[Episcopal News Service] Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams visited the U.S. in March to convene the third Building Bridges seminar — a dialogue of Muslim and Christian scholars — at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

Following similar meetings in London in 2002 and Qatar in 2003, the seminar, which concluded April 1, invited scholars from around the world to focus on the understanding of prophecy in the two faith communities through intensive study of Biblical and Qu’ranic texts.

Peace and human fulfillment

In a pre-conference lecture entitled “Analysing Atheism: Unbelief and the world of Faiths,” Williams spoke about the importance of interreligious dialogue in understanding what atheism means--how we need to know which gods are being rejected and why. “It seems that, in differing degrees, most major religious discourses require and cultivate unbelief,” he said. “And so when we try to consider and understand atheism of any kind, our first question has to be what it is about some particular bit of speech about God is causing trouble, and whether it is in fact essential to a religious tradition’s understanding of what it means by God or the divine.”

Speaking to a hall of nearly 400 people, Williams explained that the challenge of atheism is one that has the potential to deepen what is said about our commitments. “To come to a point where you disbelieve passionately in a certain kind of God may be the most important step you can take in the direction of the true God,” Williams said.

Prompting awareness


	The Rev. Robert Sessum (center), rector of Good Shepherd, Lexington, and a member of the Anglican Consultative Council received ashes on Ash Wednesday from Archbishop Desmond Tutu. ACNS Photo

Concentrating on the Abrahamic faiths--Judaism, Christianity and Islam--Williams argued that believing in a source of energy, forgiveness and love independent of ourselves requires us to establish that we are not looking to fill the gaps in our imperfect self-awareness and willingness to change if we are to prevent it from becoming a belief that weakens our responsibility and imprisons us in fantasy. Furthermore, he indicated that Buddhism’s denial of a personal God weakens the incentive for dealing with distraction or selfishness and constitutes an escape from the practical analysis of the mind’s liberation. “In other words,” he said, “for practitioners of the Abrahamic faiths, Buddhism is good for you; it asks awkward questions.”

Faced with the disbeliefs of another religious tradition, Williams said, participants [in Abrahamic dialogue] should be prompted to ask whether the God of the other’s belief is or is not the God they themselves believe in. “Part of the fascination and indeed the spiritual significance of dialogue is the discovery of how one’s own commitments actually work, and specifically how they work under pressure and under question,” he said.

Understanding love

At the end of the lecture Williams was asked how, in gathering a group of Muslim and Christian scholars in a world of conflict, he hoped to bridge the gap in a war-torn world.

“I hope the gathering sends a message of its own kind,” he said. “We met last year in the Middle East as war was breaking out. I hope the fact of our being there helped to send a message.” He added that to spend three days sitting with each other’s scriptures is a very important and moving occasion, which helps in understanding each other’s love. “When we understand each other’s love, we understand each other more,” he said.

(— Matthew Davies is staff writer of Episcopal News Service.)

Prev | Next