It’s been a good ten years since I looked at Rabbi Irving
Greenberg’s book For the Sake of Heaven
and Earth. I was a board member of InterAct Cleveland and co-chair of its
Interreligious Affairs Committee. We convened religious leaders once a month to
read and discuss books that were relevant to interfaith discussion. Greenberg’s
was one of those books
The effort at rapprochement between Jews and Christians,
though facing frequent bumps in the road, is still very much alive. A course I
taught at Beth El Congregation in Bethesda, MD titled New Testament for Jews sparked considerable interest and the
request for more. Preparing to teach a fall course on Jewish-Christian Dialogue
(see my “Public Lectures and Classes” page), I’ve begun re-reading the book,
and rediscovering what was so compelling in the first read.
Ironically, Greenberg provides the theological underpinning
of what I’m calling Religious Humanism, though I didn’t realize it when I first
read the book. He begins by distinguishing religious relativism—the notion that
there is no religious truth—to what he calls religious pluralism, which he
defines much the same way that I’m defining religious humanism. Greenberg
understands that while Truth exists, we all have a limited perspective on Truth,
and so we partner through dialogue and interfaith encounter, allowing all
involved in this effort to broaden their perspective and capture a greater
share of Truth.
