wfn.org | Christain and Jewish Scholars Study Suffering

[Brenda Williams <BRENDAW@elca.org>]

Reply-To: ElcaNews <ELCANEWS@ELCASCO.ELCA.ORG>
ELCA NEWS SERVICE

March 6, 1998

CHRISTIAN AND JEWISH SCHOLARS STUDY SUFFERING
98-09-044-FI

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- A seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America (ELCA) will host pastors, rabbis, religious educators, youth
leaders and lay people for a seminar March 30 on the presence and absence
of God in the midst of suffering.  Christian and Jewish scholars will
examine Job -- a book in the Hebrew Bible and in the Christian Old
Testament -- at Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minn.
     The 13th Jewish-Christian Seminar will be an opportunity to see how
the different faiths and traditions look at the same biblical text.  It
will include a panel discussion of how the story of human suffering is
interpreted in American Indian and African American communities and the
helping professions.
     Rabbi Joseph Edelheit and the Rev. Paul R. Sponheim will lead a
session that includes guidelines for interfaith Bible study.  In
Minneapolis, Edelheit taught at Augsburg College, a college of the ELCA,
before becoming senior rabbi at Temple Israel in 1992.  He is a member of
President Clinton's Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS.  Sponheim joined the
faculty of Luther Seminary in 1969 and was named professor of systematic
theology in 1974.
     Luther Seminary, the Jewish Community Relations Councils of Minnesota
and the Dakotas, and the ELCA regional task force on Jewish-Christian
Relations will sponsor the event.  It is partially funded by a grant from
the Jewish-Christian Relations Committee of the Minnesota Council of
Churches.

For information contact:
Ann Hafften, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://www.elca.org/co/news/current.html