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State of Formation Workshop
State of Formation Workshop: Writing for the Online Public Sphere
November 24, 2013 | 2-5PM | Hyatt Regency Baltimore, 300 Light St., Baltimore, MD 21202
We still have a few slots available for our workshop; Please RSVP to honna@irdialogue.org by November 22nd
Held in conjunction with the annual meeting for the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Biblical Literature, State of Formation is pleased to announce it will host a workshop for current and emerging religious and ethical leaders. State of Formation is a project of CIRCLE at Andover Newton Theological School and Hebrew College, is an online forum for emerging religious and ethical leaders.
The workshop will feature Dr. Diana Eck, Professor of Comparative Religion and Indian Studies at Harvard University and the Director of The Pluralism Project, and Rev. Paul Raushenbush, Senior Religion Editor for the Huffington Post. Also featured are Rabbi Or Rose, Dr. Jennifer Peace, and top Contributing Scholars from State of Formation. Helping lead the workshop are Stepanie Varnon-Hughes (Founding Editor-in-Chief of the Journal for Inter-Religious Dialogue) and Benjamin Barer (Editor at Large) and Honna Eichler (Managing Director) of State of Formation.
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Use the words you know
By Elise Alexander
One of the unexpected things I have told friends about in my learning to speak Arabic over the past five years is the fact that I am much more talkative in Arabic than I am in English. In Arabic, my vocabulary is still limited, so if I know how to say something, I am often so excited by this that I will go ahead and say it, just because I can! In the last few years, though, this idea of saying things in Arabic because I can has taken on a harder edge as well. Sometimes, there are situations in which you don't know what to say in any language, and in those situations, the few things I can say, I do, but I am still often left speechless.
When my study abroad program in Aleppo, Syria, was cancelled during the last weeks of its span in spring of 2011, it was only the breaking point of a wave of tension that had been rising, rising above our heads for months. As a group of mostly Americans cocooned up in the then-safe north of Syria, we glanced nervously at the television screen on the first floor while walking into and out of our dormitory, checking to see which flag it was being waved in protest at any given march. It is Tunisia; it was Libya; it was Egypt; it was Yemen; but for a long time, it was not Syria.
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Whisper Down the Lane: Religious Language Edition
By Esther Boyd
I believe that sharing the important aspects of one's beliefs and traditions is an essential part of self-expression. We should all be taught how to communicate our religion or lifestance effectively so as to better encourage and welcome dialogue and discussion. Sometimes, though, when we focus on "getting it right" and acting as good ambassadors of our beliefs (which is an issue on which I hope to write an entirely separate post quite soon) we don't devote enough attention to the other side of this process: we don't listen very well.
I know that my students who attend interfaith council meetings have the absolute best intentions when it comes to having an open mind and learning more about one another and one another's faith traditions, and so I in no way mean to disparage the efforts they go to in order to demonstrate their genuine enthusiasm for multireligious education. It might even be this excitement that eventually gets in the way of better listening. While listening to someone describe a tradition or a rite or a belief, when actively trying to understand it as quickly as possible, we translate it into our own language. This happens a lot faster than we might realize.
Read more here.
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Call for Nominations
Please nominate a colleague, student, or friend to become a State of Formation Contributing Scholar! |
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