.
After Prophet Mohammed’s death, a majority backed Mohammed’s father-in-law Abu Bakr as his successor. But a minority insisting that Islam’s next leader share Mohammed’s bloodline, backed the Prophet’s son-in-law Ali. Those who supported Ali came to be called “Shia” and those who supported Abu Bakr came to be called “Sunni”.
One of the distinguishing mark of Islam is its unequivocal rejection of the Christian traditions of celibacy, asceticism and monasticism.
Sufis seek to keep God forever in their hearts, either by chanting His beautiful names or by sitting with His names in silence.
Sufis emphasize the ways in which human beings resemble God, who is near to them as the Quran puts it “as the jugular vein”.
CHRISTIANITY:
…This strategy of accommodating local cultures is one of the keys to Christianity’s global success, and one of the sources of its dizzying diversity.
Christians are monotheists, but theirs is a soft monotheism compared to the hard monotheism of Jews and Muslims.
For all Christians, Jesus represents the Power of God in the world. His role as a teacher whose words and actions instruct us to care for the poor, liberate the oppressed and build the kingdom of God.
New Testament (Mathews, Mark, Luke and John), which along with the Old Testament….make up the Christian Bible.
The Seven Deadly Sins: pride, envy, anger, sloth, gluttony, lust and greed.
…Christians celebrate as Good Friday, a sinless Jesus took our sins onto Himself. Three days later, on what Christians celebrate as Easter, He demonstrated God’s power over sin by rising from the dead.
Christianity is the world’s most popular and widely scattered religion; 2.2 billion people, or a third of the world population, call themselves Christians.
New Testament has been translated into over three thousand languages.
There are roughly 247 million Christians in the United States, followed by Brazil (170 million), Russia (115 million), China (101 million) and Mexico (99 million).
Perotestants get to God without intermediaries and read the Bible with God’s guidance alone rather than through a net of papal authority and church traditions.
Half of today’s Christians are Catholics.
Mormons often claim, for example, that God has a body, and that humans can become gods.
Mormons also recognize three additional biblical books as scripture: the Book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price and Doctrine of Covenants.
Today, over a quarter of the world’s Christians (roughly 600 million souls) are Pentecostals or Charisma tics.
Progressive Pentecostals worldwide are working to fight drug abuse, provide shelter for the homeless, feed the hungry, staff day care centers, counsel drug addicts, fight the AIDS epidemic and provide micro-financing for entrepreneurs.
Christians in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, skyrocketed from 1 percent to 45 percent, while growth in South Korea was almost as dramatic, from less than 1 percent to 41 percent. Over the same period,Christian population in Asia jumped more than ten fold from 27 million to 278 million.
CONFUCIANISM:
I believe that Confucianism is not a religion, but a philosophy. In any case there are some noteworthy arguments in the book.
It has wielded more power over more people over time than any scripture. Before Socrates, Confucius told us that the real knowledge is knowing the extent of your ignorance. Before Jesus, he gave us his own version of the Golden Rule: “Do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire”.
Of these five Classics the most celebrated in both China and the West today is:
Yjiing (I Ching) doubles as book of wisdom about chance and circumstances that reveal ancient secrets about how things are born and die and change through the endless interaction of “yin” (feminine, shady, cold, hidden passive, soft, yielding & earth) and “yang” (masculine, bright, hot, evident, aggressive, hard controlling, Heaven).
According to Confucius, “we should not wait for some coming utopia. Our focus should be on actions in this world and particularly ob social relations—the rites, etiquette, and ethical actions that make social harmony possible.
Confucianism cares little about theology. The Confucians traditionally speak of God about as comfortably as do French politicians.
Confucians do affirm, however, that our human nature comes from Heaven, that the good life is a life lived in accordance with this nature, and that a good state carries out the Mandate Heaven.
Unlike religious traditions that focus on the relationship between the individual and the divine, Confucianism focused on relationship among individuals–on morality, yes, but also on etiquette, ritual and propriety.We are neither born nor raised in isolation, Confucians observed, and only through interactions with other human beings do we become fully human.
Job one in Confucianism is not learning trade but learning to be human.
Confucians typically breakdown these roles in to Five Relationships: ruler/subject; parent/child; husband/wife; elder brother/younger brother and friend/friend.
Just as important as the Five Relationships are the Five Viirtues: human heartedness; justice; propriety;; wisdom and faithfulness.
Confucius provides a model therefore, not of a fully realized human being but of someone ever striving to become more human hearted–a model we can emulate instead of simply revere.
HINDUISM:
Hindus do have a shared scripture (The Vedas), a shared sacred symbol (Om) and a shared sacred center (Varanasi in North India).
