MIRG

Memphis Inter-Religious Group


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Sources of books.

 Bookstores; on-line (//amazon.com has one of the largest lists, //alibris.com often has the lowest prices on used or out-of-print copies.)  In Memphis, commercial bookstores often tend to more Christian books than others: gift shops  at synagogues and the Jewish Community Center often have more Jewish books. One of the best sources for Muslim books in Memphis is the Mediterranean Market on Park near Highland.  Other suggestions are welcome.

Yes, we lend books.

New additions added at the top of the list.

The Fares Center at Tufts University, http://farescenter.tufts.edu , has posted two lectures (Sept 14 and Sept 19) about Libya and The Arab Spring. It has a great many good lectures on the Middle East available on line.

Temple Israel has substantially enlarged its collection of sermons available as on-line videos.
http://www.timemphis.org/worship/sermons.htm

The people at 30mosques.com have reorganized their website. The piece about Heartsong Church is now at
 http://30mosques.com/archive2010/2010/09/outtakes-the-memphis-islamic-center-and-their-neighbors/
and the love letter to the Ordmans is now at
http://30mosques.com/archive2010/2010/09/day-27-the-muslims-in-memphis-part-1/ 

Memphis on NPR.  NPR in Auguist 2011 did a segment on the national broadcast (4 min 12 seconds)  "A Ramadan Story Of Two Faiths Bound In Friendship", about Heartsong Church and the Memphis Islamic Center. It is on-line at
http://www.npr.org/2011/08/21/139831309/a-ramadan-story-of-two-faiths-bound-in-friendship
Those of us who hope that the good interfaith model in Memphis can be spread more widely are much encouraged by this.

 MIFA program on world religions from the summer of 2011:
All five of these talks are now available on line, e.g.
http://vimeo.com/26883135   Rev. Buck, a wonderful history of Christianity, and the page has pointers to the talks by  Rabbi Adam Grossman, Nabil Bayakly, Burton Carley, and Sandeep Pednekar 

Feb 18-19, 2011, we encouraged people to attend the Trinity Institute discussions, "Reading the Scriptures through other eyes."  While if you didn't get there you missed some excellent local discussions in Memphis, the talks that were used in the Memphis meetings are available on-line at
http://www.trinitywallstreet.org/webcasts/videos

On Feb 10,11,13, 2011 Rabbi Marmor, a leader of Hebrew Union College and distinguished scholar, visited Temple Israel. He gave quite a few talks.  On Thursday evening, Feb 10, he spoke about the biography and philoisphy and social activism of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, a major Jewish philosopher who was also the rabbi who most frequently marched arm-in-arm with Martin Luther King.
A news article (King's Birthday) about interaction of Jews with Martin Luther King is at
http://www.jta.org/news/article/2011/01/11/2742468/marching-with-dr-king
(This article appeared in the Hebrew Watchman, the Memphis Jewish newspaper.)
The handout - excerpts from Heschel's writing - that Marmor used Feb 11 is at
http://www.timemphis.org/files/InSearchofHeschel.pdf
and the video of the talk (about an hour and 20 minutes) is on-line at
http://www.vimeo.com/19854569
I can provide this on a DVD if that is more convenient.
Finally, ifg you'd like a Jewish sermon and discussion of Biblical interpretation,
Rabbi Marmor's sermon for Friday Feb 11, on "The eternal light", is at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcebN9nlVEE


Donald Davis  is a nationally known storyteller.   We have videotapes of his 5-hour TV series (shoiwn on Brigham Young Univ television in January 2011) on how to gather, compose, and pass on stories. As this is a princial way of passing on to our children our values, beliefs, family heritage, and memories of where our family came from, it is an ability that many of us wish to cultivate.


Book:
Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf,  What's Right With Islam Is What's Right With America.
Imam Rauf is Imam of a mosque located twelve blocks from the site of the former World Trade Center in New York.  We speaks of  the extent to which Muslim Values and American values agree, and the ways in which American Muslims may influence the rest of the Muslim world, among other issues.  Introduction by Karen Armstrong.


Sermon examples:
People sometimes wonder what the sermons are about, or what they sound like, in another religion.  Nice examples of Memphis sermons can be found on line, among other places, at
Temple Israel:                 http://timemphis.org/worship/sermons.htm
Balmoral Presbyterian:   http://balmoralpc.com/content/Sermons.shtml  
Masjid As-Salam:           http://www.pleasantviewschool.com/media/    and  http://youthdawahcenter.org/Audio.aspx
Many of Yasir Qadhi's talks at the Memphis Islamic Center are now on-line at http://www.memphisislamiccenter.org/multimedia/video/

     (Don't be put off that the Muslim ones start with a quotation in Arabic - they switch to English after a few minutes. Many of the talks here are longer lectures or what others might call "Sunday school lessons." Actual sermons are called "Khutabs".)

