DIALOGUE OF LIFE: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN OUR TROUBLED TIMES - Webinar Report

Dear Friends,

We live in a world where religion plays a significant role in our lives. Each religion bears the truth in varied expressions and practices. Our global context is pluri-religious and pluri-cultural confronted with acute poverty. With multifaceted religiosity and cultures, what can sanctify human beings in our war-stricken, hunger-ridden, and exploitation-laden world is JUSTICE, PEACE AND RECONCILIATION. In other words, harmonious living as genuine human beings irrespective of religious and cultural differences.

The South Asian Conference is confronted with a great paradox. While there are many adherents to organized religions, some followers see religions as a danger because of religious fanaticism, fundamentalism and terrorism associated with a perverted form of Islam in many countries, Hinduism in India, and Buddhism in Srilanka & Myanmar. 

This paradox reveals religion's capacity for the best as well as the worst. They can serve holiness or alienation. They can preach peace or war. Yet, it is always necessary to explain that it is not the religions themselves that wage war but rather their followers. Hence, the need to conjugate faith with reason. We need dialogue more than ever in these troubled times. To address some of these burning issues as well as equip ourselves with analytical tools and practical ways of conducting inter faith dialogue, we have Fr Victor Edwin SJ to help us. He is a specialist in Islam and has recently published two books of international reputation. 

The purpose of the webinar is to know practical ways of dialogue in our life situations (pastoral, educational and Social). This webinar also will help us to develop practical toolkit/handbook (this is also the wish/dream of Victor Edwin) for pastors, religious and laity to organise and carry on InterFaith Dialogues in our parishes, educational institutions and social sectors. (It could be prayer services, meetings, functions, inter-festival participation, building harmonious meetings, creating a culture of inter-religious harmony etc at the level of life than theology or coming together of experts). Let us Dialogue among ourselves and with our sisters and brothers of other faiths, honestly and free ourselves from prejudices. 

I cordially invite you and your close collaborators to this enriching webinar. See you all for a dialogue of life  today 23rd August 2021 at 6.00pm.

Please share the link with people of other faiths in your Educational, Social and other sectors of  religious engagement.

Yours in dialogue,

Arun Kumar SJ

Secretary for the Service of Faith

Topic: Dialogue of Life: Challenges and Opportunities in Our Troubled Times
Resource Person: Fr Victor Edwin SJ
Moderator: Fr Xavier Theramel SJ
Date: 23-8-2021
Time: 6.00pm -7.30pm
Day: Monday
Participants: Jesuit Pastors, People of different Faiths and Religious
Meeting ID: 879 3113 1223
Passcode: 540488

Zoom Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87931131223?pwd=bENpRjh3SDQ3TFplbmxDZDFIeGt1UT09

Webinar Report

The Secretariat for the Service of Faith [SoF] organized a webinar on Dialogue of Life: Challenges and Opportunities in Our Troubled Times on 23 August 2021 with Joseph Victor Edwin SJ as the resource person.  Fr. Arun Kumar SJ, Secretary, JSF in his opening remarks pointed out that we live live in a world where religion plays a significant role in our lives. Each religion bears the truth in varied expressions and practices. Religions instead of enabling people to live harmony and peace have often become source for conflict, violence and bloodshed.  Practitioners of diverse faiths must move from hostility for one another and open themselves for the lights from different sources.  Fr. Xavier Tharamel SJ moderated the session.

Victor Edwin noted that dialogue of life demands people to strive to live in an open and neighborly spirit, sharing their joys and sorrows, their human problems and preoccupations. He further pointed out that dialogue of life is founded on Peace, Justice, Life and Truth.   He reminded his listeners the words of Pope Paul VI [If you want peace work for justice] and Pope John Paul II [If you want peace, work for justice. If you want justice, defend life. If you want life, embrace truth …]. 

A balanced attitude, Religious conviction, and Openness to truth must mark the life of one who is engaged in dialogue.  He further affirmed that sincerity of interreligious dialogue requires that each enters into it with the integrity of his or her own faith. At the same time, we must remember that God has also manifested himself in some way to the followers of other religious traditions. We must not forget, he said that … truth is not a thing we possess, but a person by whom we must allow ourselves to be possessed. Insufficient grounding in one's own faith, Insufficient knowledge about others and polemical spirit chock and obstruct dialogue of life, he mentioned. Pope Francis is a beautiful model for us, he pointed out. Like him, we can must ‘go forth’ knowing that that the Lord has taken the initiative, that he has loved us first (cf. 1 John 4:19), and therefore we can move forward. 

