GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- will held from 8:30 a.m.-9 p.m. at Grand Valley's Eberhard Center, 301 W. Fulton, on the Pew Grand Rapids Campus. Presentations will be given by three distinguished scholars: James Carroll, Vincent Cornell, and Donniel Hartman, with Martin E. Marty as moderator.
This triennial event is sponsored by the Sylvia and Richard Kaufman Interfaith Institute and Grand Valley State University, in cooperation with the West Shore Committee for Interfaith Dialogue. Registration and a $10 fee are required for the day-long program. The evening session is open to the public free of charge. Optional lunch and dinner is available. For a complete schedule and more details, call (616) 331-5702, or visit www.interfaith-mi.org.
This event and the Kaufman Interfaith Institute are supported by the Louis and Helen Padnos Foundation, The Rosenzweig Coopersmith Foundation, the Lilly Endowment Inc., the Jewish Federation of Grand Rapids, the Special Needs Fund of the Grand Haven Area Community Foundation, United Jewish Charities of Greater Muskegon, Muskegon County Cooperating Churches, and numerous West Michigan individuals, organizations, and corporations.
Biographies:
Donniel Hartman, an Orthodox Rabbi, is co-director of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. The Institute is a leading innovator in the field of pluralistic Jewish thought, and Judaic research, and a major center for Rabbinic and lay leadership education, as well as interfaith learning. Rabbi Hartman founded and directs some of the largest and most extensive training and enrichment programs for senior educators and rabbis serving Israel and North America. He oversees and helps coordinate the Institute's interfaith work bringing together Christian, Jewish, and Muslim scholars from around the world in order to develop new avenues of understanding.
James Carroll, distinguished scholar-in-residence at Suffolk University, is known for his writing and long work toward Jewish-Christian-Muslim reconciliation. He is the author of more than 12 books and novels, including the best-seller, Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews, which was honored as one of the Best Books of 2001 by the Los Angeles Times, and The Christian Science Monitor. His recent book, Practicing Catholic, has been described as a historic, spiritual and aesthetic memoir recounting his own personal relationship to the Roman Catholic Church.
Vincent Cornell, a practicing Muslim, is the Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Middle East and Islamic Studies at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. From 2000-2006, he was a professor of history and director of the King Fahd Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies at the University of Arkansas. From 1991-2000, he taught at Duke University. He is the editor of the five-volume set Voices of Islam, a comprehensive introduction to Islamic religion, thought, life, and civilization with chapters by 50 Muslim authors, including many of the premier scholars of Islamic Studies.
Martin E. Marty (moderator) is professor emeritus at the University of Chicago where he taught in the Divinity School for 35 years. He is the author of more than 50 books including the three-volume Modern American Religion. He is well known as a speaker, columnist, and Lutheran pastor. He is the recipient of numerous honors including the National Humanities Award, the National Book Award, and the Medal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and many others. He is the recipient of more than 70 honorary doctorates. In 1994, Marty participated in the Jewish/Christian Dialogue with Rabbi David Hartman in Muskegon.