At our March 2010 meeting, some of us got into a discussion of the different images of Satan (Shaitan) in the different religions.  Tanvir Kazmi has provided a rather large collection of Quran quotations on the subject.  I've put them in the "discussion" section of the Facebook.com page for the group MemphisIRG.  Is that a good place for them?  Would people like to start other discussions there?


Some Books of interest -

This is an initial list, incomplete, and with no idea yet how it should be organized. Suggestions are very welcome.   January 30, 2010.

 Rebecca Peters and Elizabeth Hinson-Hasty, To Do Justice: A Guide for Progressive Christians.
Balmoral Presbyterian has a lot of Sunday School classes; one in Spring semester 2010 is using this one which may be of general interest.  A survey of areas in which a religious person might be concerned about modern American society: family, education, the economy, war, and others.

J. Clinton McCann, Jr.   Great Psalms of the Bible.
Another Balmoral Sunday School book. It takes twelve psalms and goes through them carefully, line by line, to get the context and meaning, then discusses implications for today.

Ibn Kathir, Stories of the Prophets. 
A Muslim book  that serves as an adult "Sunday School Book", this retells the stories of the major Biblical figures from a Muslim viewpoint. Adam, Enoch(Idris), Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Job, Jonah, and many others up to John the Baptist and Jesus.   Wonderful reading for Jews and Christians who are frustrated by the fact that the Koran isn't chronological.

Milton Steinberg, As a Driven Leaf. 
A fictionalized life of an important first-century Rabbi, the only Rabbi ever expelled from the Sanhedrin (for attending Church too often, among other reasons.)    An excellent exposition of life in Palestine in the first century C.E.,  used as a study text at Temple Israel.

Bruce Chilton, Rabbi Jesus. 
An Episcopal priest but rather nonconforming, Chilton tries to portray Jesus in the light of what we know of Jewish society at the time. This is interesting to compare with the Milton Steinberg book set just a few decades later. 

Elias Chacour, Blood Brothers
      Elias Chacour is a Christian Priest (now an Archbishop) born in Galilee before 1948, who remained  there as an Israeli citizen.  He has devoted himself to building schools that teach tolerance and respect. These schools have a very large Muslim enrollment and are so very well regarded by the Israeli Education Ministry that they receive high subsidies from the Israeli government.  He recounts the close relationship and active cooperation between the Muslim and Christian communities in the village of Ibilin, and his difficulties with the Israeli goverment. Chacour has lectured at Montreat, a Presbyterian camp many members at Balmoral are acquainted with (We can lend a DVD of that lecture, which tells many of the stories in the book.)

Eboo Patel, Acts of Faith. 
Patel is an American Muslim of Indian heritage, who has become a major leader in interfaith youth work.

Howard R. Greenstein, K.G. Hotz. J. Kaltner, What do our neighbors believe? 
An introduction to multiple faiths, organized by topic (Sacred Texts, Beliefs, Practices, Social Issues, ...) rather than by faith.  Our local Rabbi Greenstein's father was one of the authors.

Jeffrey K. Salkin, Righteous Gentiles in th Hebrew Bible. 
A book on non-Jewish characters in the Hebrew Bible, by Rabbi Salkin who is a very popular occasional guest lecturer at Temple Israel.

Bruce Feiler, Abraham: A Journey to the Heart of Three Faiths.
A life of Abraham with references to his role in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Richard Rubenstein, When Jesus Became God.  A history of the time around the Council of Nicea, about 325 C.E., when the doctrine of the Trinity was being formed.

Sari Nusseibeh, Once Upon a Country: A Palestinian Life. 
The autobiography of the president of Al-Quds University, the Palestinian university in East Jerusalem.  A vivid picture of the career of an intellectual caught up in the Israeli-Palestinian tragedy.

Tariq Ramadan, In the Footsteps of the Prophet: Lessons from the Life of Muhammad. 
A modern life of Muhammad by a Fellow at Oxford who has been called "Europe's leading Muslim Intellectual."

Rashi, a Light after the Dark Ages. DVD
Educational DVD, 1 hour, of an important Jewish scholar working in the time of Charlemagne.

Rambam, the Story of Maimonides. DVD
Educational DVD, 1 hour, of one of the most important Jewish scholars, working primarily in Muslim Spain and Egypt.

Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People.  DVD
Documentary, under 1 hour. excerpts from famous films showing the use of Arabs as villains.

