Religions and Interreligious Dialogue in the Galilee (original) (raw)

Interfaith Dialogue in Lebanon

This essay explores trends and directions of interfaith dialogue in Lebanon with a special focus on developments since the Ta'if Agreement (1989) signed at the end of the civil war. While viewing the encounters of interfaith dialogue in Lebanon against the background of political and social developments, the particular focus of this study is the ventures and potential of "inter-theological dialogue." In particular, it explores the new initiatives whose focus is on theological and spiritual dialogue, since they seem to have been virtually ignored by recent studies in the field, even though inter-theological discussions have constituted an important part of inter-religious dialogue in Lebanon. The article proposes that theological dialogue in Lebanon is necessary in order to reach true taʿāyush (living together), particularly because politics and religion are intricately intertwined. Focusing on two initiatives within the past 15 years, it shows how they strive to make theological discoursesometimes a merely intellectual exerciserelevant for society.

Interfaith Dialogue in Lebanon: Between a Power Balancing Act and Theological Encounters

Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations, 2015

This essay explores trends and directions of interfaith dialogue in Lebanon with a special focus on developments since the Ta'if Agreement (1989) signed at the end of the civil war. While viewing the encounters of interfaith dialogue in Lebanon against the background of political and social developments, the particular focus of this study is the ventures and potential of “inter-theological dialogue.” In particular, it explores the new initiatives whose focus is on theological and spiritual dialogue, since they seem to have been virtually ignored by recent studies in the field, even though inter-theological discussions have constituted an important part of inter-religious dialogue in Lebanon. The article proposes that theological dialogue in Lebanon is necessary in order to reach true taʿāyush (living together), particularly because politics and religion are intricately intertwined. Focusing on two initiatives within the past 15 years, it shows how they strive to make theological discourse – sometimes a merely intellectual exercise – relevant for society.

Interreligious conflict in Israel: The group basis of conflicting visions

Political Behavior, 1994

Utilizing several theories of sociocultural mobilization, this paper examines the contours of secular-religious conflict in contemporary Israel. According to a survey of adult Israelis, resistance to "religious coercion" among the secular population is driven primarily by symbolic, social, and cognitive forces rather than perceived discrimination or the threat posed by spatial proximity to the religious. As such, it is rooted in cultural identity. The theocratic disposition among religious Israelis is almost entirely a matter of social identification. These findings both confirm existing theories of intergroup conflict and suggest a framework for analyzing religion and state controversies in other polities.

Interreligious Dialogue Mapping of the Middle East: Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq

Adyan Foundation, 2020

This report evaluates contemporary interreligious dialogue activities in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq. In order to do so, it introduces a theoretical framework for analyzing interreligious dialogue activities in the Middle East and presents a cross-national analysis of contemporary dialogue trends and challenges. The report profiles the major dialogue initiatives active in each country and provides resources to learn more about them. In general, the report offers a portrait of a dynamic field in motion whose development reflects both common regional trends and specific national dynamics. Dialogue activities face many political and religious challenges in the region, and the recent decline of interreligious dialogue activity in Turkey highlights its continued vulnerability in the Middle East. Despite these challenges, many of the actors interviewed for this report continue to place great hope in the capacity of dialogue to catalyze spiritual solidarity, social renewal and positive political reform. In many ways, interreligious dialogue activities have become central laboratories in the region where new models of religious and political development are being continuously constructed and tested. These models have the potential to shape the future of religious concerns, social relations and regional politics in the Middle East. The report formulates seven lessons about the organizational success and social relevance of interreligious dialogue activities in the region: Lesson 1: Interreligious dialogue in the Middle East is a relatively young field and its growth is directly connected to the major political and social dynamics shaping the region, including the growth of religiously expressed violence. Lesson 2: The political context of each country affects the development of interreligious dialogue in powerful ways. Most interreligious dialogue organizations perceived local and national political challenges as the most difficult dilemmas they faced in their work. Lesson 3: Much of the interreligious dialogue activity in the region remains local in scope, at the initiative of faith-based organizations, and oriented to serving basic community needs. Lesson 4: There is great sensitivity from multiple types of organizations to the foreign interests and influences that may be tied to interreligious dialogue activities. Lesson 5: There is growing support for interreligious dialogue activities which strengthen citizenship values, even as the exact meaning of those values may change across national contexts. Lesson 6: There is room for more substantive participation and dialogue outreach to youth, women, conservative religious communities and religious groups that are considered to hold extremist beliefs. Lesson 7: Strategies of education were recognized as an essential strategy of action which might effectively build dialogue organizations’ capacity to participate in the reform of religious education or education on diversity in the region.

