Indigenous People as the Other: Debates in Christian Thought Ray Aldred

This paper is an attempt to have Bartolome De Las Casas and Tzvetan Todorov in dialogue to explore the understanding of the “other” and modernity. Bartolome De Las Casas believed that the discovery of America by Columbus was God’s providential work. Tzvetan Todorov proposes that Las Casas was motivated by a subtle egocentrism that saw the Indigenous people as “wild” Christians in need of the faith. Todorov’s own proposal is that the conquest of America and the colonial period highlight the necessity of an evolution, parting from Rousseau’s thought, claiming that that all people are equal and that no one culture is superior to others. Although the enlightenment proposal of Todorov is a helpful lens to evaluate Las Casas’ motives and failure to appreciate the Indigenous people for who they are, his own proposal would subject Indigenous people to the evaluation of his own gentler form of universal progress without religion. My own thesis is that neither Todorov or Las Casas acknowledge the appreciation for Indigenous identity perfectly, but for the latter, Christian faith sees Indigenous people as rational human beings able to receive the gospel. Todorov’s ideal of respectful progress in enlightenment terms presumes the inadequacy of Christianity and makes a judgment for Indigenous people about Christian faith. As such Las Casas provides a critique of the modern enlightenment failure to see the significance of Christian faith for all humanity.

Christianity Without Enemies Jason Byassee

How can Christian doctrine be a practical and clear—even delightful—set of guidelines for how to preach and be Christian today? Manicheanism was an important ancient near eastern religion, with a dualistic philosophy of good and evil, that formed the backdrop for Augustine of Hippo’s conversion to Catholic Christianity. Scholars have debated its ongoing importance in Augustine’s own thought, and in the last generation remarkable work was done to clarify its teaching on its own terms. For our purposes I will still (perhaps fool-hardily!) define it as a Christian “heresy,” that is, an alternative vision against which we should still define ourselves. Christian theology tends to define itself over against a constructed “other.” Mainline liberals need an enemy—usually evangelicals, to understand who they are. Likewise evangelicals pillory the mainline world as a perceived errant backdrop against which to define their righteousness. Can we have Christianity without enemies? How can we praise God, be the body of Christ, love our neighbours and serve the poor, without denigrating anybody? This paper hopes the answer is “yes,” and will use Augustine to say how.

Esau my (Br)other: The Esau Narrative in 3 Faith Traditions Jay Eidelman

The paper examines interpretations of the biblical narrative of Esau/Edom in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, focusing on the implications for conceptions of the "other" in western religious traditions. The conflict between Jacob and Esau as recounted in Genesis plays a central role in Judaism's understanding of its origins and the closely related idea of the covenantal relationship between God, the Jewish People, and the Land of Israel. The narrative is revisited and reinterpreted over several generations starting with the restoration-era biblical prophets and proceeding through the aggadic traditions of the Talmudic period and beyond. In rabbinic Judaism, Esau/Edom signifies the eternal other. Judaism's reading of the Esau narrative within the bible and in post-biblical sources goes on to influence both the Christian and, to a lesser extent, Muslim understanding of Esau. Using a historical framework, the paper traces the development of these traditions and comments on the implications for present day conflict.

“Hindu Traditions Offering Positive Approaches to Others” Acharya Shrinath Prasad Dwivedi

The negative approach significantly inflicts the modern world and it can be only broken by a paradigm shift toward a more positive thinking. The negative thoughts contribute in magnifying hatred, prejudice, injustice, discrimination and violence thus there is need to cultivate an environment of compassion, love, oneness and respect for each other through constructive humanitarian way. This paper explores the relevant references of Hindu scriptures which focus on positive concepts such as - Vasudhaiv Kutumbkam (Universal Family), Ekam Sad Vipra Bahudha Vadanti (Truth is one but interpreted by scholars differently), Sarve Bhavanti Sukhinah (For the happiness of all) and Adroha Sarv Bhuteshu Karmana Mansa Gira (Not to have any hostility towards any living being) etc.