ARUN KUMAR SJ

SECRETARY, SOF

THE CO-EXISTENCE OF JEWISH, CHRISTIAN AND MUSLIM COMMUNITIES IN JERUSALEM: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES- Fr David Mark Neuhaus SJ

Islamic Studies Association, Delhi and Secretariat for Service of Faith, Delhi jointly organised a webinar on The Co-existence of Jewish, Christian and Muslim Communities in Jerusalem: Challenges and opportunities by Father David Mark Neuhaus SJ. Fr. Neuhaus is an Israeli Jesuit priest. He serves as superior of the Jesuits in the Holy Land. He teaches Scripture in various institutions.

Fr. Neuhaus, drawing from his 45 years of experience of living in Jerusalem, presented the picture of Jerusalem that is standing at the cross roads of political conflicts often camouflaged in religious and cultural apparel. Any meaningful dialogue must be rooted in reality, and the context is: ‘occupation’ of Palestinian lands by Jewish settlers and discrimination practiced by Israeli authorities against Arab Muslims and Christians, he said. Though three faith communities, Jewish, Christian and Muslim, live side-by-side we cannot call it a true co-existence since no real life-giving and life-promoting contacts exist among them.

Conflict and Discrimination

The state of Israel was established in 1948.The west part of Jerusalem is in Israel since 1948. Since 1967 the Eastern part of Jerusalem was forcefully occupied by Israel. Having East Jerusalem as the capital for Palestinians remain an elusive dream at this moment.  Further, more and more of Palestinian land is forcefully and illegally occupied in order to settle Jewish communities. Israeli authorities privilege Jewish Israelis and discriminate against Palestinians. Israelis exercise control over demographics, political power, and land relentlessly by dispossessing, confining, forcefully separating and subjugating Palestinians. These deprivations are so severe in Palestinian areas that they amount to the crime against humanity of apartheid.

Dialogue born in the manger of Resistance and Resistance to Dialogue

Muslims, Christians and many Jewish people together are committed to collaborate with one another to fight this occupation and discrimination. In this collective resistance, dialogue takes birth. Many Muslims and many Christians reject any dialogue with Jews. The pressure of living under Israeli occupation and discrimination has generated tendencies in some Muslims and they oppose dialogue and take to extremism and some other Muslims project Islam as the only solution and propagate Islamic idealism and imagine a monochromatic society. The Christians who oppose dialogue with Jews and Muslims either withdrew into ghettos, since for them either the world is too scary or no light on the horizon and  settle into ‘Christian-only’ neighbourhood.  One might notice here that resistance to occupation and discrimination provides a platform for dialogue between all who promote human dignity and freedom against occupation and discrimination while another form of resistance born of the fatigue of living under occupation that leads either to different forms of terrorism or unrealistic hope of Islam providing the final solution. Does belief in dialogue and engaged coexistence  not indicate hope in God and hope in the good will of all who strive for equality and justice in a real need in places like the Holy Land?

Pseudo Dialogues: Leading nowhere

The State of Israel likes to present a narrative about itself as a democracy rooted in tolerance and secularism.  The Israeli State sponsors ‘interfaith dialogue’, where the participants are ‘guided’ to discuss commonalities in religions. Similarly some Palestinians seek out  anti-Israel voices like the ultra-orthodox groups that oppose Zionism as dialogue partners. Both these forms of dialogue lead nowhere.These dialogues are fruitless since they do not touch the vital issues but tip-toe around issues. They resist recognising the political underpinnings of the problems, by  treating this as merely a religious debate. It is like losing a key elsewhere, but search for it where there is light, instead of taking the light into the dark quarters where the key is lost.

Real Dialogue: Embers of Hope

There are efforts from committed social, political and cultural activists, who are historians, writers, film makers, lawyers and students to engage with one another for Justice and Peace. Today they are  few, but the hope is that many more may join and push towards a Critical Mass to bring about a new possibility of justice, equality, coexistence and peace.

A culture based co-existence and partnership that take seriously the fact that each group have their roots in Arab/Islamic Civilization. Christians and Jews who originate in the Arab world have contributed much to Muslim Arab civilization . Therefore, reclaiming that cultural identity is the key to see beyond the present predicament.