Hindus worship many gods through many different paths (margas), disciplines (yogas) and philosophies (darshanas), some Hindus say that there really is just one God underlying these many manifestations.
The most ancient layer in Hindusim’s geology is Indus Valley civilization, a proto-Hindu culture that provides the barest glimpses of Hinduism as it is practiced today.
Second layer is Vedic religion, a karma yoga path that takes its name from ancient ritual manuals called Vedas.
Next comes philosophical Hinduism, the jnana Yoga path of wandering renouncers and their sriptures, the Upnishads.
The fourth layer is devotional Hinduism, the bhakti oga of the Hindu epics, a story-driven path tailor made not for priests or holy men, but for ordinary men and women.
Like the term Torah in Judaisim, which refers in a narrow sense to the five books of Moses (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy and Numbers), the Vedas refer to a collection of four books (the Rig Veda, Sama Veda, Yahur Veda and Arharva Veda) and the Upanishads (secret Doctrines). The simplest way to make sense of these four classes of revelations (all written in Sanskrit) is to think of the Vedas as technical manuals instructing priests in the proper performance of rituals (including the hymns to sing and mantras to chant) and Upanishads as philosophical dialaogues.
In the polytheistic world of the Vedas, we find gods associated with the earth, sun, sky, water, wind, storm and other forces of nature. Agni is the god of fire and Indra is the god of ware and weather.
What is known is that Dravidian speaking Indus Valley civilization gave way to Aryan civilization around 1500 B.C.E., with Sanskrit language and Vedic religion.
Traditional theory is that Aryans (Noble Ones) came across modern day Afghanistan and conquered northern India by force. Other Aryan then moved in to Iran and others in to Europe, taking their language with them. This theory explains the linguistic parallels between Sanskrit, Persian and many ancient and modern European languages.
The Upanishad introduced the concepts of karma and reincarnation.
Although the Hindu trinity is often said to consist of Brahma (the creator), Vishnu (the sustainer), and Shiva (the destroyer), Brahma is now a marginal deity, invoked for more than is worshipped.
Vishnu is well known for his ten avatars, or incarnations—as fish, tortoise, boar, half-lion/half man, dwarf and then some.
Krishna is a hero of the Mahabharata and Rama is the hero of Ramayana.
Diwali is the festival of lights and Holi, a spring festival of reversal when people of alleges and stations in life douse one another with water and colored powder
BUDDHISM;
Buddhism begins with a fairy tale. It begins with a prince in a palace with a dim and distant sense that something has gone awry. The prince’s name is Siddharta Gautama. During his jaunts outside the palace, he sees a sick person, an old person and a dead person.Then he meets a “wandering holy man”. He enquires about him and finds out that he is what they call “sanyasi”, a wandering ascetic who has left behind spouse and family and job and home in search of spiritual liberation.
So, at the age of twenty-nine, he vows to “go forth from home to home-lessness. He says goodbye to his father and wife and son, walks out of his palace one last time, rides to the border of what would have been his vast inheritance, shaves his head, takes of his fine clothes, and puts on the life of a wandering holy man.
At the age of thirty-five, after six years as a renunciation, he sat cross-legged under a tree in Bodhgaya in North India and vowed not to get up until he had stolen the secret of our everlasting wandering from rebirth to rebirth.
After forty-nine days, awakening came upon him.He saw how we suffer because we wish the world were otherwise. And through these insights he saw his suffering itself wander away.
From that point forward, he was the BUDDHA, the awakened one.
One of the most famous stories of the Buddha’s life concerns a man who keeps peppering him with all manners of metaphysical puzzles. Is the world eternal? Are body and soul one and the same? The Buddha responds to these questions with a question of his own. If you were shot with a poisoned arrow, would you waste time and breath by asking who shot the arrow, how tall he was, and of what complexion? Wouldn’t you just pull the arrow out? Buddhism, he says, is about removing the arrow of suffering. Speculation only plugs more pain and poison into skin.
His reputed last words were, “Be lamps unto yourselves; work out your own liberation with diligence”.
Today, roughly 445 million people, or 7 percent of the world’s population, are Buddhists.
Of all the styles of Buddhist meditation, the simplest is following your breath.
Another popular Buddhist practice is “vipassana” which is variously translated as “insight” and “mindfulness” meditation. Here, instead of your breath, you follow your feelings or thoughts or sensations.
Metta is another form of Buddhist meditation. Metta is often translated as “loving kindness”, but it also means unconditional love–love without attachment or expectation of return.
Like Christianity and Islam, Buddhism is a missionary religion. And converting is easy. All you have to do is to recite the Three Refuges:
I take refuge in the Buddha
I take refuge in Dharma
I take refuge in Sangha
Buddha is just a human being.
