Jay Phillips Center for Jewish-Christian Learning to host panel on interfaith dialogue
This autumn marks the 40th anniversary of Nostra Aetate (“In Our Time”), a Second Vatican Council declaration on the relationship of the Catholic Church to non-Christian religions. After centuries of virtual isolationism on the part of the church, this historic document paved the way for a new era of interfaith dialogue.
To highlight the significance of Nostra Aetate and to explore the challenges of the dialogue it sparked, the Jay Phillips Center for Jewish Christian Learning will present several events this fall.
The first, a panel discussion, begins at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 29, in O’Shaughnessy Educational Center auditorium at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. Free and open to the public, the discussion will center on challenges of interfaith relations facing Jewish, Muslim and Christian communities.
Panelists include:
- Rabbi Barry Cytron, director of the Jay Phillips Center
- Hamdy El- Sawaf, executive director of the Islamic Center of Minnesota
- Rev. Steven McMichael, O.F.M. Conv., of the University of St. Thomas Theology Department
- John Merkle, chair of the Theology Department of St. John’s University and the College of St. Benedict
- Marilyn Salmon, associate professor at United Theological Seminary in New Brighton
The discussion’s sponsor, the Jay Phillips Center for Jewish-Christian Learning – a center sponsored jointly by the University of St. Thomas and St. John’s University – plays a leadership role in interfaith education. The discussion is co-sponsored with the Commission for Ecumenism and Interfaith Affairs of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, and the St. Thomas Theology Department.
For more information, please call the Jay Phillips Center, (651) 962-5780, or visit its Web site at www.stthomas.edu/jpc.
