Vision Statement for a Comprehensive

Program in the Study of Religion and Inter-Religious Relations

at the Theological Consortium of Greater Columbus

 

by Dr. Paul D. Numrich

March 2006

 

Overview

 

This proposed Program in the Study of Religion and Inter-Religious Relations has two broad purposes: (1) to educate multiple audiences about the role of religion in the contemporary world, and (2) to enhance religion’s positive contributions to society and human welfare.  The program will be instituted in two phases: Phase I will establish an endowed Chair in the Study of Religion and Inter-Religious Relations, Phase II will establish an endowed Center for the Study of Religion and Inter-Religious Relations.  The program will be housed at the Theological Consortium of Greater Columbus, an ecumenical venture of three Christian seminaries in central Ohio: the Methodist Theological School in Ohio (United Methodist Church), the Pontifical College Josephinum (Roman Catholic Church), and Trinity Lutheran Seminary (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America).  Bexley Hall Seminary (Episcopal Church in the USA) is an associate member of the Consortium.

 

The Need for a Reasoned Voice on All Things Religious

 

“Religious conviction motivates and inspires human behavior like few other forces.”  This truism, taken from the 2005 Annual Report of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, may be more evident today than at any time in history.  Religion plays an unprecedented role in contemporary global affairs, sometimes for good, sometimes for ill, but always significantly.  In the United States, religious discourse permeates both private and public realms, often with ambivalent tones and mixed messages.  Moreover, American religious diversity is at an all time high, as sociologist R. Stephen Warner describes in the book, Gatherings in Diaspora: “Millions of adherents of other religions—Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and more—have joined Jews to expand the boundaries of American religious pluralism to an extent unimaginable only forty years ago.”  For some this is cause for celebration, for others concern.

 

What is true globally and nationally is found locally as well.  Religious discourse and diversity are not “out there” somewhere, but here also in metropolitan Columbus, the nation’s 15th-largest urban area.  Historically diverse in its Christian and Jewish populations, greater Columbus now includes significant representation of a host of other traditions.  And religious dialogue, debate, and controversy are alive and well here in the heartland.

 

“What about the future?” asks Dr. Donald L. Huber, academic dean of Trinity Lutheran Seminary in his Introduction to the book, Religion in Ohio: Profiles of Faith Communities.  “Clearly, if present trends continue, Ohio will become more religiously diverse in the coming decades. . . .  Within our treasured, albeit imperfect, American tradition of religious freedom, we can hope that mutual understanding and appreciation between and among all religions will continue to grow, even as people of faith honestly and forthrightly express their deepest convictions about the meaning of life.”

 

Recognizing the need to educate seminarians about these trends, the Theological Consortium of Greater Columbus established a joint faculty position in World Religions and Inter-Religious Dialogue, funded by the Teagle Foundation for 2004-07.  “The present situation calls for a new and deepened level of understanding between peoples of a variety of backgrounds,” stated Dr. John Kampen, academic dean of the Methodist Theological School in Ohio, in an article in the local ThisWeek newspapers, “and religious identity is one of those very important formative characteristics of people’s identities that we feel a particular responsibility for educating people about.  There’s a very pressing need internationally and in our own communities to get past the surface impressions of other religions and to understand even more fundamentally the role of religion in people’s lives.”

 

The Theological Consortium’s initiative has succeeded in expanding its curriculum and preparing informed religious leadership for a complex and rapidly changing world.  Courses cover a variety of religious topics, from world religions, to American religious history, to comparative religious studies, to theological perspectives on world religions.  We expect our seminarians—and all Christian leaders—to adopt reasoned positions informed by solid scholarship and profound faith commitment.

 

In addition, a remarkably wide range of community groups, such as high school social studies classes, college programs, local business leaders, National Guard chaplains, clergy associations, and congregations, have requested presentations on all things religious.  Topics have included major world religions (Islam and Buddhism are favorite requests), fundamentalism, religiously competent health care, Christian perspectives on other religions, and the implications of growing religious diversity in America society.

 

The time was right in central Ohio for a reasoned voice on all things religious, a voice that avoids extremist rhetoric and uncritical thinking, a voice that calls for best practices in faith, understanding, and citizenship.  Many now look to us for such a voice.  With our three-year grant ending soon, our challenge will be to continue and to expand our work with a permanent Program in the Study of Religion and Inter-Religious Relations.

