The Universe Is More Than Mere Matter

In Thinking About Religion And Society In The 21st Century, We Should Broaden The Conversation About Faith From Doctrinal Debates To The Larger Question Of How It Might Inspire Us To Strengthen The Bonds Of Belonging That Redeem Us From Our Solitude, Helping Us To Construct Together A Gracious And Generous Social Order.

Yom Hashoah Is A Vital Day In The Jewish Calendar, Providing Us With A Focal Point For Our Remembrance. We Cannot Bring The Dead Back To Life, But We Can Bring Their Memory Back To Life And Ensure They Are Not Forgotten. We Can Undertake In Our Lives To Do What They Were So Cruelly Prevented From Doing In Theirs.

While Everyone Else Is Thinking About Economics And Politics, Executive Salaries And The Future Of The Euro, Do The Opposite, Even If It's Hard. Invest In The Spirit.

Sometimes The Sight Of Someone In One Faith Wrestling With That Faith Can Empower You To Wrestle With Another Faith. For Me, It Was Reading About How The Catholic Church Wrestled With Itself In The 1960s. Pope John Xxiii Set Nostra Aetate - The Declaration On The Relation Of The Church With Non-christian Religions - In Motion. It Changed The Relationship Between Jews And Catholics. Today, Jews And Catholics Meet As Friends. If You Can Do That, After The Longest History Of Hatred The World Has Known, That Empowers You As A Jew Or A Muslim To Wrestle With Your Faith.

In The Post-enlightenment Europe Of The 19th Century The Highest Authority Was No Longer The Church. Instead It Was Science. Thus Was Born Racial Anti-semitism, Based On Two Disciplines Regarded As Science In Their Day - The 'scientific Study Of Race' And The Social Darwinism Of Herbert Spencer And Ernst Haeckel.