Here, for all intents and purposes, is an advertisement to sell a book. More completely, though, it represents the work and the concern of the Shalom Center to realize its mission for harmonious and supportive relations among believers and people of faith.
The ugly outburst of Islamophobia continues. Its use by politicians to whip up votes may subside after the November elections, but the fear and anger generated by the Great Recession and the unwinnable Afghanistan War will keep on going. Not until our country decides to take our head out of the gas oven of the Afghan war and to take seriously the despair of 15 million jobless Americans will Islamophobia disappear. But just as it did not make sense in 1938 to wait for the end of the Great Depression to combat the anti-Semitism of Father Coughlin and Henry Ford, so it does not make sense to ignore Islamophobia while we also work for peace and social justice. "Combatting" includes not just affirming the constitutional rights of Muslims but also affirming as a positive value the diversity of American religious and cultural life that stands behind and beyond the Constitution. There are many ways to do this. One that draws directly on the work of The Shalom Center is a book that can be used in synagogues, churches, and mosques as a way of learning both the similarities and the differences in the three traditions that spring from Abraham. That book emerged from The Shalom Center's initiative in bringing together a group of Jews, Christians, and Muslims that named itself "The Tent of Abraham, Hagar, and Sarah." The "tent" has met for a long weekend retreat every year since the first anniversary of 9/11. The book, titled The Tent of Abraham: Stories of Hope and Peace for Jews, Christians, and Muslims, is available at discount, and with free shipping, from the Beacon Press. (See below for details.) It includes a preface by Karen Armstrong and essays by Sister Joan Chittister, a world-renowned Benedictine nun; Murshid Saadi Shakur Chisti, a trans-Atlantic Sufi teacher; Rabbi Phyllis Berman; and me. (Phyllis is not on the cover because the publishers insisted her name there would unbalance the three-tradition structure. But she wrote both an excellent guide to "pitching the tent" of such groups and an amazing new interpretation of the relationship between Hagar and Sarah. At least "new" in public knowledge; she explains that it comes from an ancient teaching of women, passed on from mother to daughter or daughter-in-law or niece.) All of us drew on the different versions of the Abrahamic saga in the Torah and the Quran as ways to explore peacemaking, both in society at large and in small groups of face-to-face relationship. The book has been used during the last four years for adult study in congregations of many sorts and flavors.
To order it with a 10% discount and free shipping, click here
and when asked for a discount code, write the word "tent" with no quotation marks.
With blessings of shalom, salaam, shantih, peace -- Arthur
The ugly outburst of Islamophobia continues. Its use by politicians to whip up votes may subside after the November elections, but the fear and anger generated by the Great Recession and the unwinnable Afghanistan War will keep on going. Not until our country decides to take our head out of the gas oven of the Afghan war and to take seriously the despair of 15 million jobless Americans will Islamophobia disappear. But just as it did not make sense in 1938 to wait for the end of the Great Depression to combat the anti-Semitism of Father Coughlin and Henry Ford, so it does not make sense to ignore Islamophobia while we also work for peace and social justice. "Combatting" includes not just affirming the constitutional rights of Muslims but also affirming as a positive value the diversity of American religious and cultural life that stands behind and beyond the Constitution. There are many ways to do this. One that draws directly on the work of The Shalom Center is a book that can be used in synagogues, churches, and mosques as a way of learning both the similarities and the differences in the three traditions that spring from Abraham. That book emerged from The Shalom Center's initiative in bringing together a group of Jews, Christians, and Muslims that named itself "The Tent of Abraham, Hagar, and Sarah." The "tent" has met for a long weekend retreat every year since the first anniversary of 9/11. The book, titled The Tent of Abraham: Stories of Hope and Peace for Jews, Christians, and Muslims, is available at discount, and with free shipping, from the Beacon Press. (See below for details.) It includes a preface by Karen Armstrong and essays by Sister Joan Chittister, a world-renowned Benedictine nun; Murshid Saadi Shakur Chisti, a trans-Atlantic Sufi teacher; Rabbi Phyllis Berman; and me. (Phyllis is not on the cover because the publishers insisted her name there would unbalance the three-tradition structure. But she wrote both an excellent guide to "pitching the tent" of such groups and an amazing new interpretation of the relationship between Hagar and Sarah. At least "new" in public knowledge; she explains that it comes from an ancient teaching of women, passed on from mother to daughter or daughter-in-law or niece.) All of us drew on the different versions of the Abrahamic saga in the Torah and the Quran as ways to explore peacemaking, both in society at large and in small groups of face-to-face relationship. The book has been used during the last four years for adult study in congregations of many sorts and flavors.
To order it with a 10% discount and free shipping, click here
and when asked for a discount code, write the word "tent" with no quotation marks.
With blessings of shalom, salaam, shantih, peace -- Arthur
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