“Who is my Neighbour? Interfaith Dialogue and Theological Formation”

Abstract

The following are three response papers that were presented at the “Who is My Neighbour? Interfaith Dialogue and Theological Formation Conference,” held on October 19, 2022, and are indirectly responding to Ingrid Mattson's discussion of interfaith engagement and the public square. The first response paper by Cory Andrew Labrecque, entitled "Theological Bioethics and Interfaith-Interdisciplinary Dialogue," uses Mattson's discussion of the challenges and rewards of principled interfaith engagement in the public square as a starting place for his own reflections on the challenges and rewards of interfaith-interdiscplinary dialogue in healthcare. While interdisciplinary discussions around healthcare often take place in secular terms – and indeed, we are often told that this is the way things ought to be – Labrecque offers a powerful account, not only of what is lost when we allow the theological perspective to become muted in such discussions, but also of what can be gained when we insist upon including it. The second response paper by Lisa J. Grushcow, entitled "Interfaith Dialogue and the Public Square: One Rabbi's Response," returns directly to the notion of the public square, using the memory and words of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel to do so. While Rabbi Heschel "affirm[ed] the princple of separation of church and state," he "reject[ed] the separation of religion and the human situation," a sentiment Rabbi Grushcow shares and uses as a starting point for her own critical reflections on what interfaith dialogue and engagement wants to build, and how it can be done together.