Buddhist teachings begin with Four Noble Truths:
The first Noble Truth observes that human existence is characterized by “dukha” or suffering.
The second Noble Truth is more hopeful: suffering has an origin (key links are ignorance, thirst and grasping).
The third Noble truth observes that since suffering has a cause, it can be eliminated.
The fourth Noble Truth observes that there is a path to the goal of nirvana.
YORUBA RELIGION
I am at a loss to understand, if Yoruba in fact is a religion or just a cult. I did not get anything from this chapter, hence I will not comment.
JUDAISM:
Judaism begins and ends with a story. If Christianity is to a great extent about doctrine and Islam about ritual, Judaism is about narrative.
The Hebrew Bible starts with God’s creation of the world in seven days—six days of labor and one day of rest.
God calls Abraham and his descendants to be His people and promises them special land. To get there, however, they will have to wander, as will Moses, who after leading Isrealites out of slavery in Egypt will spend forty years in the wilderness hard by the Promised Land.
Torah refers in the first instance to the five books of Moses, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Torah also refers to Hebrew Bible, which Jews refer to as Old Testament.
There are about 14 million Jews worldwide. Jewish population in Israel is about 4.9 million. More Jews–roughly 5.2 million–live in United States.
What makes you a Jew is being born a Jew. What keeps you active is participating in the life of the Jewish Community–showing up a Synagogue, atoning for your sins on Yom Kippur, and honoring your parents by saying Kaddish prayer for them when they die.
Yes, they were a people chosen by God, and that meant He would Bless them if they walked in the Path He had set before them. But it also means that He would punish them if they deviated from the path.
The first three humans beings are punished by Exile–Adam and Eve for eating the forbidden fruit and Cain for killing his brother.
Several temples were built and destroyed by Romans.
Though Orthodox Jews pray three times a day for its restoration, the land on which it once stood now houses the Dome of the Rock, the world’s oldest Muslim Building.
The book of Leviticus sets down the Torah in excruciating detail, with legislation regarding sacrifice and bodily discharges and male circumcision and atonement and idolatry and tattoos, and prostitution and the Sabbath and food ways and male homosexuality.
When asked to provide the first century equivalent of a Twitter message on Judaism, Hillel replied: Do not unto others which you would not have them do unto you. That is the entire Torah; the rest is commentary.
Jews consume only fish with scales and fins (so no ells or catfish). They will not eat pork or birds of prey. Because meat and dairy cannot be mixed, many Jews have two separate sets of plates and flatware.
Jewish law forbids carrying objects outside of the home on the Sabbath.
Typical Jewish Holidays:
Hanukkah. It commemorates re-taking of Jerusalem in the second century B.C.E. by Jewish rebels known as Maccabees.
Pesach(Passover) for the exodus from Egypt.
Shavout (Pentecost) for giving of Torah to the Israelites on Mount Sinai.
Sukkot (Tabernacles) for the flight from Egypt in to the wilderness.
There are special foods for these festivals, apples anfd honey for Rosh Hashanah, stuffed vegetables on Sukkot; Jelly donuts on Hannokah and matzo-ball soup on Passover.
The only form of Judaism recognized by the State of Israel is Orthodoxy.
In the United States, there are three main Jewish movements, Reform, Conservative and Orthodox.
A joke that pokes fun at Reconstructionist Judaism:
At an Orthodox wedding, the bride’s mother is pregnant, at a Conservative wedding, the rabbi is pregnant, at a Reform wedding, the bride is pregnant and at a Re constructionist wedding, both brides are pregnant.
DAOISM:
I skipped the chapter.
ATHEISM:
I glanced through the chapter and di not find it credible or interesting.
CONCLUSIONS BY AUTHOR:
Eboo Patel (a Muslim) says, “Religion is a force in the world, whether it divides or unites, is up to us.”
Allah tells them to blow themselves up or to give to the poor, so they do. Jesus tells them to bomb an abortion clinic or build a Habitat for Humanity house, so they do. Because God said so, Jews, Christians and Muslims believe that this land is their land, so they fight for it in the name of G_D or Jesus or Allah. Call this good news or bad news, but by any name it is the way things are.So, if we want to live in the real world rather than down a rabbit hole of our own imagining, then we need to reckon with it.
To reckon with the world as it is, we need religious literacy. We need to know something about the basic beliefs and practices of the world’s religions.
There is the famous folk tale about blind men examining an elephant. One feels his trunk and declares it to be a snake .Another feels its tail and declares it is rope. Others determine that the elephant is a wall, spear or fan. Each insists that he is right.
Among true believers of the perennial philosophy sort, this story is gospel. In their eyes, the elephant is God and the blind men are Christians, Muslims and Jews who mistake their particular (and partial) perspective on divinity for the reality of divinity itsel. God is beyond human imagining, we are forever groping around for God in the dark. It is foolish to say that your religion alone is true and all other teligions are false. No one has the whole truth, but each is touching the elephant.