We Are All Outsiders: Negotiating Imaginary Territory in Pakistan

Patricia Gruben The conflicts in Pakistan surrounding feudalism, colonialism, religious fundamentalism, and global politics are beautifully and subtly documented in a 1961 novel by Bapsi Sidhwa, The Pakistani Bride. The book’s main characters are two young women transposed into alien cultures through marriage. Both women are outsiders whose fantasies of love and romance are destroyed by cultural misunderstanding, complicated by gender-based alienation. A few years ago I was asked by a Pakistani-American producer to adapt The Pakistani Bride into a screenplay for an independent feature. The three years I spent on this project were fraught with misunderstanding and alienation, as well as many moments of welcome and fascinating discovery. Attempting to negotiate the cultural politics of a country which is now seen as the extreme Other by the western world, we struggled to frame the subject of Islamic fundamentalism in a way that would be palatable to private financers in Pakistan, American distributors and stars, Canadian funding agencies, and Indian production. This diplomatic challenge was matched by my own creative differences with the producer, many of which themselves originated in cultural (and gender-related) misunderstandings. All of this has led to a new engagement with the notion that we are all outsiders somewhere, on many levels; and we all struggle with the consolidation of our own identity by making Others of those around us.

For the Love of Strangers: A Theology of Hospitality in Colonial Canada Anita Fast

Hospitality is increasingly recognized as definitive for the Christian imagination, refracting the light of numerous Christian doctrines from Christology, ecclesiology and missiology, to the doctrine of God itself. However, for Euro-Christians who benefit from the spoils of imperialism and empire, the practices and theologies of hospitality have often failed to sufficiently confront or dismantle oppressive systems of colonialism and racism, particularly as they are manifest in Christian settler relationships with indigenous peoples and their lands. This paper joins conversations which are addressing the persistent problem of biblical interpretation and theological teaching underwriting, even in subtle ways, the brutality of colonialism, imperialism and racism. In doing so, it seeks to be accountable to indigenous communities and the land, imagining hospitality itself only while holding indigenous world views and perspectives as central. The underlying question is how can a theology of hospitality have teeth sharp enough to cut through the hardened sinews and ossified walls built up by centuries of racism and imperialism in Canada? And finally, what practices might Christian communities engage in to move a theological understanding of hospitality from welcome to dispossession, from hosting to being the guest, and from support to solidarity?

Out-Caste in Paradise K.R. Harding

The problem of homelessness in Hawaii, as a percentage of population, has been well documented as the worst of any state in the United States of America. Governor David Ige has recently declared a state of emergency as a continuum of providers – federal, state and local; public, private and nonprofit – grapples with the situation of so many people, including women and children, living on the street. This paper will examine the power and promise of religious pluralism in combating the extreme “otherness” of chronic homelessness, and will provide a case study of how a broad array of religious institutions has joined in a continuing effort to help alleviate this most challenging of moral issues. Hawaii has a long tradition of religious tolerance, as an independent monarchy, republic, territory and state, and today offers a Congressional delegation that is the most diverse in the country, with members self-identifying as “Jewish, Buddhist, Protestant, and Hindu.” This paper will show how collaborative efforts are yielding positive results in a common, deeply spiritual quest, to reach out to others in unconscionable distress. The paper will advocate for an interfaith strategy of community alliance, pressing urgently for housing solutions.

Dogs As the Other in Augustine's The City of God Midori Hartman

This paper is an exploration of the role of dogs in Augustine's rhetoric in The City of God. In comparison with his repetitive use of particular scriptural references to dogs in his other works, Augustine creatively and subtly uses canines in this text to explore the limits of basic human social relations. In antiquity, dogs were variously coded—faithful and obedient, yet unclean and shameless—making them particularly useful ciphers to address anxiety over the category of the “other” through animality. As I will argue, Augustine used selective tropes associated with dogs to support his exploration of the breakdown of proper human social relations within the post-Fall existence. Specifically, I focus on how he used dogs to examine human issues concerning: A. the betrayal and resistance of proper order and relationships, B. language issues and miscommunication, and C. the limits of human nature concerning shame. To this end, this paper contributes to discussion concerning the role of animality and the non-human other in shaping ideology and rhetoric; furthermore, it provides one example of how species particularity sits in tension with the homogeneity that is at the basis of one category of the other, namely the “animal.”

