Lily Reslink
Staff Writer
Jewish scholar Susannah Heschel seeks an understanding of what lies underneath interreligious polemic — a question that she points out is continuously relevant, from its historical emergence to the contemporary hostility that persists.
Heschel, Dartmouth College chair of Jewish Studies, titled her 2 p.m. address Wednesday in the Hall of Philosophy “The Faith of Others: Jewish Narratives of Christianity and Islam.” She focused on the relationships of the Abrahamic religions and explored how they have viewed one another and the impact of these conceptions.
Heschel’s immersion in the Civil Rights Movement her father was involved in sparked a pursuit of biblical scholarship early on, but she said she felt that scholars were asking the wrong questions. Her interest in how religion shapes relationships and identities characterizes her scholarly career, especially through the cultural and psychological angle of how human tendencies influence outcomes and actions.
Presenting patterns from the extensive history of Abrahamic relationships, she pointed listeners to her understanding of what has motivated contempt. According to Heschel, desire and envy are central to this equation — and these two complex feelings are not so distinct. Instead, they are different expressions of “wishing.”
From the perspective of each of these three religions, she drew historical examples to answer her questions. She used these examples to highlight the human inclination to desire and be desired, which she said is the crux of negative views.
She looked at evidence of Judaism adopting Christian practices, as well as evidence of denial that this was happening.
Despite the parallels incorporated into Jewish worship services and other areas of religious practice, “No Jew in the 19th century would admit that they were Christianizing Judaism,” Heschel said.
She said being painted as the desirer instead of the desired charged insecurity.
She used historical anecdotes to illuminate her argument of what motivates contempt. Jews who went to Christian churches still had to wear a yellow star, the Nazi designation of being a Jew. She said this invoked a desire to separate from people with this designation.
“I … thought perhaps the presence of these baptized Jews aroused an anxiety, a kind of primal, unconscious anxiety, that maybe Christianity itself is a baptized Judaism,” Heschel said.
Heschel also explored how different motivations behind prejudice took shape outside of churches. In a society that she said is often motivated by money or sex, she is struck by the acts of contempt toward Jews being motivated by the desire to “be big-shots in the Nazi regime.”
Concluding her lecture, she noted the many directions possible for her to go in the topic that remains open and largely unanswered today. Saying, “The history is too complex for reductionism,” Heschel cautioned against hinging Zionism and interreligious polemic on one event or one reason.
“I do believe that the faith of others is intrinsic to who we are and how we define ourselves as Jews, Christians and Muslims,” Heschel said.
She called for peaceful dialogue across all perspectives: “When we do engage, yes we engage as historians and scholars, but also as religious people.” Heschel called for the realization that a peaceful future between Abrahamic religions is the will of God.