So concludes the Hindu teacher (and inspiration for many perennials) Rama Krishna, “One can realize God through all religions”.
AMEN
The Tent of Abraham, Stories of Hope and Peace for Jews, Christians and Muslims, Rabbi Arthur Waskow and others
I was frankly disappointed in this book. I have been a fan of Waskow since college and his book Godwrestling and then Seasons of Joy. I read this book as part of the Greater Lowell Interfaith Leadership Alliance book group. It was the follow on to Faith Club which was an excellent example of how dialogue works. However, we had felt it was limited by the participants own lack of knowledge of their traditions. Here was a book trying to accomplish the same thing, written by professionals. What we discovered is that rather than engaging in a conversation, necessary to dialogue, they each wrote their own sections with their own agendas. Waskow wanted to encourage American Jews to own the idea that Israel has made mistakes in its 60+ year history. The nun wanted to tell the stories through the eyes of a woman and without regard for the hierarchy of the Catholic Church. The Muslim seemed to be doing Islamic apologetics, not all Muslims are like the 911 terrorists and it is not part of Islam. They seemed to be talking at each other and it was frequently repetitive. Nonetheless, I learned a great deal–and it did spark the conversation. My question becomes, where do we go from here?
The Faith Club, A Muslim, A Christian and A Jew, Three Women Search for Meaning,
Ranya Idliby
These three New York women were struggling to make sense of their world after 911. They realized that they didn’t know very much about other faith traditions and that misinterpretations of faith was part of what caused the tragedy and its aftermath. They met together to explore important and difficult topics–prayer, faith, the role of Jesus, the place of women, what happens after someone dies and more. It wasn’t always easy. In the process they learned about their own traditions and how to have a conversation with other people in a respectful manner. More importantly they became friends. I reread the Faith Club as part of my interfaith book discussion group. We felt it was an excellent book and helps to show what can happen with dialogue. It was limited by their own lack of knowledge of their own traditions, but these women were not afraid to ask questions, not afraid to wrestle with difficult topics, not afraid to put their own hearts and beliefs out there. The book should give us all hope that peace and understanding can be achieved.
The Last Barrier
My husband’s favorite book that I just reread for our interfaith book discussion group. I liked it much better now. It shows just how similar all the religious traditions are. His emphasis on breath, on meditation, on trust, faith and obedience and finally on love and colors fits within mystical traditions of Judaism and Buddhism as well. The perplexing part remains the fear that his spiritual director seems to inculcate. That is not how I do spiritual advising as a rabbi, nor how my friends who have been trained to do spiritual direction either as Christians or Jews do it.
The Lemon Tree
A very touching true story written from the perspective of a Bulgarian Jewish family that moved into a Palestinian Arab house in 1948. Traces the history of both sides in a manageable way and makes it clear why this is so complicated and so entrenched. Well worth the read even if not completely optimistic. Points to why I want to be a rabbi–to be a peace maker–even if it is dangerous, even if it isn’t always or even ever effective.
Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide:
Nichlos Kristof
I read this book for my interfaith leadership book discussion group. While gory and disturbing (gang-rapes and genital mutilations are), the book is ultimately uplighting and empowering. Similar in some respects to Three Cups of Tea or Leaving Microsoft to Change the World, this makes the case that through much of the developing world, if we can find a way to educate women and girls, we can eradicate many societal ills, including maternal health issues, infant mortality, poverty, sex trafficking, and rape as a tool of war. For each chapter, there are practical steps that people living in the developed world can take, some very easy, some more involved. Each chapter also spotlights people working that have made an actual difference and women whose lives have been dramatically impacted by that work. I urge all my friends to read it. But don’t stop there. At a bare minimum take the four steps in ten minutes that are recommended. And then stay involved. Together we can make a difference.
The Year of Living Biblically
We read this is part of our interfaith dialogue book group. It got very mixed reviews. Most felt that he trivialized the Bible. It wasn’t clear what growth if any he experienced. He seemed very naive and brave at the same time. Some said stupid and brazen. But it was intriguing and I read the whole thing wanting to know how he resolved some of it. Much prefer Bruce Feiler’s books.
The Shack
A very poignant book about how a person recovers from grief and trauma within a Christian context as a novel. Reading this as part of a book group and I think it is designed to make us all think about our image of the Divine and the role it plays in our life. Well worth the quick read but you will be thinking about it long after you finish it.
Our first book was
Three Cups of Tea.
I wrote a very short review:
Powerful book about one person’s quest to change the world and create peace, one school at a time. Better than any state department or defense department response.