Summer Reflections About the Meaning of Christmas
7/1/2019
by Leonard Swidler, dialogue@temple.edu
About timing: I find Christmas a most enjoyable time of the year—cool but not miserably cold. July, on the other hand, can be miserably hot and humid. So, why not think about Christmas in July?!
About location: Two of the most Christmas-decorated cities I have ever experienced were not New York, Paris, or some other Western city, but Tokyo (a Secular/Buddhist/Shinto city), and Kuala Lumpur, overwhelmingly a Muslim city)—and neither of them had a “White Christmas” while I was there. So, why not enjoy a reflection about cool Christmas in hot Philadelphia in July?
If we are going to talk about a particular subject, probably the first thing we should focus on is the “meaning” of the subject. What we are going to focus on today is Christmas. The first thing to note about Christmas is that the word in English refers to celebration of the “Mass at Christ-mas” time. However, if we look at the name in different European languages, we find that the name used is quite different. For example, in German, the term is Weihnachten, which literally means “Holy Night.” In Latin, the name used is simply, Dies Natalis, “The Birth Day.” Noel in French is derived from Natalis, and hence also simply means “birth.” Looking at all the different names for Christmas, interesting as it may be, nevertheless, does not tell us very much about what we are focusing on.
Of course we are focusing on the celebration of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. We might ask, “What is so important about the birth of anybody? In fact, the birth of a new human being seems to always create a sense of awe, and positive feelings in general. So, in this case, we are dealing with the firstborn child of an unimportant, presumably, very young woman (in that culture girls usually married at 14!). However, even with the birth of such a seemingly unimportant baby, it makes one think of a later saying in Jewish writings, the Talmud, where it is written “Whoever saves a single human life, it is as if he saved a whole universe.” (Mishnah: Aboth Rabbi Nathan 31) It is also interesting to note that the same idea, and almost the very same words, were also many centuries later attributed to Mohammad: “Whoever saved a human life shall be regarded as saving all mankind.” (Qur’an: 5:32). Thus seen: Every person’s birth, and death, are each a whole universe!
What brings us to focus on the birth of Jesus is, of course, what happened with him in his ensuing 30-some years, and even more than that, what has happened in the 2000 years since then.
Jesus grew to adulthood in the area that today we call Galilee, which is a part of present-day Israel. Now we should remember that Galilee was thought of as rather second-class Judaism by the inhabitants of Judea. In any case, he apparently grew to young manhood, and as young boys in the Jewish world at the time, he studied the Scriptures. He seems to have done so in an extraordinarily deep manner.
How do we know this? Because there is a passage in the Gospel of Luke which relates how Jesus along with his mother and father went to Jerusalem for a large celebration, and when his father and mother returned to their home, they walked separately—Mary the mother with the women, and Joseph the father with the men. It is related in Luke’s Gospel that after a day’s journey the mother and father met again, each one assuming that Jesus was with the other one. When they discovered that he was not with either of them, they returned to Jerusalem and spent apparently quite some time searching for him. When they did finally find him, it is recorded in the Gospel that he was discussing deep religious issues with the rabbis. My suspicion is, that among these rabbis were quite possibly the leaders of the two major rabbinical “schools,” namely, Hillel and Shammai. Luke records that the rabbis were extremely impressed with the knowledge of the scriptures on the part of 12-year old Jesus. As one might expect from anxious parents, it is noted that Joseph and Mary scolded Jesus, saying that he caused them a great deal of anxiety. However, Jesus is reported to have said something rather imperious: “I must be about the work of my father.”
Luke also notes at that point that “Mary kept all of these events in her heart and pondered upon them.” This line suggests quite strongly, that Luke as a writer of a Gospel, one way or another had access to these thoughts that Mary pondered in her heart. The chances are that Luke never met Mary herself (Luke’s Gospel was written about 85 C.E.; hence Mary would have been over a hundred!), but somehow had access to things that she may have said to others, who then wrote them down eventually.
Might this “Proto-Evangelist” have been Mary Magdalen (to whom the risen Jesus first appeared and commissioned to “instruct the apostles”), or Mary of Bethany (who “chose the better part and sat at the Master’s feet…. ”)? The chances that Mother Mary could read and write are quite slim. Such was not expected of young girls in that culture, or in hardly any cultures, for that matter!
Of course, Luke must have had access to some of the experiences and thoughts of Mary, for he is the one who most of all writes about them. As I said, we have no idea about how he had access to the sources, whether they were spoken and he just heard them from living persons (who would have been quite elderly), or that they had been written down, and he had access to the written material.
