CLAL Special Features
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Jewish Public Forum Seminar:
“What Is Religion For?”
November 19, 2001
Pre-Seminar
Response
“What Is Religion For?”
By Shari Cohen
I have been preoccupied, since
September 11, with how we, both individually and collectively, think
about the future imaginatively in a period when crisis and fear are the prevailing
sentiments. It has a lot to do with
individual efficacy in the face of daunting uncertainties.
People respond to uncertainty in so many ways—they buy large amounts of
Cipro; they shift their world views; they get religion; they commit suicide; they change
their careers. But I want to know how we can
stimulate and motivate a response that says: “We have not been asking hard or big
enough questions; we have not been transcending our individual professional concerns to
add up our incredible knowledge and expertise. At the same time we have not been as
intellectually humbled as we might be.” Maybe
this really means embracing psychic uncertainty in a way that we find very uncomfortable. This might require that we think about how we use
our time differently; we might have to think very differently about the networks we are or
are not part of; we might need to explore other modes of understanding the world (and some
of these might be religious).
So the question I would ask
is: How do we maintain a focus on imagination and the longer view at a time when most of
us are preoccupied with survival?
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