Vibration of the Other: The Kabbalistic Ecumenism of Reb Nachman of Breslov

Laura Duhan Kaplan This presentation offers an introduction and critical assessment of the deep ecumenism of Kabbalistic teacher Rabbi Nachman of Breslov (1772-1810). Reb Nachman reasons through a metaphorical chain of associations. Because no place in the circle of the universe is empty of God, all wisdoms express Divinity. All are unique frequencies of Divine music that emanate from a single source. The source flows like a river between banks of polarized opinion. The Biblical villain Pharaoh represents the stubborn seeker whose extreme opinions separate people. Only someone like the Biblical hero Moses, who can be silent in the face of conflict, can stand up to Pharaoh. Because this view describes a spiritual reality behind ordinary life, how can it be practically helpful in inter-religious conflict resolution? Where is it located on the spectrum of Jewish responses to other religions? What can each metaphor on its own teach about encountering the Other?

"Is this your god ... killer of children?" Israel's 'Childish' Deity and the Other in Exodus: Gods and Kings

James Magee The plague bringing divinely-ordained death to all firstborn male Egyptians, as narrated in the book of Exodus, is a particularly disturbing story element for many contemporary readers, religious and secular alike. This deadly plot point is inevitably included in adaptations of this ancient legend of destruction and deliverance to film, most recently in the 2014 epic Exodus: Gods and Kings. In a unique twist, Israel's god appears to Moses at the burning bush as the shepherd boy Malak, but this perpetually youthful 'I Am' proves to be no angel. With a cruel smirk, the petulant lad unleashes a series of horrific disasters on the inhabitants of Egypt, culminating with a nocturnal slaughter of helpless children, including Ramses' infant son. Drawing on insights from both the new social studies of childhood and film spectatorship, this paper will explore the movie's portrayal of Israel's god as 'childish' and the impact this particular depiction might have on viewers for whom disregard toward the Other is being modeled. Given cinema's dominance as a medium of contemporary storytelling and the persistence of religiously-motivated hostilities in global contexts, text-to-film adaptations of 'sacred' violence present as subjects for urgent and critical examination.

"I count all things s**t" (Phil. 3.8): Paul, Refuse, and the Other Harry Maier

In his earlier letters, Paul repeatedly draws attention to his lack of status as an apostle. This usually takes place in contexts where there is competition for status and honour amongst his followers or other leaders. In Phi. 3.8 he graphically represents his achievements as sewage (Gr: scubala) to mark his loss of status and gaining of identity through the death of Jesus. The modern Bulgarian-French post-structuralist philosopher, Julia Kristeva, in her treatment of the foreigner as exile, and in her theorization of "the abject" offers a useful lens for understanding otherness as source for identity and of cross-examination of social strategies of the overcoming of the other via social integration and taxonomical organization. For Kristeva the abjected body as a site of excretion becomes a place of powerful construction as one considers it as paralleling the order that makes it other. She discovers in the abject a means of an alternative social construction and explores how religious founders, mystics, poets, and sages have exploited the otherness of the body's unseemly features to contest notions of the seemly and the beautiful. Paul is such a religious founder and his self-execration is an important means of recognizing how he uses otherness to contest formulations of social order that the cross -- the ultimate sign of abjection and execration -- unveils as violent and deadly. The paper thus explores how Paul's representation as refuse, abortion, and garbage invokes a potent counter-identity where all in Christ are called to be the execrable other.

Worldcentric Visions of the Other Within the World’s Religions Trevor Malkinson

Many of the scriptures of the world’s religions contain negative and often violent statements about other peoples and religions. This is understandable to some degree given the deeply ethnocentric nature of the ancient world when most of these texts were written. However, all of these same traditions also contain passages that call for the love of all peoples (and often all creatures). This presentation will foreground this universal spiritual vision found cross-culturally, giving examples from a variety of religious texts. I will argue that this dimension is vitally important to emphasis and celebrate in our own globalizing time, when all of the world’s nations and religions are increasingly being pushed together. These material conditions -- and the conflict seemingly endemic to it -- provide a context within which the world’s religious traditions can help lead humanity to a more harmonious future by living out and proclaiming their own universal-worldcentric heritage.