In any case, as we know, Jesus grew to manhood and in the process he must have learned to read and write and studied with the rabbi's, for at one place in the Gospels it is written that he was invited to come to the front and read from the Scriptures at the synagogue service in Galilee, after which it is also recorded that the people spoke among themselves, asking “Where did he get all that knowledge? Is he not the son of Joseph, a Carpenter?”
An interesting question to ask at this point would be, “Who might have been the rabbis that Jesus studied with, there north of Judea, in the province of Galilee? Well, we have evidence elsewhere that both Shammai and Hillel had spent time teaching in Galilee, and that Hillel, the older of the two, died around the year 10. We also know that Jesus probably as born around the year 4 BCE. That would mean that, if the dates are reasonably accurate, Jesus would have been 14 years old when Hillel died. He would certainly have been old enough for him to have been studying with Hillel for two years or more. As far as Shammai is concerned, he lived several decades longer than did Hillel.
Whole libraries have been written about Christmas and about Jesus. May this brief reflection add a few details to the reader’s reflection at Christmas time in July.
Relational Holism
5/7/2019
by Ilia Delio
Medieval writers had a great sense of the cosmic whole. Since God is One and all things in heaven and earth are created by God, heaven and earth must be One as well. Everything in the larger world, the universe, is contained in the smaller world, the human, and everything in the smaller world, the human, is in the larger world, the universe. Thomas Aquinas had a deep sense of the whole as the interrelated order of creation. The good of the whole creation is like a stain glass window of many colors, he claimed, because the good that is lacking in one creature is made up by the good of another. Bonaventure also spoke of the Body of Christ like a cosmic stain glass window, a coincidence of opposites, in which the distinction of one entity mutually affirms another, since what is not found in one thing is found in other.
These medieval insights are not far from what modern science is telling us today about physical reality as relational holism. There is a mutual complementarity in nature, a holism that baffles scientists. The German philosopher Immanuel Kant said that the whole is an integrative relational structure in which there is a constant interplay of parts. While the whole provides a certain stability, it is not a fixed form but a dynamic pattern that changes constantly. Since the whole is refigured as parts change, whole and part are codependent and coevolve. [1]
Quantum physics is widely seen today as exhibiting some sort of holism. At the beginning of the twentieth century, scientists such as David Bohm and Karl Pribam speculated on wholeness in nature and developed elaborate theories to explain wholeness as a function of consciousness. Physicist and philosopher Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker said that taking quantum mechanics seriously predicts a unique, single quantum reality underlying the multiverse. In our everyday existence, it is difficult to see how we can be part of a reality that is an indivisible wholeness, without parts and divisions; the only way we can understand this is to acknowledge the presence of consciousness in the universe as an intrinsic aspect of all things in space and time. The consciousness that permeates nature is the same flow of activity that each of us inherits in a unique way. In and through our minds we are part of an undivided whole that is our home, the cosmos.
Arthur Koestler proposed the word holon to describe the hybrid nature of sub-wholes and parts within in vivo systems. A holon is something that is simultaneously a whole and part. [2] From this perspective, holons exist simultaneously as self-contained wholes in relation to their sub-ordinate parts, and dependent parts when considered from the inverse direction. Koestler defines a holarchy as a hierarchy of self-regulating holons that functions first as autonomous wholes in supra-ordination to their parts, secondly as dependent parts in sub-ordination to controls on higher levels, and thirdly in coordination with their local environment.
Cosmic holism leads me to think of nature as a “seamless garment” of life in which mind, matter and nature’s ability to change, its plasticity, are integral to life. Nature is an interlocking network of systems, an “unbearable wholeness of beings” as Steven Talbott writes. [3] Nature is more flow than fixed. “The body,” Talbott states, “is a formed stream.” [4] Structures once stably formed, do not necessarily stay that way. Many of the body’s structures are more like standing waves than once-and-for all constructed objects. Organisms show a meaningful coordination of activities whereby a functioning and self-sustaining unity engages in flexible responses to the myriad stimuli of the environment. Nature is a choreographed ballet, a symphony, whereby every organism is dynamically engaged in its own self-organization, pursuing its own ends amid an ever-shifting context of relationships. Such self-organization is not a closed system or shut off from surrounding influences but just the opposite. Self-organization is maintained by openness to the environment, to spontaneity and to new patterns of order.
