D
dinkadare.rm
Guest
I read the article posted below and it prompted this question.
What is the proper understanding of the Catholic faith in terms of fundamentalism?
There are different connotations of the word, in Christian circles it suggests someone who believes in a literal word for word meaning of the Bible.
In terms, of religion, fundamentalism can mean something along the lines of being a extremist or someone who is willing to kill in the name of religion.
The article posted below suggests a negative meaning of fundamentalism.
As a moral human being and as a Catholic, is there a more moderate view of fundamentalism?
Does fundamentalism suggest at least a basic understanding of morality?
I feel let down by a lot of the relativism in religion, morality, and our culture today.
I look at the roots of fundamentalism of being start to the true experience of religion and not being an example of extremism.
I see the word fundamentalism being misused or an overly negative meaning.
Please provide some direction on helping me to sort this out.
Peace out,
dinka
Forum panelists urge better communication among faiths
By: Dennis Brown
Date: September 22, 2005
A panel of diverse religious leaders participating Thursday (Sept. 22) in the first Notre Dame Forum agreed that more communication and perhaps a bit less certainty among people of different faiths can result in religions that bind rather than divide the world community.
The two-hour forum, titled “Why God? Understanding Religion and Enacting Faith in a Plural World,” drew about 3,000 students, faculty, staff and others to the Joyce Center and was moderated by former NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw. It was the academic cornerstone of the inauguration of Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., as the University’s president.
“I believe these issues before us,” Brokaw said in his introductory remarks, “are the most critical issues facing our country and our world.”
In response to a question by Brokaw concerning the violence in the name of Islam, the panel was unified in rejecting fundamentalists of all religious faiths.
“The loudest religious voices today are the people who advocate divisiveness and conflict,” said John C. Danforth, former U.S. senator from Missouri, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and an ordained Episcopal minister. “Those who advocate otherwise have been strangely quiet, and it’s time for them to speak out.
“Is religion going to pull people together or drive them apart? In my view, we need a major discussion on the purpose of religion, and if we decide it is to pull us together, then we need a major conversation in that regard.”
Building on Danforth’s comments, Naomi Chazan, a professor of political science and African studies at Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a former member of the Israeli Knesset, added:
“It is not religion of any sort that is the problem. The problem is fundamentalism, and that comes in all forms – Jewish, Muslim, Christian. Fundamentalists think they have all the answers to all the questions, and that terrifies me, and it should terrify all of us.”
“Fundamentalism is one of the biggest problems in the world today,” agreed Cardinal Oscar Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga, S.D.B., archbishop of Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
Danforth clarified his position by saying that rather than fundamentalism, he believes “certainty is the problem – people who believe that they are on God’s side, or they know God’s will.”
The fourth panelist, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, who is the founder and chief executive officer of the American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA) and imam of New York City’s largest mosque, observed that the issues that “separate the West and Islam are only partially theological. They also involve economics and power. It is my hope that the American Muslim community will be an important interlocutor between the West and Islam.”
The second half of the forum featured four additional panelists – Notre Dame faculty members Asma Afsaruddin, associate professor of Arabic and Islamic studies in the classics department, and Lawrence E. Sullivan, professor of world religions in the theology and anthropology departments, and students Kathleen Fox, a junior theology and philosophy major from Kansas City, and Kroc Institute graduate student Denis Okello of Uganda.
Many students and faculty who attended the forum prepared for it by exploring the themes of religious diversity and tolerance in a set of readings, chief among them the book “When Faiths Collide” by University of Chicago historian Martin E. Marty.
.
The forum was taped by C-SPAN for broadcast at a time to be announced
What is the proper understanding of the Catholic faith in terms of fundamentalism?
There are different connotations of the word, in Christian circles it suggests someone who believes in a literal word for word meaning of the Bible.
In terms, of religion, fundamentalism can mean something along the lines of being a extremist or someone who is willing to kill in the name of religion.
The article posted below suggests a negative meaning of fundamentalism.
As a moral human being and as a Catholic, is there a more moderate view of fundamentalism?
Does fundamentalism suggest at least a basic understanding of morality?
I feel let down by a lot of the relativism in religion, morality, and our culture today.
I look at the roots of fundamentalism of being start to the true experience of religion and not being an example of extremism.
I see the word fundamentalism being misused or an overly negative meaning.
Please provide some direction on helping me to sort this out.
Peace out,
dinka
Forum panelists urge better communication among faiths
By: Dennis Brown
Date: September 22, 2005
A panel of diverse religious leaders participating Thursday (Sept. 22) in the first Notre Dame Forum agreed that more communication and perhaps a bit less certainty among people of different faiths can result in religions that bind rather than divide the world community.
The two-hour forum, titled “Why God? Understanding Religion and Enacting Faith in a Plural World,” drew about 3,000 students, faculty, staff and others to the Joyce Center and was moderated by former NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw. It was the academic cornerstone of the inauguration of Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., as the University’s president.
“I believe these issues before us,” Brokaw said in his introductory remarks, “are the most critical issues facing our country and our world.”
In response to a question by Brokaw concerning the violence in the name of Islam, the panel was unified in rejecting fundamentalists of all religious faiths.
“The loudest religious voices today are the people who advocate divisiveness and conflict,” said John C. Danforth, former U.S. senator from Missouri, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and an ordained Episcopal minister. “Those who advocate otherwise have been strangely quiet, and it’s time for them to speak out.
“Is religion going to pull people together or drive them apart? In my view, we need a major discussion on the purpose of religion, and if we decide it is to pull us together, then we need a major conversation in that regard.”
Building on Danforth’s comments, Naomi Chazan, a professor of political science and African studies at Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a former member of the Israeli Knesset, added:
“It is not religion of any sort that is the problem. The problem is fundamentalism, and that comes in all forms – Jewish, Muslim, Christian. Fundamentalists think they have all the answers to all the questions, and that terrifies me, and it should terrify all of us.”
“Fundamentalism is one of the biggest problems in the world today,” agreed Cardinal Oscar Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga, S.D.B., archbishop of Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
Danforth clarified his position by saying that rather than fundamentalism, he believes “certainty is the problem – people who believe that they are on God’s side, or they know God’s will.”
The fourth panelist, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, who is the founder and chief executive officer of the American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA) and imam of New York City’s largest mosque, observed that the issues that “separate the West and Islam are only partially theological. They also involve economics and power. It is my hope that the American Muslim community will be an important interlocutor between the West and Islam.”
The second half of the forum featured four additional panelists – Notre Dame faculty members Asma Afsaruddin, associate professor of Arabic and Islamic studies in the classics department, and Lawrence E. Sullivan, professor of world religions in the theology and anthropology departments, and students Kathleen Fox, a junior theology and philosophy major from Kansas City, and Kroc Institute graduate student Denis Okello of Uganda.
Many students and faculty who attended the forum prepared for it by exploring the themes of religious diversity and tolerance in a set of readings, chief among them the book “When Faiths Collide” by University of Chicago historian Martin E. Marty.
.
The forum was taped by C-SPAN for broadcast at a time to be announced
