The Faith to Be Open

I'd like to start by commenting on what a stimulating and enjoyable experience this has been for me. It's rare that one has the opportunity to engage in conversation with a group of panelists who are so thoughtful, respectful, and open-minded. I left our initial meeting feeling energized, optimistic, and full of ideas. The conversation had a lively, spontaneous quality and the shared sense of goodwill and excitement was palpable. I hope that some of these qualities can be experienced by the readers of the roundtable transcript. I would also like to thank Elliot Jurist, Henry Grayson and Amber Haque for their thoughtful and thought provoking commentaries. Since the panel was so rich and full of ideas and each of the commentaries is a meal in itself, I will keep my final remarks very brief.

First I am struck by the way in which both Elliot Jurist and Henry Grayson pick up on a theme that from my perspective seems central to the spirit of the panel, i.e., the importance of openness and the dangers of rigid adherence to religious doctrine. It seems unfortunate to me that so much harm has been and continues to done in the name of religion, and I believe that the tendency for religion to foster this type of adherence is a major source of the problem.

Amber Haque's assertion that “Islam does not allow for a wavering of ideas about God” and his emphasis on the importance of strict monotheism, seems to me to be in tension with this principle of openness. I was brought up in the Jewish tradition (a tradition I still very much identify with), and was taught that the development of monotheism was a major evolutionary advance over polytheism. In fact, I remember thinking derisively about Christianity as a regressive development that had diluted the pure monotheism of Judaism with pagan ideas assimilated from Roman culture. How could God have a son? And how could monotheists pray to the Virgin Mary and a variety of Christian saints?

But what exactly does it mean for there to be one