This event featured a panel discussion on the election of Pope Leo XIV, the first American pope in the history of the Roman Catholic Church. Panelists examined the global and interreligious implications of his historic election, his relationship to the legacy of Pope Francis, and the early indications of the priorities that may shape his pontificate. The discussion also addressed Pope Leo’s expressed concern for the ethical and moral dimensions of artificial intelligence—an increasingly urgent area at the intersection of faith, technology, and public life.

In this conversation event based on the Silber-Obrecht Lectures, Rabbi Dr. Rachel S. Mikva will draw from scriptures and their interpretations to explore what diverse notions of “the human” mean for our daily lives, communities, and body politic. The Silber-Obrecht Lectures (two lectures and a response) have been pre-recorded and are available for viewing now on the Silber-Obrecht Videos page of the ICJS website. All registrants to this conversation event will receive an email with a link to the recorded lectures. 

Howard Thurman was arguably the most important 20th century African American religious leader before Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and is universally acclaimed as the moral anchor to the modern Civil Rights Movement. This minicourse introduces participants to Thurman in the contexts of African American religious and cultural activism. It explores his relationships with pivotal 20th century actors including Mahatma Gandhi, Reinhold Neibuhr, Abraham Heschel, Olive Schreiner, Rufus Jones, Paul Robeson, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mary McCloud Bethune, demonstrating Thurman as connector and convener, who engineered spiritual reform and an inward journey towards common ground and interfaith work in America.

When we talk about justice and economic empowerment, religious principles inevitably ground the discussion. Our communal ideas of fairness, dignity, and concern for the vulnerable are rooted in religious teachings and scriptures. In this panel, which is a companion to the ICJS course on Economic Justice: Interreligious Reflections on Fairness and Dignity, four Baltimore activists and nonprofit leaders will discuss how their religious identities ground their motivation for doing their work to improve the Baltimore community and why thinking interreligiously matters. All four panel members were members of the 2021 ICJS Justice Leaders Fellowship. Panelists: Farah Shakour Bridges, 4B4 Education Inc. Leon L. Pinkett III, former Baltimore City Council Member, Baltimore Arts Realty Corp. Jessica Klaitman, Let’s Thrive Baltimore Miriam Avins, Baltimore City Commission on Sustainability and Avins Consulting. The panel discussion will be moderated by Fatimah Fanusie, ICJS Program Director, Justice Leaders.

Four ICJS Teacher Fellows join in conversation with Christine Gallagher, ICJS program director for Teacher Programs, on where they see religion in their classroom curriculum, what questions students are asking, and how they are learning to transform their institutions into places that promote pluralism and religious understanding. Participants include: Jill Aizenstein (Beth Tfiloh Dahan), Brendan Bailey (Loyola Blakefield), Kenya Beard (Baltimore Polytechnic), and Patrice Frasier (Baltimore Polytechnic).

One hundred years after the Scopes Trial, the debate over religion and education is far from over. With state legislatures introducing new policies that shape what can—and cannot—be taught in public schools, it’s crucial to understand the power of legal precedent and local control. Watch this thought-provoking discussion on how the Scopes Trial serves as both a warning and a roadmap for pushing back against restrictive education laws today.  

Mary, the mother of Jesus—Maryam in Arabic—is venerated by Christians and Muslims around the world. This course examines the Islamic portrayal of Mary as described in the Qur’an and the holy narrations of Prophet Muhammad, both normative sources for Muslims, identifying similarities and differences that emerge in the Muslim depictions of Mary. By presenting examples of Islamic art and architecture, ICJS Muslim Scholar Zeyneb Sayilgan, Ph.D., highlights Mary’s ongoing importance in Muslim life. Finally, Sayilgan reflects on the possibilities of how Mary can serve as an important interreligious figure who can both divide and unite.

Death is universal. Yet, the beliefs, responses, and rituals around this shared human experience, influenced by religion and culture, vary widely. In this minicourse, we will examine Muslim views and responses related to death. How can Muslim perspectives contribute to our understanding and facilitate a better engagement in facing human mortality?

Today, antisemitism is still a social and political problem. However, many disagree as to what it actually is. This course explores the various efforts in history to define antisemitism and the political factors that inform them. We examine a few contemporary definitions of antisemitism and evaluate the political worldviews of each, so that participants can consider the role these definitions play in efforts to counter antisemitism as well as how they inform broader socio-political concerns.

Martin Buber is one the most influential thinkers of the 20th century. This course explored his notion of dialogue as expressed in his corpus of writing, ranging from comparative mysticism to biblical commentary, existentialism to poetry, philosophy to cultural Zionism, and psychology to diplomacy. Buber artfully guided his readers beyond the conventional confines of east/west and religious/non-religious through the myriad sources and influences that comprise the experiences, themes, and aspirations of his 1923 magnum opus, I and Thou. In addition to his classic work, the course looked at his works on Hasidism, mysticism, and exegesis, as well as his ruminations on Zionism and the Israeli-Palestinian impasse. Participants were invited to think about how Buber’s views on dialogue can inform not only their own perspective, but also how religious and political leaders can work together toward achieving this complicated, yet also simple dialogical orientation to the “Thou.” The course also raised the question of how the life of dialogue both disorients and enriches our lives.