We humans are part of a cosmic relational whole, nature’s interlocking wholeness of intricate systems. In fact, if we understand what science is telling us, we are more “holon” than individual. We humans have the ability to know this wholeness in such a way that we can reflect on it and act toward it. We act according to the Whole when we have a consciousness of belonging to an interrelated whole. We stifle or crush the whole when we are unconscious of it or refuse to acknowledge our reality of wholeness. Albert Einstein was something of a mystic who had profound insight on nature’s wholeness as he wrote in one of his letters:
A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. [5]
The path to relational holism is the mystical path to Oneness or Unity, which is why the mystical traditions are so essential today. There is no one way to the Whole; rather there are infinite ways to wholeness. Different teachings on how to travel from isolation to wholeness can be found across traditions. We have mystical teachers of the East such as Rumi and Mansur al Hallaj and mystical teachers of the West such Thomas Keating and Cynthia Bourgeault. While their teachings may differ, their insights are like a stain glass window of complementary opposites. Each teaching in a sense makes up in one what is lacking in the other, so that the brilliance of the whole can only truly be seen through interspiritual unity.
Mystical teachings can never be systems of power over and against one other. If a mystical teacher seems defensive of his or her position or self-enclosed in one’s doctrine it may be because she or he has been deeply grasped by the power of the One or God. A person who has had a profound experience of God will speak from a deep center of knowledge, a center of passion, where the heart sees more deeply than what the tongue can tell. Finding the words to express the ineffable experience of God is a constant struggle because no language can adequately describe the experience of Oneness in love.
Teilhard de Chardin had a genuine commitment to the living whole, the vitality of God embedded in the dynamic structures of evolution. Because of this absolute oneness he was confident that the universe has a future, an anticipation of flourishing life in a unity of love. The whole universe is in formation, Teilhard said, developing as one cosmic Person, which Raimon Panikkar expressed as the cosmotheandric experience.
Perhaps the fear of what seems like competitive teachings could be allayed by a conversation together, something like the World Parliament of Religions. Those who come together in the name of Oneness or love and genuinely seek unity together as complementary opposites, often leave the gathering as a new whole body of being-in-love. For the body is truly one; although we are many parts we are all parts of the whole.
Notes
[1] Mark Taylor, After God (University of Chicago), 315 – 316.
[2] For a discussion of holons see Cannato, Radical Amazement, 94 -102; Judy Cannato, Fields of Compassion: How the New Cosmology is Transforming Spiritual Life (Notre Dame, IN: Sorin Books, 2010);Ken Wilbur, A Theory of Everything (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2000).
[3] Steve Talbott, “The Unbearable Wholeness of Beings,” The New Atlantis: A Journal of Technology and Society. https://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/the-unbearable-wholeness-of-beings.
[4] Talbott, “The Unbearable Wholeness of Beings.”
[5] Walter Sullivan, “The Einstein Papers: A Man of Many Parts,” New York Times Archives, March 29, 1972. https://www.nytimes.com/1972/03/29/archives/the-einstein-papers-a-man-of-many-parts-the-einstein-papers-man-of.html. Sullivan writes: “One of the most poignant exchanges in his role as a philosopher came when he was 70 and living in Princeton. An ordained rabbi had written explaining that he had sought in vain to comfort his 19‐year‐old daughter over the death of her sister, “a sinless, beautiful, 16‐year‐old child.”
My SUSI Experience
4/30/2019
by Omaima
"Have you ever had any friends from different religions or backgrounds?" that was one of the questions I was asked during the interview for SUSI and my answer was a sad "no". I didn't think much of it then because I was scared to death about the whole thing but when I got back home, I thought to myself: why don't I have friends who are different from me instead of founding every friendship on a checklist of commonalities that I have with a person? As a matter of fact, I even thought it'd make less qualified for the scholarship because, after all, I was applying for the Religious Pluralism program and possibly going to one of the most diverse countries in the world, the United States. Little did I know that all was about to change.
My name is Omaima, a Muslim Egyptian student of Al-Azhar University and this is how it all began. On the first day in Washington, I remember being terrified waiting for my roommate to arrive, the door opening in slow motion and the most dramatic soundtrack you could imagine playing in my head. Then, she entered; the first lifelong friend I've made there, Zeynab. Once we started talking, I had the weirdest feeling that we've met before. She just felt so familiar to me and she was really easy to talk to; we just clicked. I can't express my gratitude for every time I had her as a roommate as she has been a "sista" to me right by my side whenever I need her ever since. From that moment onward, each time I had a new roommate, it was getting exciting rather than intimidating.
It's very difficult to choose a favorite moment from this whole experience as I enjoyed the sessions- well, most of them- and the site visits. However, my favorite moments were the close conversations I got to have like that night at Pendle Hill, a favorite place of mine. Baraa, Maria, Zeynab and I had a conversation on the differences between Shi'a and Sunni, between Muslims and Christians and many other things. I was fascinated by the fact that no fighting or shouting took place in that conversation; it was just a group of people discussing their ideas and expressing their opinions but on top of all, we were truly listening to one another without jumping to conclusions. Another unforgettable moment is the conversation Maria, Zeynab and I had at our room in Washington. This conversation was more intimate and we shared some of the things that we hadn't talked about before. I have to admit that both of them were trying their best and never running out of ways to keep me awake but all through the drowsiness I still managed to remember this moment and I will cherish it forever. Honestly, the list could go on and on because each moment with these wonderful people was a blessing.
