Christians in a religiously diverse world.

Swanson, Mark N.

Many of our readers will know that the 2009-2010 academic year was designated "Earth Year" at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, as through lecture, study, hard work in apartments and gardens, intensive conversation, and liturgy we explored what it means to be disciples of Jesus Christ in a world that is broken and breaking in historically unprecedented ways. (1) In the midst of Earth Year activities, however, another anniversary was quietly marked: 25 years since then-missionary Harold Vogelaar came to LSTC and spent a year's furlough in intensive interreligious activity. We recalled Harold's first LSTC courses in Christian-Muslim relations; the development of a partnership with Dr. Ghulam Haider Aasi of the American Islamic College; and their work, with many others, that early in 1985 resulted in the formation of a Chicago-based Commission for Improved Christian-Muslim Relations. For LSTC, and indeed for the wider Christian community in Chicago, the 1984-1985 academic year was a time when many were seriously asking what it means to be disciples of Jesus Christ in a world shared with people of other faiths.

This issue of Currents continues the celebration of this anniversary in interfaith relations with four major articles that explore biblical, ritual, theological, and historical-institutional aspects of our interfaith challenges and learning. Furthermore, this issue provides one small way of paying tribute to the Henry Luce Foundation for a generous grant that has enabled LSTC, through its Center of Christian-Muslim Engagement for Peace and Justice (CCME), to imagine, implement, and support programs in the areas of interfaith pedagogy, student projects, and community outreach in ways that would not otherwise have been possible. Recent examples of such programs include an interfaith conference on the environment in March 2010 entitled "Shared Earth" (where Ellen Bernstein's essay, published in these pages, was first presented); and an LSTC Faculty Conference in May 2010 (where Harold Vogelaar presented the paper that likewise is published here). Indeed, the publication of this issue of Currents is supported from the Luce Grant. As the period of that grant now runs to its close, all of us at LSTC express our gratitude to the Henry Luce Foundation for its generous help in exploring what we mean when we at LSTC claim "interfaith" as one of the six "marks of the seminary" (alongside its urban, ecumenical, university-related, multicultural, and global "marks").

At the time that this editorial is being written (September 2010), Islamophobia as well as a variety of other phobias regarding "outsiders" appear to be on the rise in the United States. Many of us suspect that this is in large part due to calculation in the worlds of politics and the media: fear has a remarkable power to motivate potential voters, and the generalized anger that fear can arouse (but that we seem to enjoy so much) is extremely effective in attracting viewers and listeners. In the midst of all this, Christians seek guidance in Scripture--which has some helpful things to say about fear and anger! (2) Furthermore, as Fredrick C. Holmgren points out, in Scripture we find stories where we experience "a reversal of expectations" with regard to the roles of those inside and outside the immediate community of faith. Indeed, "outsiders" in the Bible regularly bring blessing and gifts, speak (true) words of judgment, serve as exemplars of mercy and of faith, and carry out the mysterious work of God. Think of Melchizedek, the Magi, the Samaritans of the Gospels, the Canaanite woman ... and, as Holmgren points out, King Abimelech in Genesis 20. Here is a strange story, one that does not portray "father" Abraham in a particularly favorable light (and that does not make it into children's Bibles!); Origen of Alexandria insisted that Christians could only understand the story by means of allegory! (3) But Holmgren, who is Professor Emeritus of Biblical Literature at North Park University, holds firmly to a literal interpretation of the text, and draws lessons from it for our present-day interfaith encounters.

Part of the beauty of the "Shared Earth" conference last March was the fact that our four keynote speakers, representing four different religious traditions, each said profound things that only someone from that tradition could say, but that all could understand and from which all could profit. Philip Clayton (In-graham professor at Claremont School of Theology) spoke truth to the assembly with a gospel-undergirded directness and fearlessness. (4) Saleem H. Ali (associate professor of environmental studies at the Rubenstein School of Natural Resources, University of Vermont) brought the deeply qur'anic notion of balance to the discussion, and reminded well-to-do environmental activists not to forget or trample on the aspirations of the poor. (5) Sensei Sevan Ross (director of the Chicago Zen Center, now serving in Rochester, New York) invited the assembly into a time of attuning our hearts, without which all our activity could be mere busy-ness. (6) As for the beautiful reflection titled "Celebrating God, Celebrating Earth: Psalms, Sabbath, and Holy Days" by Ellen Bernstein (independent scholar and founder of the Jewish environmental organization Shomrei Adamah, Keepers of the Earth), (7) it is printed here. She has changed the way I pray the psalms about which she speaks, as well as the way I understand Sabbath.