Swing Shift of the Soul: Encountering the Other as Client and Co- worker in Caregiving Professions

Tif McNaughton As a frontline worker for various social service agencies and institutions, I interact with co-workers and members of the public who are vulnerable, and sometimes unprepared to treat others as they might wish to be treated. Engaging a post-colonial Christian perspective, this paper will identify some of the patterns and experiences common to frontline workers in Western Canada which contribute to moral injury or compassion fatigue, the erosion of momentum for positive social change, and a work-culture of despair. The sociopolitical and theological implications of power imbalances will be considered, and I will explore tools for nourishing reflection and analysis. What does it take to cultivate the self compassion necessary to be present to the Other despite challenging structures and circumstances?

Searching for the Sacred Other in the Palestinian/Israeli Conflict Lynn Mills�

The scope of the Cosmic War being enacted in the lands of Palestine and Israel today leaves little hope for a peaceful solution. There are, however, numerous peace activists and conflict resolution organizations which refuse to give up. Their approaches vary widely. This paper will focus on Martin Buber’s concept of “I and Thou” and how his concept is threaded throughout non-violent approaches to peacemaking in the region. I will explore the particular aspects of one’s will and G!d’s grace in the process of truly encountering the sacred in the Other. I will seek to understand how this is functioning or could function in current and future peace efforts. I propose that it is only when we cease to view the Other as an enemy and instead see them as a sacred Other that a true and lasting peace can be achieved. When enough are willing to encounter the Other, to discover and experience the things we share in common, the world can experience a paradigm shift towards peace.

A Positive Portrait of Rumi's Mindfulness of the “Other" in Sufism

Tuveyc Mordag This paper will explore Rumi’s unique interpretation of Islamic Sufism, with a focus on his positive portrait of the “other.” Rumi’s mindfulness reflects his view of “other” religions and beliefs and non-religions. He understands these religions from a point of view, which “welcomes” everyone to participate a “common spiritualty” and unifies them under this spiritual meaning. Rumi’s “openness” invites people to a multi-religious and multi-cultural understanding and invites them to common sense of humor. Also, Rumi’s mindfulness has a positive impact on the society, which has a multi-religious ands multi-cultural living.

The Project of Sikh Community Formation in the Eighteenth Century

Anne Murphy Punjabi and Sikh-oriented texts from the 18th and early 19th centuries period overall have overwhelmingly been utilized in the scholarly literature in so far as they adhere to a reading generated by a logic outside of the texts themselves: as corroboration, in partial and isolated terms, of historical events and religious developments. The central concern of most of these readings is political, and in particular the political articulation of the Sikh community in the 17th and 18th centuries. This paper will offer an alternative approach to one such text, a historiographical account of the Sikh community and particularly the life of the final Guru of the tradition written in Braj, a classical form of the language now known as "Hindi." I will argue that while political articulation and relationships with state power were central concerns of texts of this genre, the social composition of the Guru's community was a more prevalent overarching concern. Put simply, the question of the inclusion or exclusion of multiple "others" was at the centre of Sikh community formation at the time, visible across a range of texts, sometimes challenging traditional caste-practices towards a capacious vision of community members, and sometimes adhering to these practices. An embrace of this concern allows for a radically different reading of the period, and of the social project of Sikh community formation in the eighteenth century.

Religious Courts on Trial Terry Neiman

Though religions differ in the laws and procedures of their legal systems, religious communities are alike in being outside of the legal system of the State. When the State defines what is a jurisdiction, the practice of religious law points to a religious community as an “other” within mainstream society. Staunch secularists find traditional justice unacceptable on ethical grounds. However, from various perspectives of traditional justice, secular law is not inherently an ethical problem. Islamic and Jewish courts do not practice law as defined by the Law Society. They are forbidden from violating secular law. Why, then, do people want to eliminate Muslim and Jewish courts in democratic countries like Canada? This paper explores religious freedom in the context of historic efforts to limit or ban outright Sharia and Bet Din courts, and current discourses that equate religion with terrorism and totalitarian regimes. It compares the uses of dialogue and negotiation in religious justice with their uses in secular justice. It also considers how recent gains made by First Nations for inclusion of oral tradition in treaty negotiations with Canada argues for the protection of freedom for religious justice.

“A Change of Heart and Mind: Historicizing the Interplay of Shinto, Buddhism and Confucianism in Japan.”