Fast forward to our last night together: in the midst of crying my eyes out, I couldn't help but wonder: how am I going to wake up one morning without seeing Zeynab and us being late for everything? How am I not going to go across the hall to Maria's room where she would welcome me with the most radiant smile and endless enthusiasm? How would I spend my day without meeting Baraa; laughing and talking together about the most random things? How would I bear another day without the company of Mahmoud, laughing at the jokes that he and John made and enjoying their incredible singing skills? Who would tell us more than we need about "his majesty" and the royal family? How am I not going to see Jana, Christelle and Aseel? Getting to know these people didn't just break stereotypes and help me know more about their backgrounds and religions but it also helped me discover a whole new side of me I didn't even know existed. If someone said to me eight months ago: "You would be travelling to another country on your own and doing zip lining and white water rafting", I'd have probably said: "Wrong Number!" Nevertheless, I was able to survive with the help and support of these extraordinary people on every step of the way, even the smallest things like doing the bottle-flip challenge.
I'd like to share one of the major takeaways I've had from this experience, beside all the new information I learnt. I found that the key to pluralism isn't in seeing past the differences but in recognizing, highlighting and celebrating them and appreciating what distinguishes every individual from the other along with respecting the boundaries that every person has set for themselves and not trying to change others to our own liking. The fact is every person should treasure their individual identity without feeling the need to justify or apologize for their set of moral values or principles and in doing so we create diversity.
Allow me to end this article with a few words to my dear friends: I can't believe that it's been almost a year since I last saw you but I'm grateful for the small utopia we've created together and I'm thankful for the light you filled me with. For as long as I live, you will have a special place in my heart and I will always remember.
A Dreamy Reality: My SUSI Experience
4/9/2019
by Christelle Barakat – Lebanon
Where do I begin when it comes to describing my SUSI experience?
I have been known to enjoy partaking in discussions, dialoguing and writing and yet words are now escaping me.
SUSI in my eyes can be best described as a dream. A beautiful dream that began with me being nominated by the U.S. Embassy in Beirut to partake in the program, that continued throughout the 5 weeks I spent in the U.S. and that I did not fully believe was a reality till I returned back to Lebanon and reflected upon the mesmerizing time in the land of freedom.
Majoring in Political Science and International Affairs, whilst minoring in conflict analysis and resolution, legal studies and gender studies, SUSI truly exceeded my expectations in terms of the knowledge that it has contributed towards my specializations. Indeed, it was truly an eye-opener for me as it helped me establish links between interfaith dialogue, conflict resolution and peace studies, with the aforementioned being areas that I am extremely passionate about.
Furthermore, the in-class lectures, workshops, site visits and guest speakers each had something to add to my personal growth as a human being and sharpened my critical thinking skills. I have learned so many versatile elements about Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Unitarian Universalism, Baha’i and other religions within the world.
Moreover, I would have never imagined that I would be able to visit the U.S. institutions that I had studied about in books and seen in videos around a year prior to SUSI. It honestly felt surreal to be sitting in the House of Representatives and the Supreme Court and to have stood next to the national statues of the most prominent figures that have marked and shaped U.S. history.
Last but not least, each day was a new experience and each experience was abundant and unique in its own way when it came to acquiring knowledge. That said, I found inspiration all around me: in people, in monument, in the starry sky of Western North Carolina, in the Martin Luther King sites and in the Center for Civil and Human Rights in Georgia, in front of the Lincoln monument and at the Department of State in Washington D.C., in the religious monuments in Pennsylvania, at Asbury Park in New Jersey, at the top of the Empire State Building and inside the United Nations Headquarters in New York and within the United States as a whole. It is through all of these experiences that I was able to formulate my “dialogue rounds” action plan which I have been fine-tuning and creatively implementing after I got back to Lebanon.
All in all, within a state born out of multiculturalism and built based on coexistence, I got to interact with people from various beliefs, from different countries, with peers from Egypt, Jordan and Iraq, with scholars from all over the world, with brilliant staff whom I thank for their dedication and for ensuring that we felt welcomed and at home and with a host family that is wonderful beyond what words can express!
