Faiths in Conversation

The Interfaith Council of Thanks-Giving Square and its partners and co-sponsors listed below are pleased to present the 2022-23 Faiths In Conversation Series titled, ‘Religion & Ethics of Creation Care’. 

This is a 6 part monthly series featuring scholars representing Judaism, Buddhism, Native Americans, Islam, Christianity & Hinduism.

Speakers from different religious traditions will explain how their religious tradition understands the ethics of creation care. In addition to addressing the value of creation in itself,  of particular concern will be the relationship of creation care to human dignity, economic justice, and migration stimulated by changes in the climate. Participants will learn how each religion understands what it means to be human in relation to the rest of the natural world, and the particular responsibilities of humans toward the natural world and their fellow humans. Each presentation will be followed by a brief response and the opportunity to ask questions of the speaker.

Our first session will be on Monday, September 12th at 4 pm CST via ZOOM. REGISTER TODAY!

Theme: Judaism & Ethics of Creation Care

Session Date:  Monday, September 12th, 2022

Time: 4 to 5:30 pm CST

Register:  Judaism & Ethic of Creation Care

Speaker: Dr. Hava Tirosh-Samuelson

Respondent: Dr. Martin.Yaffe

Moderator: Dr. Joshua Parens

Partners: The Interfaith Council of Thanks-Giving Square, Dallas Holocaust, and Human Rights Museum & SMU Perkins School of Theology.

Co-Sponsors: The SMU Office of the Chaplain and Religious Life & The Dallas Institute of Humanities and Cultures

Presenter: 

HAVA TIROSH-SAMUELSON is Regents Professor of History, Irving and Miriam Lowe Professor of Modern Judaism, and Director of Jewish Studies at Arizona State University in Tempe, AZ. She holds a Ph.D. in Jewish Philosophy and Mysticism from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1978), and a BA in Religious Studies from SUNY-Stony Brook, New York (1974). Prior to joining the faculty of Arizona State University in 1999, she taught at Indiana University (1991-1999), Emory University in Atlanta (1988-1991), Columbia University in New York (1982-1988), and Hebrew Union College in New York (1980-1982).

Professor Tirosh-Samuelson explores the interplay of religion, science, and technology with a focus on transhumanism and the relationship between Judaism, science and medicine. Committed to inter-faith and cross-cultural conversations, Professor Tirosh-Samuelson has written essays on Judaism and ecology in reference books such as The Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature (2005) and the Oxford Handbook of Religion and Ecology (2006).

Respondent: 

MARTIN D. YAFFE, Professor of Philosophy and Religion at University of North Texas, holds a B.A. from University of Toronto and a Ph.D. from Claremont Graduate University. His research interests include political philosophy and Jewish thought. He is the author of Shylock and the Jewish Question (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997) and of Leo Strauss on Moses Mendelssohn (University of Chicago Press, 2012); co-translator of Thomas Aquinas, Literal Exposition on the Book of Job (Scholars Press/Oxford University Press, 1989); editor of Judaism and Environmental Ethics: A Reader (Lexington Books, 2001); and translator of Benedict Spinoza, Theological-Political Treatise (Focus Philosophical Library, 2004).

Among other works, he is also co-editor of Emil Fackenheim’s Post-Holocaust Thought and its Philosophical Sources (University of Toronto Press, 2021). He is currently at work on a translation of Francis Bacon’s New Organon, the philosophical founding document of modern science and technology.

Please join this remarkable collection of scholars as they tackle the critical issue of our times.