International Interfaith Centre Annual Lecture 1995: The Eco-Human Crisis: Interfaith Dialogue and Global Responsibility

The Eco-Human Crisis: Interfaith Dialogue and Global ResponsibilityThe thesis I put before you today is that this eco-human crisis - and the suffering that propels the crisis - must be not only a central concern for each religious tradition and community individually: it must also be a central concern in the religions efforts to understand each other. The crisis is such that its resolution demands the contribution and co-operation of all religious communities. All the individual religions bear a shared global responsibility. Global responsibility - i.e. a responsibility to do something about the eco-human suffering that is causing global crises can and must become the common ground, the common starting point and context, the global commons for interreligious discourse. With global responsibility as the arena for inter-faith discourse, I suspect that the religions will not only be able to contribute to resolving our global crises, but they will also be able to understand, learn from, and enhance each other as never before. Global responsibility can provide a new hermeneutical context in which religions can better grasp their differences and make something positive out of those differences. An alternate title for this paper might be: 'Global Responsibility and the Hermeneutical Circle for Interfaith Dialogue

Horizons on Christianity's New Dialogue with Buddhism

A survey of recent Christian literature on the dialogue with Buddhism reveals a conversation which is new in both spirit and content. This article summarizes these new directions in five areas: 1) the methodology of dialogue; 2) the nature of the ultimate and of religious language; 3) religious experience as an experience of selflessness 4) the value and need of acting in the world, and 5) the unique, salvific mediation of Jesus and Gautama. In each of these areas, suggestions are offered as to how the new insights from the dialogue with Buddhism might aid in clarifying questions and incoherencies in present-day Christian doctrine and practice

Commitment to One -- Openness to Others: A Challenge for Christians

As we so often hear, Christians of every new generation, or in any new cultural context, have to answer for themselves the question Jesus posed for the first generation of disciples: "Who do you say I am?" (Mk 8:27) This is a question that can be answered only in the light of other questions—that is, the personal, social, political, scientific questions we find ourselves grappling with in our own age and experience. The meaning of Jesus "becomes flesh" again in the meaning and direction we struggle for in our own times

Key Questions for a Theology of Religions

Given the spate of studies seeking to elaborate a theology of religions that have appeared over the last five years, it is evident that the question of the "many religions," like that of the "many poor," is one of the issues that most disturb, and therefore can most invigorate, Christian consciousness. In what follows, I would like to review and analyze what I think are some of the pivotal issues in Christian efforts to come to a clearer, more adequate and coherent, understanding of other religions and of Christianity in the light of other faiths

“Don’t Move”: Redefining “Physical Restraint” in Light of a United States Circuit Court Divide

To reduce sentencing disparities and clarify the application of the sentencing guide to the physical restraint enhancement for a robbery conviction, this Comment argues that the United States Sentencing Commission (USSC) must amend the USSC Guidelines Manual to provide federal courts with a clearer and more concise definition of physical restraint. Additionally, although there are many state-level sentencing systems throughout the United States, this Comment only focuses on the federal sentencing guidelines for robbery because of the disparate way in which these guidelines are applied from circuit to circuit

A Monk Sacred and Profane

Review of "The Seven Mountains of Thomas Merton," by Michael Mott

Confirmation Through Conflict? Some Questions for the Dialogue of Touchstones

My first reading of Maurice Friedman's essay produced much the same effects that are had—today, alas, so seldom—from a good sermon. I was downright inspired and enlivened with new insights and new hopes concerning the contemporary encounter of religions. With his image of touchstones, Friedman avoids academic annotated analysis and provides creative, practical theology. Though he does not indicate it through notes or references, he is very well acquainted with the literature and central issues in the contemporary discussion on "the many religions"—how to understand them and how to lead them to a more authentic and effective dialogue

Proposal for an Animal Crimes Unit within the Milwaukee Police Department

The incidence of animal abuse continues to rise in communities across this nation. The range of animal abuse crimes includes starvation and neglect, dog fighting, sexual abuse to malicious killing. Research indicates that crime against or involving animals often leads to crime against humans, interpersonal violence. Many animal abuse crimes go unreported, and the human victims involved are unidentified. Overburdened with crimes against humans, many police departments do not have the resources available to focus on animal abuse. To address this issue, animal crimes units are being initiated in police departments in some major cities. The purpose ofthis research study is to determine if the development of an animal crimes unit would be beneficial to the community to break the cycle of violence that often starts with crimes against or involving animals. This research also seeks to determine if there is a positive or negative correlation between the investigation of animal cruelty and the identification of interpersonal crimes and future offenders by animal crimes units. The study also serves as a proposal to the Milwaukee Police Department to support the addition of an animal crimes unit to their organization. This qualitative study surveys members and former members of the Chicago Police Department\u27s Animal Crimes Team to identify the strengths and weaknesses of having an animal crimes unit as an arm of the police department. Findings indicate that animal crimes unit investigations of animal cruelty aid in the identification of interpersonal crimes and future offenders. Research limitations include low sample size and the lack of research on the effectiveness of animal crimes unit

Central Place and Central Flow

This chapter presents the idea of integrating central place and central flow theory in order to gain a deeper understanding of economic interactions, ranging from the local to the supra-regional scale. Central place theory is suitable to describe the local exchange relationships between settlements and their hinterland. Central flow theory puts forward the idea of cooperation of specific agents. These agents create new work due to the substitution of imports; an inter-settlement interaction between these agents creates a network of goodand information exchange. Hence, both concepts should be regarded as complementary since they describe two important aspects of the characteristics of places: the relationships to their hinterland and the integration of its people into networks of exchange

A Dialogical Church: Newly Born and Still Growing

As I look back over the past quarter century, since the birthing of Horizons, I witness, from my personal theological perch, the concomitant birthing of what we might call a "dialogical church." Since the theological watershed of Vatican IPs Nostra Aetate, there has begun in the church, especially the Roman Catholic Church, a sea-change in its relationships with other religions. In this "Declaration on the Relationship of the Church to Non-Christian Religions," a Christian church did something that no Christian church had ever done before in its two-millennia journey through history: it affirmed the divinely given truth and value of other religions and then called upon its sons and daughters, "prudently and lovingly" to engage in "dialogue and collaboration with the followers of other religions." This shift (some might call it an about-face) in Christian attitudes gave birth to a new kind of church—a church that gradually has come to understand itself as a religious community in conversation with other religious communities