The Future of Religious Leadership

The chapters collected in this book, prepared by a think tank of the Elijah Interfaith Academy, address the subject of religious leadership. The subject is of broad relevance in the training of religious leaders and in the practice of religious leadership. As such, it is also germane to religious thought, where reflections on religious leadership occupy an important place. What does it mean to be a religious leader in today’s world? To what degree are the challenges that confront religious leadership today the same perennial challenges that have arrested the attention of the faithful and their leaders for generations, and to what degree do we encounter challenges today that are unique to our day and age? One dimension is surely unique, and that is the very ability to explore these issues from an interreligious perspective and to consider challenges, opportunities, and strategies across religious traditions. Studying the theme across six faith traditions--Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism, Hinduism, and Buddhism--The Future of Religious Leadership: World Religions in Conversation recognizes the common challenges to present-day religious leadership. Contributors: Awet Andemicael, Timothy J. Gianotti, Alon Goshen-Gottstein, Anantanand Rambachan, Maria Reis Habito, Meir Sendor, Balwant Singh Dhillon, Miroslav Volf''Few things could be more important in the twenty-first century than religious leadership that takes seriously the challenge of making space for faiths other than the leaders’ own. That is what Alon Goshen-Gottstein and his fellow contributors have created in this important and impressive book. It deserves to be widely read and to become the start of a major conversation on the challenges facing the world’s great religions in their relationships to one another and to the challenges of our time.'' --Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks''In exploring the meaning of leadership in world religions and how it is exercised, the contributors to this volume open the door to a mutual exchange of experience and insight that makes way for shared wisdom, which transcends yet honors religious difference. In the polarized world in which we live, where religion is often portrayed as a source of division, a resource such as this is timely and urgently needed.'' --Frank Griswold, former presiding bishop and primate of the Episcopal ChurchALON GOSHEN-GOTTSTEIN is founder and director of the Elijah Interfaith Institute. A noted scholar of Jewish studies, he has held academic posts at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv University and has served as director of the Center for the Study of Rabbinic Thought, Beit Morasha College, Jerusalem.