Muhammad, Legacy of a Prophet.  DVD
Life of Muhammad. Full length movie.

Cities of Light: The Rise and Fall of Islamic Spain. DVD.
Usually in the US we learn of the "Christian reconquest of Spain" from a north-European viewpoint. This is a far more Muslim viewpoint, but with a very interesting treatment of the Christians and Jews of the Iberian penensula. Full length movie.

Encounter Point.   DVD.
The story of the Breaved Fanilies Association: An Israeli whose daughter was killed by a Palestinian suicide bomber, and a Palestinian whose son was killed by an Israeli soldier, come together in sympathy and speak to Israeli and Palestinian audiences about the need to end the fighting. Full length movie.

The Childrens March on Birmingham. DVD.
Documentary, about 40 minutes. At a critical point in the Civil Rights movement, when the Black adults in Birmingham Alabama were afraid to act for fear of retaliation, the childen gathered at a church and went out to successfully face down the loal police and firemen.

New Muslim Cool. DVD
Movie for the general market, aimed at youth / young adults. The story of a young Puerto Rican convert to Islam who moves to Pittsburgh, trying to make a living as a rap performer and  a hospital chaplain. There are problems with security clearance at the prison and an FBI raid on the mosque. Productive interaction with Jews. The problems of a young married couple.

Children of Abraham. DVD.
Short DVD to encourage interfaith discussion, produced jointly by the Union for Reform Judaism and the Islamic Society of North America.

Sayyed Hossain Nasr: God, The Reality to Serve, Love, and Know. DVD
Lecture at Trinity Church Conference, New York, 2000.

Sunshine. DVD.
The  life of a Hungarian Jewish family from before World War One to after the fall of communism. An outstanding commercial movie, unfortunately with much too much sex.

Azadeh Moaveni, Honeymoon in Tehran . In the early 2000's, an Iranian-American reporter for Time goes to Tehran to be a journalist, falls in love, marries, and stays for two years. very good not only on Iranian politics, but on the relations between religious and secular Iranians and day-to-day life in the Islamic Republic.

Avraham Burg, The Holocaust is Over, We Must Rise From its Ashes.  Burg is the Israeli-born son of Holocaust survivors, and a former speaker of the Israeli Knesset. He feels that by identifying itself too stongly as victim, Israel is losng sight of the Jewish prophetic message.

Samuel G. Freedman, Upon this Rock.  The story of a Black Baptist church in a poor neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY. Used in a Univrsity of Memphis course about community organizing and inner-city anthropology.

Greg Mortenson & David Oliver Relin, Three Cups of Tea. Lost in a mountain-climbing accident in the Himalayas, Mortenson was rescued by Pakistani villagers. Learning of their needs, he has devoted his life to building schools - espacially for girls - in Pakistan and Afghanistan.  A major best-seller and thrilling to read. 

Madeleine L'Engle. The Rock that is Higher: Story as Truth. Another Balmoral Presbyterian Church Sunday School book, a good book for group discussions. How we tell stories, read stories, listen to stories, and how we use stories to build community. Many examples from the Gospel parables, as well as other stories.

Hanan Ashrawi, This side of Peace. Ashrawi is a professor at Bir Zeit University in the West Bank, a Christian Palestinain woman who was long a spokesperson and negotiator for Fatah and a member of the Palestinian parliament.  1995, so dated, but wonerful for its image of Palestine and Palestinian politics of the time.

Arthur Waskow, Godwrestling.  Long out of print, but used copies are readily available. A rabbi who suggests ways that people can meet and talk informally about God, taking God's message seriously but without the need for heavy  scholarship or professional leadership.  Look at a passge in the Bible or Koran: what does it mean to us today?

W. Guther Plaut, Torah: a Modern Commentary,   a typical modern commentary on the first five books of the  Hebrew Bible, the Torah, often used for discussion in the Saturday morning discussion group at Temple Israel. Compare Ali's Koran commentary.

Abdullah Yusuf Ali, The Meaning of the Holy Koran.  A widely used Koran commentary, almost identical in layout and spirit to the Plaut  Torah commentary. This one is frequently used for the Sunday afternoon Koran classes at Masjid As-Salam.

Safiur-Rahman Al-Mubarakpuri (ed. and abridged by).   Tafsir Ibn Kathir, (Vol. 1)  For Jews who wonder what the Muslims have instead of the Talmud, it is the Hadith; the recollections of the companions of the prophet as to what Mohammed said and did. There are also very elaborate commentaries on the Koran, almost as elaborate as the Talmud.  This is one of the best presentations of some of this material in English that I've found for sale locally.

(more coming shortly)

(page edited 1_16_2012)