 

 

Text Box: Maybe we expect so much of religion because it claims to represent the highest, the purest, the holy. When religious power is harnessed for good, we are inspired. When it begets evil, we feel betrayed in the deepest sense. When religions don’t get along, we realize that not getting along is unavoidably human. But when religions do get along, we find hope in our human predicament. (Dr. Paul Numrich, “In this quarrelsome world, faiths often do cooperate,” Op Ed piece in Faith and Values section, Columbus Dispatch, February 25, 2005)

A Comprehensive Program in the Study of Religion and Inter-Religious Relations

 

A comprehensive Program will both prepare Christian leaders for a rapidly changing religious world and offer “a reasoned voice on all things religious” in current public discourse.  The Program will serve two broad purposes.  First, we will educate multiple audiences about the role of religion in the contemporary world—how religion motivates individual and group behaviors of various kinds, such as interfaith initiatives, missions, and religiously motivated conflict as well as reconciliation, and how religious dynamics impact civil society, domestic politics, international affairs, and other spheres of human activity.  Second, we will seek to enhance religion’s positive contributions to society and human welfare, while respecting deeply held convictions of religious people, organizations, and movements.  Program activities will include the following:

 

  • Expand the curriculum at the member seminaries of the Theological Consortium of Greater Columbus

 

  • Provide academic resources for local colleges and universities

 

  • Offer presentations and workshops for community groups, schools, religious organizations, corporations, and health care providers

 

  • Organize conferences, lectureships, symposia, and other public events

 

  • Participate in national and international activities, such as scholarly conferences and consultations

 

  • Conduct research on religion and inter-religious relations, including collaboration with other centers, institutes, organizations, and scholars, thus enhancing the intellectual life of the Theological Consortium and the greater Columbus area

 

  • Disseminate information and analysis via the media and publications, such as a Webpage, Op Ed essays and other contributions to newspapers and popular periodicals, radio and television coverage, postings in other organizations’ newsletters, scholarly journal articles, contributions to edited volumes, and monographs

 

Phase I of the proposed Program will build on the current Teagle grant initiative by establishing an endowed Chair in the Study of Religion and Inter-Religious Relations.  This will lay the groundwork for Phase II, an endowed Center for the Study of Religion and Inter-Religious Relations which will provide a platform for greater scope and influence.  We envision this Center as a respected contributor to public discourse about religion.  The Center’s work will interest all those seeking to understand the significance of the “religion factor” today. 

 

In working with Christian leaders and groups, we will foster an understanding of the religions of the world and explore the variety of Christian perspectives on them.  Today’s Christian leaders must be both sophisticated in their own understandings and sensitive to the variety of perspectives around them, a variety represented in seminaries, congregations, and local communities.  This educational effort will hold to the following principles:

 

  • The need for a multidisciplinary understanding of the world’s religions; drawing upon insights from theological studies, the history of religions, comparative religious studies, and the social and behavioral sciences, we will provide a comprehensive understanding of the human phenomenon of “religion” as well as the historical and contemporary religions of the world

 

  • The value of open inquiry about the variety of Christian perspectives on the world’s religions, rather than indoctrination of a single perspective

 

  • The importance of seminarians and other Christians developing their own perspectives on the world’s religions while preparing for faithful participation in inter-religious encounters and informed leadership among fellow Christians

 

  • The recognition that ecumenical dialogue about shared Christian values is an important—but often neglected—preliminary to faithful participation in inter-religious encounters

 

  • The hope of making an enduring impact on the religious climate and institutions of the greater Columbus area by fostering inter-religious understanding and good will

 

Proposed Program Director

 

Rev. Dr. Paul D. Numrich was trained in both theological studies and the academic study of religion, with degrees from Aurora College (BA 1979, concentrations in Bible, church history, and theology), Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary (MDiv 1984, concentrations in Bible, theology, and pastoral studies), and Northwestern University (PhD 1992, concentration in the comparative study of world religions, especially Buddhism and Christianity).  He spent the better part of two decades teaching in the Chicago area, and the past several years directing research on the civic and theological implications of America’s increasing religious diversity, including the Religion, Immigration and Civil Society in Chicago Project (funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts, www.newimmigrants.org), The Church Next Door: Christian Congregations Face America’s New Religious Diversity (funded by the Louisville Institute, www.louisville-institute.org), and Religion Matters in Immigrant Health Care (funded by the Donors Forum of Chicago’s Fund for Immigrants and Refugees, www.donorsforum.org).  He retains the position of Affiliate Research Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at Loyola University Chicago.

 

Dr. Numrich serves as Associate Professor and Chair of the Program in World Religions and Inter-Religious Dialogue at the Theological Consortium of Greater Columbus, Ohio, teaching in the areas of comparative religion, history of religions, sociology of religion, religious diversity, inter-religious relations, and theology of world religions.  His courses explore the variety of Christian perspectives on the world’s religions and encourage seminarians to develop their own perspectives while preparing for faithful participation in inter-religious encounters and informed leadership among fellow Christians.  Dr. Numrich also frequently advises the media, community groups, and other interested parties about religious topics, such as religious diversity in America, Christian responses to religious diversity, religious factors in health care, religion in the schools, spirituality in the world’s religions, Eastern religions, Islam, and inter-religious relations.