Why should the encounter with the world's religions be taken seriously at a seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, where our primary calling is to prepare leaders for Christian communities? One can approach this question in a variety of ways, but one possible response (for which experiences such as "Shared Earth" provide examples) is this: the encounter can be theologically creative. Christian theology is generated and enhanced by the encounter, and those who aspire to be Christian theologians are honed in their skills (and not infrequently shaken out of lethargy). In the Christian-Muslim dialogue, for example, our goal at LSTC is not to restrict our conversation to those things that we can say in common (as extensive and interesting as those things might be), but rather to hear the challenges that each faith poses to the other, and to go down deep into the resources of each faith in order to address those challenges and continue the conversation.

Much of my own work for publication has focused on the works of Middle Eastern Christians who wrote in Arabic, and who therefore were directly faced with the task of responding to Islamic challenges to Christian teachings--and that in a language that itself was not religiously neutral, but rather the language of the qur'anic revelation. In this issue of Currents we include a paper, an earlier draft of which I (Mark Swanson) read at a conference on "Christian Theology and Islam: Towards a Faithful Response" (Loyola College, Baltimore, June 2008), sponsored by the Center for Catholic and Evangelical Theology. In this paper we meet some creative Middle Eastern theologians of the ninth century who developed a rather odd set of arguments for Christianity's truth. I attempt to show that while their arguments may have failed as "systematic theology," these writers were able to pass on from their own experience of interfaith encounter one of the greatest gifts that Christian theologians receive from that encounter: that familiar teachings and practices, often taken for granted, again become strange.

Last May, shortly after classes had finished for the year, the LSTC faculty gathered with special guests, partly to mark the anniversary of 25 years of Christian-Muslim studies at LSTC, but, more than that, to learn more about the visions, motivations, relationships, and decisions that have resulted in a school where "interfaith" can be embraced as one of its marks. Harold Vogelaar (with additions and comments by Mark Thomsen and Ghulam Haider Aasi) (8) presented the personal and historical reflection printed below. It reminds us of the deep roots of our programs in the missionary endeavors of the church, in attempts to bear Christian witness in places shared with Muslims--in Palestine, for example, or Egypt, or Nigeria. While our senior LSTC colleagues have learned much over the past half century, they have long been aware of the need in Christian-Muslim encounter "to be present, to learn, to listen, and to engage in deep conversation on a variety of levels and in several disciplines." (9) Christians (like Vogelaar, Thomsen, and others) brought such awareness from various parts of the world to the United States, where they met Muslims (like Aasi and others) who held similar commitments. Working together, they have accomplished some marvelous things.

Finally, we include in this issue of Currents the sermon preached by Pastor Susan Ericsson at LSTC's 150th Commencement on May 16th. Pastor Ericsson, preaching on the story of Paul and Silas in Philippi (Acts 16), powerfully exhorted our graduates to "go out among God's people," not to go alone, and to go with the promise that "God gives songs in the night." I was moved by the sermon on the day of Commencement, and I am so moved again as I read this sermon (with its focus on Christian congregational ministry) and reflect on it in the context of our interfaith work. This work also requires that we get away from our computers and "go out among God's people" (and "drink tea," Harold Vogelaar might add). It requires that we build networks of friends and partners. And the sheer joy of it is this: as we meet with friends from other faith traditions, we do not simply sing rudimentary scales together; we listen to one another's richest songs.

(1.) Our observance of Earth Year was in part a way to honor our beloved colleague David Rhoads as he prepared to retire from full-time teaching. See Currents in Theology and Mission 37:2 (April 2010), entitled "Faith and Earthkeeping: A Tribute to the Environmental Ministry of David Rhoads."

(2.) E.g., 1 John 4:18; Eph 4:26.

(3.) Origen, Homilies on Genesis and Exodus, trans. Ronald E. Heine, The Fathers of the Church: A New Translation (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 1982), 121-123. Origen's solution is that, in this story, Sarah represents arete, "virtue." Naturally, Abraham as a righteous man would not want to keep virtue to himself!

(4.) His presentation was titled "This Sacred Earth: Why Interreligious Partnerships are Indispensible in Addressing the Global Environmental Crisis."

(5.) His presentation was titled "Need, Greed and a Sustainable Future." This is also the subtitle of his recent book Treasures of the Earth (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009).

(6.) His presentation was titled "An Intimate Truth: Selling Water by the River."

(7.) See her book The Splendor of Creation: A Biblical Ecology (Cleveland: The Pilgrim Press, 2005), and www.ellenbernstein.org.

(8.) Vogelaar retired as Professor of World Religions at LSTC in 2006. See the Festschrift for him (to which Thomsen and Aasi contributed): "Harold Vogelaar: Interfaith Pioneer," Currents in Theology and Mission 33:3 (June 2006).

(9.) So Bruce Schein. See Vogelaar's paper below.

Mark N. Swanson, Harold S. Vogelaar Professor of Christian-Muslim Studies and Interfaith Relations, LSTC

Editor for the October 2010 issue