I was interested to run across a couple of online dialogues between people with different beliefs last week.
NT Wright (Christian) and Bart Ehrman (agnostic) just completed a ‘blogalogue’ on Beliefnet called Is Our Pain God’s Problem?
I was encouraged to see each of them being friendly and respectful. I resonate more with Bart Ehrman’s comments which isn’t surprising given my own viewpoint (almost atheist).
I wish there had been one more response from Bart Ehrman so he could have answered this final question from NT Wright: Read the rest of this entry »
05-08-2008 |
4 Comments »About a week ago I wrote to Rabbi David Rosen with questions about his dialog with RT Kendall. Rabbi Rosen is the Chairman of IJCIC, the International Jewish Committee that represents World Jewry in its relations with other world Religions. His answers are in bold.
Rabbi Rosen,
On my blog we recently discussed Christianity Today’s interview with you and RT Kendall. The interview was about the book you wrote together, The Christian and the Pharisee.
We didn’t agree with Christianity Today that the two of you “model a warm friendship”. In our opinion RT Kendall failed to show you the curiosity and respect we expect to see in a friendship or friendly dialog. Read the rest of this entry »
11-06-2007 |
23 Comments »From the recent Christianity Today article: Interview with a Pharisee and a Christian
Christian hopes for conversion can be a deal breaker in interfaith friendships.
Yet a few Christians and Jews have found a way to be friends despite this Christian hope (Romans 11:25ff). Among them are R. T. Kendall and Rabbi David Rosen. In their book, The Christian and the Pharisee (Warner Faith), they model a warm friendship as they “debate the road to heaven.” Christianity Today editor in chief David Neff interviewed them about the book and their unique relationship.
The article is an interview with R.T. Kendall and David Rosen. What do you think of how they interact with each other?
(I found out about this from the Keep Believing blog.)
10-18-2007 |
15 Comments »I guest posted the following on Jason Clark’s blog this morning.
A Roman Catholic-Evangelical Dialogue will take place in Chicagoland this Sunday evening. One of my friends, John Armstrong, organized it.
Do you see value in dialogue about theology between Christians who have significant theological differences with one another?
If so, which Christians with different beliefs from you would you most like to have a dialogue with, assuming they’re open to it?
09-13-2007 |
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John Armstrong e-mailed me yesterday about a Protestant/Catholic dialog event he’s organized for September 16. I wasn’t surprised to see that the Roman Catholic participants are from Mundelein Seminary, since they hosted Protestant Archbishop NT Wright’s lecture series I attended in the Spring.
Reading what Catholics said about their own theology was one of the things that opened my eyes to how careless Evangelical Christians can be about spreading misinformation. The picture of Catholic theology Evangelical Christians had given me didn’t line up at all well with what Catholics themselves said. I was forced to conclude that the Evangelical Christians who had ‘taught’ me about Catholic theology hadn’t researched it much at all. They had had a knee-jerk negative reaction to it and were spreading inappropriately inaccurate information about it.
It’s been years since I was actively reading about this, so I don’t remember all the details (in other words, please don’t ask me for them). I do remember enough to be glad there are Protestants like John Armstrong open to seeking common ground. I expect John will be criticized by other Protestants who think this dialog is at best a waste of time and at worst dangerous, because it could lead to Protestants making theological compromises with people whose theology is fatally flawed.
Speaking for myself, I don’t think it’s a waste of time at all, because I’ve seen how much misunderstanding there is. Steve S. mentioned in a comment yesterday how much apparent disagreement is in fact misunderstanding. In this case I agree there’s a lot of that.
09-06-2007 |
1 Comment »What would be in your “constitution of dialog” between atheists, Christians and people in-between? Share your thoughts over on our ebay atheist blog.
03-05-2007 |
Comments OffThe cover article of this week’s TIME Magazine is called ‘The Grassroots Abortion War’.
This article includes an encouraging story about how the staff of an abortion clinic and members of a nearby conservative church have formed a group that meets together regularly.
The group developed from a meeting the clinic leader, Lorrie, set up with church members, to talk with them about the behavior of one member towards clinic staff. Lorrie considered inappropriate. To her surprise the church, rather than being judgmental or defensive, began by asking her forgiveness for not dealing with it sooner. The meeting went so well they decided to have more. As Time reports:
Now they are out to show how people who disagree violently can debate civilly, even lovingly, and find some common ground. They know they won’t change one another’s core beliefs, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t changed.
02-20-2007 |
19 Comments »This is the title the newspaper editor gave my latest response to Rev. Lueking, in today’s edition:
Is dialog possible between people of faith and people of doubt?
I definitely hope the answer to the question is ‘yes’! Nevertheless, in the letter I did my best to explain what makes me hesitant to pursue dialog through a) attending church services b) attending Bible studies c) one on one.
On the other hand, I realize the irony that this letter about my problems pursuing dialog is part of a (written) dialog between a person of faith and a person of doubt.
By the way, I have news for those of you who suggested I should meet Rev. Lueking. I had been thinking that too and that’s why I decided to call him last week (for the first time). He was just as kind and friendly on the phone as he has been to me in the newspaper. It turns out that he’s interested in meeting me too, so we arranged that I’ll have coffee with him and his wife this afternoon. I’m looking forward to it!
09-13-2006 |
6 Comments »