 

Dr. Numrich’s publications include the following books: Old Wisdom in the New World: Americanization in Two Immigrant Theravada Buddhist Temples (University of Tennessee Press, 1996), recipient of the 1997 Distinguished Book Award, Sociology of Religion Section, American Sociological Association; Buddhists, Hindus, and Sikhs in America (co-author, Oxford University Press, 2001); and Sacred Assemblies and Civic Engagement: How Religion Matters for America’s Newest Immigrants (co-author, Rutgers University Press, forthcoming).  His essays include “Marriage, Family, and Health in Selected World Religions: Different Perspectives in an Increasingly Pluralist America,” in Marriage, Health, and the Professions (Eerdmans, 2002); “Recent Immigrant Religions and the Restructuring of Metropolitan Chicago,” in Public Religion and Urban Transformation: Faith in the City (New York University Press, 2000); and “Immigrant American Religions and the Family: New Diversity and Conservatism,” in Families and American Religion: Comparative Family Ethics and Strategies of the Major American Faiths (Columbia University Press, forthcoming).

 

Dr. Numrich currently serves as President of the Midwest Region of the American Academy of Religion.  An ordained Protestant minister, he enjoys basketball, contemporary music, and multicultural cuisine, and celebrated 30 years of marriage to Christine in December 2005.

 

Other Programs and Foundations with a Similar Vision

 

Here are a few programs and foundations with a vision similar to our proposed Program in the Study of Religion and Inter-Religious Relations (quotes taken from their Webpages):

 

  • Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (CMCU), Georgetown University:  “The Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding is dedicated to fostering a better understanding of Islam and Muslim-Christian Relations. . . .  The focus of the Center, both national and international in scope, is achieved through teaching, symposia, international conferences, and briefings.  CMCU realizes its mission by training the next generation of leaders from the United States, the Arab and broader Muslim World, Europe, Latin America, and Asia.  Center faculty and visiting faculty offer courses on Islam and the history of Muslim-Christian relations for undergraduate and graduate students.  CMCU faculty members also serve as consultants to government leaders, diplomats, policymakers, corporate executives and members of the media. . . .  The Center is also a think-tank for the international exchange of scholars and ideas.  In addition to hosting visiting researchers and scholars from around the world, CMCU has established linkages with centers and institutions across the globe from England and Italy to Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan, Malaysia, Indonesia, and China.  CMCU has sponsored and participated in conferences and symposia in over 50 countries and 40 states in the United States.”

 

  • Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard Divinity School:  “[S]erving a worldwide constituency of scholars, religious leaders, policy makers, and concerned individuals, the center aspires to: encourage interreligious understanding; strengthen scholarship and teaching in both individual traditions and the comparative endeavor; enhance the awareness and appreciation of the theological, ethical, aesthetic, and historical aspects of the world’s major religious and spiritual traditions within the global intellectual community; and strengthen understanding of all belief systems among leaders and adherents of all the world's religious and spiritual traditions.”

 

 

  • Duncan Black Macdonald Center for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, Hartford Seminary:  “The Macdonald Center challenges scholars, students, members of religious institutions, community groups, the media and the general public to go beyond stereotypes and prejudices and develop a profound awareness and appreciation of Islamic religion, law and culture.  It is committed to the premise that through intensive study and academically guided dialogue, mutual respect and cooperation between Muslims and Christians can and must develop.”

 

  • Program in Religion, Conflict and Peacebuilding (PRCP), the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame:  “This interdisciplinary, inter-religious program explores the complex roles of diverse religious traditions in contemporary conflicts.  The PRCP encompasses the full spectrum of religious involvement in contemporary conflict, from the religious legitimation of violence to religious peacebuilding efforts, such as mediation by religious groups and efforts to promote inter-religious and intra-religious dialogue.  Research focuses on the phenomenon of ‘lived religion’ by examining how religious leaders and movements ‘translate’ sacred scriptures and traditional norms into practical principles that shape decisions and behaviors ‘on the ground.’  Through deeper understanding of religion’s complex role in conflict situations, the program hopes to strengthen the potential for peacebuilding within all religious traditions.”

 

  • Henry Luce Foundation: “The Luce Foundation’s Theology program encourages the development of leadership for religious communities through theological education, and fosters scholarship that links the academy to churches and the wider public.  The program provides funding for seminary education, leadership, ecumenical and inter-religious programs, and religion and the arts.”

 

·        Lilly Endowment: “In recent years Lilly Endowment’s religion grantmaking has been focused on major, interlocking efforts aimed at enhancing and sustaining the quality of ministry in American congregations and parishes.  The Endowment has focused on supporting programs and projects that address four broad questions: How do we identify, recruit and call forth a new generation of talented Christian pastors?  How do we best prepare and train new ministers for effective and faithful pastoral leadership?  How do we improve the skills and sustain the excellence of pastors currently serving congregations?  What are basic questions about the current state of the practice of ministry that we need to answer to improve the quality of ministry? . . .  Theological education is absolutely pivotal, and seminaries play a critical role in preparing pastors for their leadership in congregations.  Theological schools engage students in an exploration of the wisdom of the Christian tradition and train pastors how to bring biblical and theological insights to bear on contemporary issues.”

 

·        Ford Foundation: “In Religion, Society and Culture we examine the role of religious traditions of the world in shaping social values, with the goal of strengthening the contribution of these traditions to creating just, healthy and pluralistic societies.  Grant making also seeks to support the participation of historically marginalized groups in the interpretation of diverse religious and cultural traditions and to examine the moral resources they offer contemporary societies.

 

 

 

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