Peter Nosco I hope to compare contrasting examples of how religions in Japan have responded to religious others, by briefly historicizing the complex interplay between kami �worship (Shinto), Buddhism and Confucianism. The first example will outline the contours of the syncretic symbiosis between kami worship and Buddhism that develops during the ninth century in Japan; the second example is the subsequent seventeenth-century symbiosis that arises between kami worship and Neo-Confucianism, in response to the broader embrace of Confucianism by contemporary intellectuals; the third will examine the mutual antipathy that develops during the eighteenth century between Confucianism and forms of kami worship that sought to reconstruct and resurrect a “purer” pre-Buddhist and pre-Confucian Shinto; and the fourth looks at the convergence of Confucianism and nativist Shinto in the nineteenth century Mito School. A key term in this essay will be kokoro (�), which appears in all three traditions and is usually translated as “mind” in discussions of Buddhism or Confucianism, but “heart” when it appears in a Shinto context.

Challenging Constructions of the ‘Religious Other’: Introducing the Iconoclastic Work of Lamin Sanneh

Bob Paul The personal journey of Lamin Sanneh—from his West African Muslim beginnings, to his conversion to Christianity, to his distinguished career as a scholar of comparative religions and the history of Christian mission at Harvard and Yale—illustrates the capacity of individuals to transcend conventional categories and boundaries. Sanneh has written extensively on matters that are of great relevance in today’s world, particularly as they concern the interaction of Christians and Muslims within a secularized cultural context. His body of work includes numerous instances of iconoclastic critique, challenging both religiously based constructions of the ‘other’ and also secular constructions of the ‘religious other’. This paper briefly introduces Sanneh and commends his work as a rich resource for studies on this important subject.

Zhongguohua (���): Postcolonial Contextualization of Christianity in 21st Century Chinese Protestantism.

Craig Perry

This paper will present some of the learnings of the United Church of Canada delegation to the China Christian Council and the National Council of the Three Self Patriotic Movement of the Protestant Churches in China November 29 through December 8, 2015. It will look at present postcolonial attitudes in China. These are in response to what Chinese call the “century of humiliation” which was a direct result of the Opium Wars and the concessions to foreign powers in 19th century China. This period coincided with the period of increased Christian missionary activity in China and the growth of Protestantism in China. Since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, Chinese Protestantism has fallen under the authority of the Three Self Patriotic Movement which seeks to contextualize Christianity to integrate with the harmonious socialist society which is the goal of the People’s Republic. The paper will conclude with a look at the present state of Protestant Christianity in China and will present their goals for the future as they move forward with plans for further contextualization in their postcolonial reality.

‘Unitive Being’ in the Face of Atrocity: American Contemplative Christian Responses to Terrorism

Paula Pryce

How do American Christian contemplatives pursue a universally inclusive vision of “unitive being” when faced with atrocities like ISIS terrorism? Based on phenomenological theory and four years of intensive anthropological fieldwork with cross-denominational American monks and their interreligious non-monastic students who practice the Centering Prayer meditation technique, this paper explores how dedicated practitioners have combined intellectual analysis, “conscious presence,” and contemplative “self-emptying” techniques to prompt “intimacy with the divine,” an experiential expansion of bodily and cognitive boundaries which manifests as a profound sense of interconnection between self and other. Serious practitioners combine contemplative rites and intentional living, including social justice and peacemaking activities, to foster phenomenological intersubjectivity even with those whose behaviour and ideas are in significant conflict with their own. Using data that comes from personal interviews and social media postings about the so-called Islamic State’s November 2015 attacks in Paris and other recent incidents of religious-political violence, the paper shows how contemplative Christians work to shape their responses to brutality through social action and to cultivate “transformation” of disharmony and injustice through contemplative means.

Light From a Dark Horse: Karl Barth on Approaching the Religious Other

Roger Revell Though known for his robust christocentrism, Karl Barth has an interesting perspective on Christianity among the religions. This emerges from his discourse on religion and revelation. Barth contends that it is not only possible, but also fitting, for Christians to approach religious others with humility and expectation. This derives from his unique appraisal of Christian religion, as a phenomenon with parallels in other religions. Barth’s outlook is animated by a special theological commitment: the forbearance of God towards all humans. His Church Dogmatics I/2 and IV/3 unpack the biblical basis and nature of this forbearance. This rumination sets the stage to approach Christian existence in a manner that is marked by a confident but non-exclusive ethos. In all of this, Barth demonstrates that faith in Jesus Christ should not give rise to flimsy and surly depreciation of the religious other. His reasoning nurtures the expectation of encountering God beyond the borders of religion. For Barth, to go deep with Jesus Christ is to go wide with the world. This paper brings a commendation. Barth’s perspective, I argue, is especially beneficial in the North American context, wherein completing religious claims—and caricatures of the religious other—permeate the cultural consciousness.

