3 LA religious institutions developing curriculum to tackle divisiveness

Religious conflicts grab headlines each day. A new partnership in Southern California aims to build bridges between religious leaders of different faiths. Three different religious institutions are collaborating on a new a graduate-level curriculum and seminary program.

At first the idea behind the joint effort may sound like the set up to a joke: A priest, a rabbi and an imam all walk into the same theological seminary and what happens?

“And they suddenly discover they like one another. We hope that’s the punchline,” says Rev. Dr. Jerry Campbell, president of the Claremont School of Theology.

The Methodist institution is teaming up with the Academy for Jewish Religion and the Islamic Center of Southern California. Starting this fall, students and clergy will be able to enroll in classes at each others institutions.

The goal is to build friendships and deepen knowledge.

“We’re hoping our students will develop an understanding and respect for other religious traditions that will help them in their ministries wherever they serve in the world. And that they will build bridges, work with partnerships to heal the world, to provide some guidance,” Kathy Black, acting dean at Claremont, says, to counter “the destruction that’s happening because of religious differences. That they will be the peace makers and the peace builders. “

Rabbi Mel Gottlieb is president of the Academy for Jewish Religion based at UCLA. He responded to critics who’ve raised concerns that a joint religious studies program would lead to a watering down of faith.

“Every religion is particularistic and universal. So we have our particular way but ultimately it leads to the same message of universal acknowledgment of the oneness of God and the oneness of humanity and the beauty of the evolution of life on our planet so we have to get back to that. “

Najeeba Syeed-Miller, a professor of inter-religious education at the Claremont School of Theology, is developing the curriculum. It will include courses in conflict resolution.

“The inter-religious component is about dulling hate,” she says “That sort of is a no-brainer. None of us benefit when religious communities operate out of hate for one another. The seeming impossible is possible. And that is holding onto your tradition, holding onto your scholarship and at the same time reaching out and creating bridges of understanding and appreciation for one another. “

Syeed-Miller says this is the first such program in the country in which clerical leaders and students from different religious traditions will deliberate and study their faiths together in the same classroom.

“We are in a pluralistic society here in the United States,” she says. “It’s an historic collaboration. I think we’ve seen many efforts before with one group inviting another in. But the idea here is equal partnership. “

The Islamic Center is a mosque and community organization. There is no Islamic seminary in Southern California. So a center for advanced Islamic scholarship will also be created as part of the joint program in the months and years ahead.