Trinity Lutheran Seminary co-sponsors presentation Wednesday evening, April 21, 2010 at Pontifical College Josephinum by Rabbi David Fox Sandmel

Faith in the Public Square
7:00 p.m., Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Jessing Center at the Pontifical College Josephinum
7625 North High Street, Columbus, Ohio

Rabbi and Scholar to address Faith in the Public Square


Trinity Lutheran Seminary co-sponsors this annual event with The Pontifical College Josephinum and the Methodist Theological School in Ohio.

Rabbi David Fox Sandmel, Crown-Ryan Professor of Jewish Studies at the Catholic Theological Union, Chicago, will speak to “Faith in the Public Square,” at 7 p.m. in the Jessing Center on the Josephinum campus, 7625 North High Street, Columbus, Ohio. The lecture is free and open to the public, but RSVPs are requested. Please contact Sandy Antes by April 15 at 614-985-2497 or santes@pcj.edu .

Rabbi Sandmel offers a penetrating look at the uniquely American debate about one of the country's founding principles, religious freedom. Understood by grade school students, this simple idea, adopted as part of the American experiment, has proved to be challenging to generations of theological scholars, legal minds and social critics.

Religious diversity of America increases under the principle of religious freedom, both the Holocaust and 9/11 confirm. Interfaith dialogues provide a model and a methodology for understanding the challenge of religious freedom in a complicated civic and intellectual environment.

Rabbi Sandmel received his undergraduate degree in Jewish Studies from The Ohio State University and was ordained at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati. He completed his doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied the history and literature of Judaism and Christianity in the Greco-Roman world.

As director of the National Jewish Scholars Project, Rabbi Sandmel coordinated the publication of “Dabru Emet: A Jewish Statement on Christians and Christianity,” which generated international attention in the interfaith community and wide media coverage. He is the co-editor of Christianity in Jewish Terms and the lead editor of Irreconcilable Differences? A Learning Resource for Jews and Christians (both from Westview Press).

Rabbi Sandmel is also involved in Jewish-Muslim dialogue and tri-lateral dialogue among Jews, Christians, and Muslims. He is a member of Rabbis and Imams for Peace and team teaches a course on the Abrahamic faiths with a Roman Catholic and an Imam at the Catholic Theological Union. Rabbi Sandmel is also a member of the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR). He chairs the CCAR’s Committee on Interfaith Activities and is the CCAR Representative to the Joint Commission on Interfaith Relations (with the Union for Reform Judaism), the National Council of Synagogues, and the International Jewish Committee on Interfaith Consultations.

The Theological Consortium of Greater Columbus includes Trinity Lutheran Seminary, the Pontifical College Josephinum, and the Methodist Theological School in Ohio. Bexley Hall Episcopal Seminary is an associate member.

LISTEN TO BEXLEY PUBLIC RADIO, 102.1 FM FOR MORE DISCUSSION OF THIS IMPORTANT EVENT.

For more information about the Theological Consortium of Greater Columbus or the Annual Lecture on World Religions and Interreligious Dialogue, contact Dr. Paul Numrich at 740-362-3443 or 384-4653.