Can a United Methodist-affiliated school become a multi-faith institution while remaining faithful to the Great Commission? According to Claremont School of Theology president Jerry Campbell, Christ’s last command to his followers may not sit well with the school’s agenda.
At a discussion organized by the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society (GBGCS) in Washington, D.C., Campbell and other faith leaders expounded their vision for Claremont’s transformation into an “interfaith seminary”, announced earlier this summer. The United Methodist affiliated school in California would be the first of its kind in the United States to train clergy in the Christian, Muslim, and Jewish traditions.
Participants included GBCS chief Jim Winkler, Sayyid Syeed of the Islamic Society of North America and his daughter Najeeba Syeed-Miller, who is now teaching at Claremont, and David Saperstein of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. A wide array of faith and government leadership attended the event, including representatives from USAID, the Institute on Global Engagement, and the National Religious Campaign Against Torture.
Bringing the strengths of the world’s religions together, Campbell argued, can solve the world’s most vexing problems.
“Currently we’re too involved in competition with one another to be able to do that,” said Campbell. “But it’s clear we all agree on what the problems are. We don’t like it if a child goes to bed hungry. We don’t like poverty. But until the world’s religions decide to get involved in a proactive and positive way, it will be impossible for governments to solve those problems.”
Campbell explained that the curriculum at Claremont, to be developed in conjunction with their Muslim and Jewish partners, would be “aimed at creating basic understanding, respect, and the possibility for collaboration.”
The school is beginning talks with potential Hindu and Buddhist partners, Campbell said.
“Future partners will get a fair share of this new university, and the seminaries will focus on the independent traditions,” Campbell explained. “But all the partners will agree not only to do their own traditions to a very high quality, but they will agree to collaborate with each other in the university.”
“This will not be Christians teaching Christians what Muslims think,” said Campbell. “That does not work.”
Speakers were careful to articulate that this multi-faith approach would not compromise, or water down, the integrity of each faith. Najeeba Syeed-Miller, Assistant Professor of Interreligious Education at Claremont, in particular stressed this point.
“One of the other things we think is very important is to delve deeper into our traditions,” she explained. “We’re not interested in moving and diluting our traditions but actually to go deeper.”
“What’s exciting about the seminary model is that students can explore what I call the ‘livingness’ of their faith. How do they actually create and take their faith and practice it and challenge one another?” she asked.
“In battling extremism, that’s really where we’re derailed,” said Syeed. “Because it’s not about the teachings, it’s not about dangerous doctrine… it’s about how we are able to, within a confessional environment, share our traditions – [to] actually show what pluralism looks like.”
Pluralism as Claremont defines it doesn’t necessarily mean agreement. Indeed, “the best version of a problem solver,” explained Syeed, “[is] two people who can sit at a table and say, ‘You know what? You’re going to hell, and you’re going to hell, but we have a homeless person in our neighborhood. What do we do about that?’”
The school’s intention, in fact, is to be able to bring together those who may not agree on what a pluralist society looks like – including opening dialogue with Evangelical Christians and Orthodox and Conservative Jews, Syeed said.
But when asked directly by this correspondent whether the school’s pluralistic mission would sit awkwardly with Christ’s call to “go and make disciples of all nations,” Campbell admitted the deep conflict that this command uncovered.
“Those are the kinds of questions that begin to push us apart rather than bring us together, but they’re questions that we need to answer,” he began. “I don’t know how everyone can be right.” Campbell claimed that these disagreements had a danger of “stand between us and the fate of the world,” and that the interactions of different faiths should be based on trust rather than a common understanding of the truth.
“We’re not going to proselytize one another,” Campbell continued. “We’re devoted, in this environment, to understanding one another, to respecting one another, and learning how to work together. Not agreeing. That’s kind of outside the bounds.”
“That’s an almost impossibility, agreeing on certain truth claims,” Campbell said. “We’re not going to work on those. What we’re going to work on is how to make the world a better place and how we relate to one another and how religion – all the different religions – can make the world a better place if they can agree on certain things like, ‘hunger is bad.’”
“There are things that you’ll need to ask God directly. I just don’t have that kind of knowledge,” Campbell concluded. “But I do have the sense that I’m called to be a peacemaker, not a troublemaker.”
It was unclear from the discussion whether this core, “troublemaking” aspect of the world’s religions –let alone United Methodism – can be adequately swept under the rug.
No comments yet
Leave a Reply