Globalization and world religions, interlocking realities in our day, place the great faiths of the world in ever closer proximity. Incidences of violence, done in the name of religion, prompt questions about whether religion is a dangerous force to be cast aside in order to search for a more moral pathway. Can one maintain that a religion is moral if immorally wielded to vanquish another way of faith? Charles Kimball has written about the possibility that a religion may become lethal, and some critics believe that the cessation of religious conviction would be a positive step. I disagree.
This past weekend I participated in a significant interfaith dialogue with Rabbi Donniel Hartman of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem and Imam Abdullah Antepli of Duke University. Our topic was â??Peace in the Middle East,â? and from our faith traditions we explored what it might take for peace to ensue. Forgetting and forgiveness, as well as remembering and repentance, will be necessary. And the goal of absolute justice, pursued from one particular vantage point, renders justice unattainable.
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