I think of myself very much as someone who does interfaith, but I haven't really had any opportunities for it for ages. And then two came along at once:

( yay connections )

So my extremely brilliant friend Jen has written a fantastic popular article about her research: Why it's absurd for a pastor to give Donald Trump a Jewish prayer shawl. You should read it, it's only tangentially about Trump, it's about the history of Jewish ritual objects and about Jewish-Christian relations.

( Also, I have thinky thoughts )

To continue my write-ups after a bit of a gap:

( potentially controversial )

I went to a talk by Ed Kessler on the Isaac story in Jewish-Christian relations. He tried to cram way too much into a short talk, covering a close reading of the text, Jewish and early Christian commentaries, the Isaac story in art (which I missed because I had to be home for lunch), the general history of Jewish-Christian relations, and his basic ( Read more... )

The first time I went to Hengrave Hall I was about ten. I went there with my family for a gathering of members of Progressive synagogues in the region. It was snowing, and the central heating in the hall chose that December weekend to break down. I don't remember being cold, I remember playing games I was probably too old for in a room redecorated ( Read more... )

With the thesis eating my life for more months than I want to count, I've been completely out of the interfaith scene. These last few weeks I've been taking it up again, mostly in a reconnecting with my old friends sort of way, as there's not a lot of point in getting deeply involved in planning when I'm only here for a couple of weeks ( Read more... )

So blackherring wants some assistance from people knowledgeable about Christianity and Christian scholarship. And since there are more such people on my flist than hers, I thought I'd point some of you towards her request.

Today was my lecturing debut. I taught a class to an audience who had paid money to learn from me, and I'm going to get paid for it like a proper grown-up lecturer.

( report )

I've got involved in some Scottish scheme for getting more young people involved in interfaith (I'd link to them only I'm told their webpage is an embarrassment). As part of this, the coordinator, (who is an amazing person, full of enthusiasm and brilliant ideas), decided to take a 'roadshow' to a remote Scottish island to talk to the people there ( Read more... )