Religion in Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and Peacemaking RLST 22040 Spring 2022

University of Chicago Divinity School, 2022

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is arguably the most intractable political conflict at present. The conflict has been subjected to various historiographies and narrative explorations, offering often-competing explanations in an attempt to understand its origin and evolvement, and also the failure of its resolution. This course explores the role of religion in the historical development of the conflict and in its contemporary manifestation, while at the same time probing the potential role of religion in the resolution of the conflict and outlining the history of attempts for religious peace-making in Israel/Palestine. Combining concrete historical analysis and intellectual history, the course will focus on the Jewish, Muslim and Christian views of the conflict and its potential resolution, relating to such themes as covenant, messianism, political theology, the sanctity of the land and the role of Jerusalem. These concepts and others will be explored against the backdrop of the concrete history of the conflict, focusing initially on the formative period of 1897-1948, pivoting to the 1967 war and its aftermath and concluding with the religionization of politics in recent decades and its far-reaching consequences.

On the impact of Israel's Judaization policy in the Galilee

Political Geography Quarterly, 1991

This paper provides a critique of G. Falah's recent paper: 'Israeli 'JUdairdtiOn' policy in Galilee and its impact on local Arab urbanization' (Political Geography Quarterly 8 (3), 229-253). Initially, an overview of the strengths and weaknesses of Falah's paper is presented, followed by an evaluation of some of the assertions made in his paper against fresh evidence gathered in recent field research in the Galilee (Yiftachel, 1990). In particular, three topics addressed by Falah are examined in the present paper: the nature of Israel's Judaization of Galilee policy, the conceptual framework used to analyse this policy, and the impact of this policy on Arab-Jewish relations. The paper refers to 'Israel' within its pre-I967 borders. 'The Arabs in Israel' are citizens of the state and do not include the residents of the West Bank and Gaza. Falah's paper: an overview Falah's paper has a dual purpose. It aims to 'examine the nature and motivation' of Israel's planning and settlement policy in the predominantly Arab Galilee region, and to explore the impact of this 'Judaization' policy on patterns of urbanization in local Arab villages (p. 229). The strengths of Falah's paper are twofold: it provides a detailed description of Israel's policy in the Galilee and exposes an important issue to international geographical debate. Although Falah's description of the policy is not free of factual and analytical difficulties (as discussed below), it nonetheless provides a very extensive and detailed portrayal of Israel's attempts to increase Jewish population and land control in the Galilee region which may be of use to students of the subject. Falah also addresses an important geographical topic which is directly linked to key issues such as the character of Israeli democracy, the ability of Zionist ideology to be reconciled with the reality of a plural society and the broader relations between Israelis and Palestinians. The geographical analysis presented by Falah is timely, as the study of Arab-Jewish relations in Israel has often lacked a spatial perspective (for some exceptions see Waterman, 1980; Soffer, 1986; Schnell, 1987; Kipnis, 1988). In addition, most geographical research on the subject has not seriously considered the perceptions and attitudes of the Arab population, concentrating instead on analysing the impact of events in the Galilee on Jewish goals and populations (see Kipnis, 1984; Newman,

The clash between Christian and Islamic religion – The State of Israel

4th International e-Conference on Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences: Conference Proceedings, 2019

The aim of the 4 th International e-Conference on Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences (4IeCSHSS) was to bring together scholars, administrators and students from different countries, and to discuss theoretical and practical issues in different areas of Humanities and Social Sciences. The e-Conference was organized as a kind of a multidisciplinary forum which provided the appropriate opportunities for inter-disciplinary communications.

RELIGION 311 • HOLY LANDS: SACRED REALITIES, POLITICAL STORIES

This course places the current religious and political conflict in Israel and Palestine into an historical and contemporary socio-political context. Our primary goal is to expose students to the diversity of perspectives-Palestinian, Israeli, Arab-Israeli, Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Sufi, Mizrahi, Sephardi, Ashkenazi, Left and Right, Religiously Orthodox or Progressive, Secular and Nationalist-within the region and to help them to consider the ways in which history and memory, place and symbol, practices and poetic-theological traditions have cultivated sentiments (political, social, cultural and religious).