Abraham Joshua Heschel and His Legacy for Jewish-Christian Relations

A Conversation with John C. Merkle, Ph.D.

Moderated by Rabbi Ryan Dulkin, Ph.D.

Thursday, Sep 26, 2024, 12:00 pm - 1:10 pm

Iverson Center for Faith, Schoenecker Multipurpose Room (LL16) University of St. Thomas, St. Paul campus

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"No religion is an island," Abraham Joshua Heschel poignantly observed, capturing the interdependency of the diverse religious worldviews and ways of life. In this program, drawing from this foundational belief, Dr. Merkle, interviewed by Rabbi Dulkin, will explore the theological and practical depth and breadth of Heschel's impact on Jewish-Christian relations and interfaith relations in general.

John Merkle, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus in the Department of Theology and former director of the Jay Phillips Center for Interfaith Learning at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University, is a distinguished scholar of Jewish-Christian relations, Abraham Joshua Heschel, and philosophical theology. He earned his Ph.D. in religious studies at the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium and has been deeply involved in interfaith dialogue for more than four decades. Dr. Merkle served as chair of the Christian Scholars Group on Christian-Jewish Relations, a national organization of Christian scholars engaged in the study of Judaism and of Christianity in relation to Judaism, and as co-editor of Studies in Christian-Jewish Relations, the journal of the Council of Centers on Jewish-Christian Relations (CCJR). A former resident scholar of the Collegeville Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research, he has given hundreds of public lectures, especially having to do with Jewish theology and with Christian faith in relation to Judaism, and he received the 1994 Temple Israel (Minneapolis) Interreligious Award. Dr. Merkle's scholarship includes the monographs The Genesis of Faith: The Depth Theology of Abraham Joshua Heschel (Macmillan, 1985) and Approaching God: The Way of Abraham Joshua Heschel (Liturgical Press, 2009), and the edited volumes Abraham Joshua Heschel: Exploring His Life and Thought (Macmillan, 1985) and Faith Transformed: Christian Encounters with Jews and Judaism (Liturgical Press, 2003). Dr. Merkle is author of dozens of essays and articles, including the recent "Challenging the Idea of Divine Omnipotence: Jewish Voices and a Christian Response” (Journal of Ecumenical Studies 57:3, Summer 2022).

Rabbi Ryan Dulkin, Ph.D., teaches in the theology department at the University of St. Thomas and directs the department's Encountering Judaism Initiative. A native of California, Rabbi Dulkin earned B.A. and M.A. degrees in English literature from San Francisco State University and M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. degrees in midrash and scriptural interpretation from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (New York City) where he also received his rabbinic ordination. His scholarly articles have appeared in Jewish Studies Quarterly, Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics, and The Routledge Dictionary of Ancient Mediterranean Religions.

Sponsored by the Jay Phillips Center for Interreligious Studies and the Encountering Judaism Initiative at the University of St. Thomas