There is also dialogue sponsored by foreign bodies. Jerusalem needs neutral places where all parties can speak to each other in truth (which may not be possible in a local setting or space).

Fr. Neuhaus ended his lecture with a thought on the life and mission of the citizens of Jerusalem. He said: Jerusalemites need to realize the privilege of living in Jerusalem. It is a dream for those who don’t live there. They need to take the responsibility as custodians of Jerusalem city seriously. So, put aside the sectarian division and seriously take the responsibility of stewardship of Jerusalem- that all can live together in peace rather than in contempt. And thus, promote peaceful co-existence. This must be based on the recognition that each group – Jews, Christians and Muslims –are an essential part of the city and the city would not be Jerusalem without any one of them.

Reported by David Mao SJ, Vidyajyoti, Delhi

CHRISTIAN-MUSLIM DIALOGUE: GLOBAL CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES By Prof. Heru Prakosa SJ (Indonesia)

On 19th January, 2022, the Jesuit Secretariat for Service of Faith, Delhi, and the Islamic Studies Association, Delhi, organized a webinar on Christian-Muslim Dialogue: Global Challenges and Opportunities.

The webinar was presented by Prof. Heru Prakosa S.J., who is one of the six new Consultors to the Commission for Religious Relations with Muslims at the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue (PCDI). He also serves a Counsellor for Dialogue with Islam at the Secretariat for Ecumenism and Interreligious Dialogue of the Jesuits. He teaches at the Faculty of Theology at Sanatana Dharma University in Jogyakarta, Indonesia. 

Having vast experience in the field of Christian -Muslim studies, Fr. Heru provided a panoramic view of and a wider perspective on different experiences, challenges, concerns and opportunities in the present context for interreligious dialogue. He focused on the openness of the Church to other religions and pointed to the key text Nostra Aetate, which, he said, opened the door for other religions and created room for dialogue. He referred to the letter A Common Word signed by Muslim scholars to the then Pope Benedict XVI and twenty seven other Christian leaders, an important document from the Muslim side. He also reminded his listeners the looming shadows cast on humanity by war and violence in the name of religion. 

Fr. Heru highlighted three main challenges and opportunities in the context of dialogue between Christians and Muslims. First and foremost is context. Fr. Heru drew the attention of his listeners to Latin American theology to show how one could develop dialogue in Asia. Gustavo Gutierrez showed that theology should start with contextual historical processes and be oriented towards committed spiritual and pastoral actions of Christians in a particular context. In other words, Gutierrez understands and does theology as critical reflection on praxis in the light of the Word of God. In the light of Gutierrez’s reflections, we can affirm that in a theological process, one discovers the deeper aspirations and desires of people and is forced to confront their struggles and sufferings, since praxis says a great deal about people, their deepest convictions and who they are striving to become.

In the Asian context of widespread poverty, diversity of religions and multiplicity of cultures, dialogue is a new way of being the Church (Ecclesiam Suam, 1964), said Fr. Heru. In such a context, reciprocal communication, mutual friendship and respect, as well as joint efforts for the common good, all in the service of a common search for the fuller realization of the truth, must inspire us further to deepen our commitment to Christian-Muslim relations, Fr. Heru opined.

Secondly, Fr. Heru touched upon the spiritual legacy of Louis Massignon and his mentor Blessed Charles de Foucauld for Christian-Muslim relations.  Both these pioneers rediscovered their faith in the light of the religious life of Muslims. They ‘shouted the gospel from the roof-tops’, using the phrase of Foucauld, by their ‘kenosis’: lives given in service of Muslims.

Thirdly, Fr. Heru called upon his listeners to build partnerships for shared goals towards the common good. He focused on religious collaboration in academics and dialogue. This collaboration can help address issues such as poverty, injustice and terrorism.

A lively exchange of thoughts and reflections confirmed that the lecture was well received by Fr. Heru’s listeners. 

Joseph Victor Edwin SJ, Secretary of the Islamic Studies Association, moderated the session and pointed out that for sustained dialogue between Christians and Muslims, practitioners of dialogue must nurture a critical or historical understanding of religions as well as an understanding of the each religion as its believers themselves understand it.

Reported by George Victor SJ