 |
Texas Faith
12:00 AM CDT on Saturday, June 27, 2009
Texas Faith is a weekly discussion that poses questions about religion, politics and culture to a panel of religious leaders. This week's question is: What thinker has most influenced you? Please explain. Here are excerpts from some of this week's answers:
Ric Dexter, Men's Division chapter leader, Nichiren Buddhist (Soka Gakkai organization): Daisaku Ikeda is a Buddhist leader, peace builder, a prolific writer, poet, educator and founder of many cultural, educational and peace research institutions around the world.
His lectures on the writings of Nichiren have led me to the heart of Buddhism.
His commentaries on Shakyamuni's Lotus Sutra have shown me the beauty and interconnectedness of all life.
Reading his published dialogues with leading thinkers such as Arnold Toynbee, Aurelio Peccei, Linus Pauling, Josef Derbolov, among many others, has given me an understanding of people of different nations and cultures, from diverse philosophical and faith traditions.
Cynthia Rigby, W.C. Brown Professor of Theology, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary: The theological thinker who has most influenced me is Karl Barth (1886-1968).
A Swiss theologian in the Reformed theological tradition, Barth has been called one of the most influential theologians of the 20th century. Pope Pius XII once commented, in fact, that Barth is most important theologian since Thomas Aquinas.
One of the reasons he is so influential is because he brought the transcendent God back into the theological equation in an age in which theology had become human-centered (anthropomorphic), and he did it without losing the human side of the equation.
Geoffrey Dennis, rabbi, Congregation Kol Ami in Flower Mound; faculty member, University of North Texas Jewish Studies Program: For me, the two most influential religious thinkers have been Leo Baeck (d. 1954) and Abraham Heschel (d. 1972).
In my younger, more rationalist period, Rabbi Baeck's Kantian- flavored ethics-centered reading of Jewish tradition (The Essence of Judaism) spoke profoundly to me. Even now, though his thought is less compelling to me, is his personal example as a selfless leader who stuck by his Berlin flock and entered the camps with them. If only I had a tenth of such moral vision and courage.
Heschel (God in Search of Man; The Prophets) has been the thinker whose influence has stuck with me over the years. His artful blending of deep Torah learning with an inclusive Hasidic piety and rigorous academic scholarship has been a light and an inspiration to me.
Matthew Wilson, associate professor of political science, Southern Methodist University: One thinker who has been very influential and inspirational for me is Saint Thomas More. More was both a consummate, world-renowned scholar and a distinguished statesman and public servant.
More clearly wrestled, in his thought and in his own life, with the competing values of orthodoxy (or what we would call orthodoxy – he would call it Truth) and religious toleration, seeing real value in both and struggling to reconcile them.
This is a struggle of particular relevance for those of us who are believers in a modern, pluralistic society.
Create A Screen Name
Screen names can only consist of letters and numbers.
Your screen name will appear to everyone.
NOTE: You cannot change, delete,
or edit your screen name once you hit "Save".
- Internet Explorer 7+
- FireFox 3+
- Safari
If you are using Internet Explorer 7, make sure Phishing Filter is turned off by going to Tools / Phishing Filter / Turn Off Automatic Website Checking. If you are using Internet Explorer 8, make sure InPrivate Filtering is turned off and InPrivate Filtering data has been cleared. To turn off InPrivate Filtering go to Tools / InPrivate Filtering Settings, select the "off" button and click "OK". To clear InPrivate Filtering dataYou must be logged in to contribute. Log in | Register Now!
You are logged in as screenname | Log Out
You are logged in, but do not have a "screen" name. Create a Screen Name