Inter-Religious Panel on Suffering and Healing  

Inside the Core this week we hold our third Inter-religious Panel, this time on the topic of Suffering and Healing, co-sponsored again by the Center of Catholic studies and, for the first time, the Center for Faculty Development. Dr. Amar Dev Amar of the Stillman School of Business has worked closely from the beginning on this project, bringing a lot of vision and passion to these panels, so he is truly a co-sponsor as well. We are honored that our panel of faculty scholars will be introduced by Msgr. John Radano, faculty member of ICSST and a member of Seton Hall's priest community. He has been involved in inter-religious, as well as ecumenical, dialogue for many years, having taken part in two world Assemblies of the "World Conference on Religion and Peace", one in Princeton in 1979, the other in Nairobi, Kenya, 1984. He also served as the Chair of the Religious Studies Department at Seton Hall.

Our panelists represent the four faith traditions textually represented in the University Core (Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam). Though other faiths are often brought into Core classroom discussions, these four faiths are represented by required readings in either Core I or Core II or both. They also represent a variety of disciplines, again, emblematic of the inter-disciplinary nature of the University Core:

• Dr. Arundhati Sanyal, Senior Faculty Associate and Director of the Writing Center, Department of English, for the Hindu faith
• Rabbi Alan Brill, Associate Professor of Jewish Christian Studies, Department of Religion, for the Jewish faith
• Msgr. Gerry McCarren, Associate Professor of Systematic Theology and Spiritual Director for Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology, for the Christian faith
• Dr. Issam Aburaya, Associate Professor, Department of Religion, for the Islamic faith.

As in the past, the discussion is very relevant to our current experience as no one needs to be reminded that there is much suffering in the world right now. The panel will be addressing how the various faith traditions address suffering, always looking toward healing as well.

There is a deep relevance of this topic in various ways to the current time. I am writing this short piece on Holy Thursday, as Christians begin the three holiest days of our tradition, with Good Friday and Easter following it. The suffering of Christ and the healing (and redemption) that came through it, culminating on Easter, are central to these sacred days. Also, Passover, beginning on Friday evening and continuing through the week in which we hold the panel, involves the suffering of the Israelites, which led to the sacred intervention the Lord sent through Moses, leading to the healing of liberation and the promised land. We have also been hearing on the news terrible instances of suffering experienced by the Ukrainian people. We all, in our various faith traditions, hope and pray and, when possible act, for healing and peace in our troubled world.

We all look forward to hearing from our faculty scholars share from their own faith traditions on this important and timely topic.

Please click here to join the event on Teams!

Categories: Faith and Service