Exclusive and Inclusive Religion: From Jan Assmann to the Rise of Baal in Ancient Egypt

Thomas Schneider With the publication of Moses the Egyptian in 1997, Of God and Gods: Egypt, Israel, and the Rise of Monotheism in 2008, and The Price of Monotheism in 2010, Jan Assmann has assigned ancient Egypt and its modern imaginations a crucial position in the debate about interreligious relations. His distinction of true and false religion, exclusive and inclusive, primary and secondary religion as well as the attitude monotheism adopts towards tolerance and violence, has stirred a controversy in theology and religious studies. The lecture will look at the religious other in ancient Egypt with a view to understand the mechanism of inclusiveness and inculturation employed towards deities from Syria-Palestine, in particular the rise of Baal to the position of state god in Ramesside Egypt. Whereas Assmann profiles ancient Egyptian polytheism as the very model of an inclusive and tolerant form of religion as opposed to the exclusive Amarna and later Biblical monotheism, a more nuanced reading of the historical sources is required. In actual matter, the evidence indicates a fierce controversy in the earlier Egyptian New Kingdom between different political and religious interests about the question which gods (e.g., Baal) qualified to be “true” and “false” gods of state, and the fact that Baal's integration was due to specific political and religious developments. State polytheism displayed features of exclusiveness that Assmann had singled out for monotheism while Amarna monotheism is rather a radical and probably localized development of this than its fundamental opposite.

Scripture and the Construction of the Religious Other: Comparative Reflections on the Abrahamic Traditions

Ryan D. Schroeder The contents of sacred scriptures furnish numerous examples of and ample material for a variety of religious Othering strategies. However, practically speaking, socio-religious boundaries emerge from a wide range of factors external to the texts themselves, but intrinsic to the very existence and operability of any sacred scripture. Diverging canon delimitations, differing hermeneutical preferences, and conflicting scripture-theologies (“scripturologies”) enable religious communities to define collective identities – and alterity – in relation to sacred texts before those texts are even read. Simply put, beliefs about scripture constitute elements crucial to religious identity and conceptions of religious Otherness. In this essay, I describe a number of ways in which “scripture,” as a religious/cultural construct, contributes to the construction of the religious Other. My broad comparative approach focuses primarily on the function of scripture in the boundary creation and maintenance of religious communities within the so-called Abrahamic traditions. Throughout, I discuss specific examples (both historical and contemporary) and suggest several general categories of scripture-related Othering. I argue that the numerous variables involved in the definition and use of sacred scripture render inevitable the endless emergence of religious Others. Finally, I offer a few reflections that might contribute positively to (inter-)religious and cross- cultural conversations.

Portrayal of Christianity in the Qur’an Syed Nasir Zaidi

The focus of this study will be to examine the Quranic position on Christianity and the article will cover the following aspects of the Christian faith mentioned in the Qur’an. The Qur’an takes principle stand and gives clear message about the possibility of salvation of the Christians and Jews. The Qur’an admires Christian priests and monks because of their moral and ethical soundness. The Qur’an invites Christians to come close to Islam on the basis of common grounds. The Qur’an also instructs its followers not to disputes with the Christians and Jews except in a best moral way. The Qur’an also instructs its followers to collect special tax (Jazya) from the Christians and Jews if they want to live peacefully under the Islamic Government. What was the philosophy behind this? Should it be perceived by others negatively? The Qur’an also disagrees with the belief that Jesus Christ is a son of God. How the Qur’an pursues this issue? The Qur’an also says to its believers not take the Jews and the Christians for friends. Does the Qur’an say this for true Christians and Jews or those who are transgressors and violators of their own religion? Above topics will be covered in the paper from theological, sociological and historical perspective.