Andi, Mike, Brian, Jordan, Jake, Huner, Ken, Rebecca, Tony, Mer, Katie, Mr. Majid, Mr. Howard, Dr. Barbara, Dr. Swidler and all guest speakers, scholars, friends and inspirations that I have met: from Lebanon to the U.S., a big thank you from the heart!
My SUSI Experience
3/11/2019
by Shwan Hussein
My name is Shwan and I recently graduated from the American University in Sulaymaniyah, Iraqi Kurdistan with a degree in energy engineering. Kurdistan is home for many ethnic and religious groups, such as Kurds, Yazidis, Turkmen, Arabs, Assyrians, and each of these groups have their own religions. The Kurds are mostly Sunni Muslims, and a minority of them are Christians. Also, the Yazidis are considered as Kurds with few cultural differences. All of these different groups live in Kurdistan in peace. I was born into a Sunni Muslim Kurdish family in small hometown called Darbandikhan in Sulaymaniyah. Born into a family like this, your identity is set as a Sunni Muslim Kurd, and you are surrounded by typical Kurds like yourself without little understanding of other cultures and people different from yours. Although Kurdistan is a multicultural and diverse region, the communities have not much exposure to each other as the communities are separated. For instance, the Yazidis are mostly living in Sinjar and Bashiqa, and they are confined to these areas with little exposure to other people. After I was admitted to study my undergraduate study at the American University in Sulaymaniyah, I saw students from all different cultures, religions, and nationalities. It was a suitable environment to exchange ideas and interact with these new students, and it made us more aware of diversity eventually. As I mentioned earlier this was a small community and could not be seen in most places. While I was a senior in college, I applied for an exchange program call Study of the Unites States Institutes (SUSI) to study about religious pluralism in the States.
20 students were accepted to participate in the exchange program in four countries; Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Egypt. Students were selected from different backgrounds, and each were culturally different from one another. This experience was a lifelong opportunity to learn more about diversity and be more open minded. I would like to share with you how this experience was beneficial to me.
I liked the idea of how the SUSI program brought together 20 students each coming from a society with different cultural values and made them into a family. They showed us it is possible to live together despite the differences we had with each other in identity. In fact, the thing that was least important to all of the students was our identity. We lived together for five weeks, but we made a lifelong friendship with each other. At the end of the program, I had the epiphany that our identities are like out clothes we wear every day, and they do not define us. Above all things, we are all humans, and the diversities make us more beautiful. It is not about which race or religion is superior. One thing that caught my attention was during a site visit we had to a mosque in Philadelphia. An Indian guy named Fazal was explaining the rituals and basically what was going on in the mosque every day. He gave an example of how they interact with the Jewish and Christian followers because the mosque was close to a synagogue and a church. He said that they invite each other to ceremonies and the important events. This is something that cannot be seen in Middle East. I am sure this example had an impact on each one of us. I can say that the program is worked based on the principle of “knowledge is power”. By participating in the workshops and the opportunity to have conversations with each other, they gave us the knowledge of understanding each other and realize our differences and made sure they are not a threat to our identity. We were led to find our common grounds and work from there to live in peaceful coexistence, and the program tried to build a bridge of mutual understanding among the students.
To immerse us more into the lifestyle of Americans, the 20 students were divided on the host families to spend a weekend with them. I spent the weekend with the Needleman family. This was a Jewish-American family living in Philadelphia. We received a warm welcome from them. I want to share how I felt after spending the weekend with them by sharing a letter I wrote for them and read for them, and I quote, “I could not appreciate more for the hospitality and the warmth welcome we received from the Needleman family. The weekend was gone like a second for me as we were kept entertained and satisfied the whole time with lots of activities and productive conversations. The Needleman family is like a door for me to see the decent life and quality of American families in general and the American Jews specifically. Lastly, I want to thank you for your warmth welcome and hospitality.”
Speaking of meeting with new and brilliant people, I came across a young, kind, generous, and talented Kurdish guy called Huner. He is a citizen of the United States, and we bonded within three hours as if we were friends for a long time after we met for the first time. A funny thing about meeting for the first time was that after three hours, we went to the train station to pick up a Jordanian Journalist, and she asked us how we met. Huner told her guess for how long we have known each other, and he gave her three choices three years, two years, and one year and three months. She said one year and three months, we laughed and said in fact it is been three hours we have met. I think there are two main reasons we made a friendship that fast. The main reason was Huner’s personality. He was not like a typical Kurdish guy because he was more culturally open minded, and he was a good listener. When I expressed my thoughts on something he listened to me, and he answered accordingly. This also contributed more to my experience with the SUSI program. Another reason is that always people are attracted to their own type and like to spend more time with each other because we share almost everything in terms of history, cultural values, and language.