The controversy on resurgence of religious beliefs in the modern world and its ramifications is an urgent topic. On August 16, 2006, the Graduate Theological Union and the Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California assembled distinguished scholars from diverse backgrounds and religious and scholarly perspectives to foster dynamic discussion in a joint conference entitled “Religion and the Contemporary World: Religion and Democracy.”

Nearly 200 participants attended the day-long event, which was sparked by contributions from members of the GTU community, including President James A. Donahue, DSPT Professor Marianne Farina, Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish Studies Visiting Scholar Shana Penn, Rabbi Yoel Kahn (Ph.D. ’99), and Hamid Mavani, former GTU and SKSM adjunct faculty member. Distinguished religious scholars Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Khaled Abou El Fadl, and Huston Smith gave keynote presentations.

Exploring the intersection of faith and society, panelists focused on the meaning and place of religious pluralism. Dr. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, a world-renowned scholar of Islam and University Professor of Islamic Studies at George Washington University, explained how the Islamic tradition supported the theory of a “transcendent unity of religions”; GTU alumnus Rabbi Yoel Kahn, associate director of the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, offered a Jewish perspective.

Others examined trends of religious extremism and fundamentalism. Accomplished Islamic scholar and professor at the UCLA School of Law, Dr. Khaled Abou El Fadl, argued that the Islamic tradition provides numerous points of connection with people from other faiths.

The differences of perspective and opinion at the conference underlined the need for dialogue on the relationship between religion and state. On the question of the role of Islam in modern secular societies and interpretations of theocracy, Dr. Ahmad Sadri, professor of sociology and anthropology at Chicago’s Lake Forest College, defended modernity and modernism, asserting that objective secularism is a positive development. Dr. Hamid Mavani, assistant professor of religion at Claremont Graduate University and a member of the GTU task force for the Islamic Studies program challenged the premise that democracy cannot come about without a complete secularization of the society. 

GTU President Donahue analyzed the complex relationship between religion and democracy, calling religious identity a powerful and compelling reality in democratic societies. CJS Visiting Scholar Shana Penn drew from the recent history and current dynamics in Poland to illustrate the meeting points and tensions of such an arrangement.

The conference epitomized the GTU’s mission to reflect critically and creatively on the contemporary resurgence of religious beliefs in the modern world.  

Thanks to Jafar Shenasa of the Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California for contributing to this article.

The GTU is currently developing a Center for Islamic Studies which will directly address many of the issues discussed at the conference and will play a vital role in interreligious collaboration essential to the GTU’s vision and to global understanding.