PERSPECTIVES

studying

lf relations between Jews Christians nstitute

woo i & Muslims

Celebrating 15 years winter 2013 /14 1998 2013 in this issue Faith and Narratives

PERSPECTIVES 1

studying

lf relations between Jews Christians nstitute

woo i & Muslims

Perspectives Published by the Woolf Institute, UK Registered Charity No 1069589

Editorial Board Carolina Gonzalez-Carvajal, Guest Editor From the Editor Alice Sandham, Trisha Kessler, Editors Emma Harris, Ciara Thomas, Being Guest Editor for the Faith and Narratives edition of Perspectives has been Editorial Assistants an illuminating journey, one which has challenged me to view the encounter of faith with narratives in ways I had not expected. As a writer I am fascinated by Submissions the way narratives give meaning to events and experiences, creating a developing, We welcome readers’ responses and continuing story. Engaging with the work of the Woolf Institute led me to contributions. Please get in touch using consider this theme within the context of faith and religious communities. the details below.

Contact For this issue, I have explored notions of faith within the work of four writers Perspectives whose fiction comes from Jewish, Christian and Muslim perspectives. I hope that Woolf Institute I have asked some questions which may open up a greater discussion about the Wesley House representations of faith in fiction. This issue also asks the reader to think about Jesus Lane the role of narratives within a larger framework of a national discourse with an Cambridge CB5 8BJ article by Tariq Modood, examining the impact of the Commission on the Future United Kingdom of Multi-Ethnic Britain 15 years on. This edition also marks 15 years since the Tel: + 44 (0) 1223 743 075 Woolf Institute began its work as the Centre for the Study of Jewish-Christian [email protected] Relations in 1998. During this time, the Institute, through its academic research www.woolf.cam.ac.uk/resources/ and public education, has broadened our understanding of the encounter perspectives.asp between faith and wider society, a theme explored in Robert McCorquodale’s Distributed free of charge in the piece on the role of faith narratives in human rights discourses and activism. In UK and worldwide. Corinne Squire’s article about HIV and narratives we also gain an insight into how faith narratives help those with HIV re-image themselves through their own Photography stories. Not all narratives nurture well-being and Ed Kessler’s article reminds Helaine Blumenfeld’s Ascent at Salisbury us of the space within which narratives can be contested and complex. In our Cathedral by photographer Ash Mills, culture section, we are taken on a different narrative journey to a place where www.ashmills.com. Photo used by kind the encounter with art can create a space for meditation and spiritual experience. permission of Salisbury Cathedral. Helaine Blumenfeld’s recent exhibition at Salisbury Cathedral reminds us that experiencing spirituality through art has always been a form of prayer, a point of Design & print management intersection between time and eternity. Shaping narratives through language and H2 Associates, Cambridge art brings us to Trisha Kessler’s interview with Edmund de Waal, who as both a

potter and a writer sends stories out to the world to be engaged with. Perspectives is printed on chlorine-free FSC certified paper with vegetable based ink. This edition offers an insight into the richness and diversity of the encounter between faith and narratives, a story that the Woolf Institute is uniquely qualified to explore. I hope you will join me in congratulating the Woolf Institute on their many achievements and wishing them the best as they embrace new challenges in the future.

Carolina Gonzalez-Carvajal, Guest Editor

PERSPECTIVES 2 PERSPECTIVES Editorial From the Guest Editor ...... 2 From the Director ...... 4

News Diary ...... 5 Celebrating 15 years of Research, Teaching and Dialogue ...... 7 Commission on Multi-Faith Britain ...... 8 News and Announcements ...... 9

Features Faith in Fiction, Carolina Gonzalez-Carvajal ...... 10

The Parekh Report: Rethinking the National Story, Tariq Modood ...... 14

Human Rights Narratives: Words, Faith and Action, Robert McCorquodale ...... 18

Morality Tales: Narrative Strategies for living with HIV, Corinne Squire ...... 22

Contested Narratives of Revelation: Pluralist and Ambiguous Approaches, Edward Kessler ...... 27

Culture Art Messenger of the Spirit: Sculpture and Narrative at Salisbury Cathedral, Sarah Mullally and Alan Caine ...... 30

Book Shelf Archbishop Justin Welby on his favourite books ...... 34

Shaping Narratives Trisha Kessler in conversation with Edmund de Waal ...... 35

Book Review David Cannadine, The Undivided Past, reviewed by Eugenio Biagini ...... 38

Noticeboard Woolf Institute Profiles...... 40 Woolf Institute Resources...... 41 Woolf Institute Courses ...... 42 Highlights and Calendar ...... 44

www.woolf.cam.ac.uk

From the Director

It seems remarkable that 15 years have passed since the six inaugural students arrived in Cambridge to take part in the world’s first Master’s Degree in the study of Jewish-Christian Relations. Since then, the Woolf Institute has established itself as a global leader in the study of relations between Jews, Christians and Muslims.

Our work continues, in the last few months we have signed two agreements with Cambridge University that will benefit the Woolf Institute for many years to come: firstly, an academic agreement with St Edmund’s College to foster joint academic activities; secondly, an agreement with the Cambridge Commonwealth, European and International Trust to establish the Woolf Institute Cambridge PhD Scholarships.

Yet, as much as we wish to celebrate, there is much more that remains to be done. For many years I have reflected on Martin Luther King Jnr’s phrase ‘the fierce urgency of now’, which encapsulates our motivation for striving to deliver robust scholarly study in order to better understand our society, and thus inform and shape a more tolerant, positive and collective future together.

This edition of Perspectives combines feature articles and interviews, as well as notices about past and forthcoming events. Perspectives epitomises our desire to combine theology with social sciences and the humanities.

A special thank you to our editorial team and to you, the reader, for your interest, and for your support.

Dr Edward Kessler MBE Founding Director

Celebrating 15 years 1998 2013

PERSPECTIVES 4 DIARY

Woolf Institute at the Foreign Office News

The Woolf Institute recently delivered a series of ground-breaking courses and New Publication from seminars for the Foreign Office, helping British diplomats to understand the Dr Edward Kessler importance of religion in shaping foreign This summer SCM Press published policy. The series included contributions Dr Edward Kessler’s latest volume: from Foreign Office Minister Baroness Jews, Christians and Muslims in Warsi and H.E. Archbishop Vincent Nichols. Encounter. Described as ‘a fascinating window onto the developing world of Abrahamic Faith studies’, this volume explores the current and historical relationships that exist between the Training at the FCO continues, with further faith-traditions of Judaism, Christianity courses addressing questions of religion and Islam, pointing towards the and belief. On the basis of this work, need for ‘all three communities to Deputy Director, Dr Shana Cohen, led a remember the past for the sake of workshop on Religion and Tolerance for EU their common future’. diplomats at the EU’s European External Action Service. To order a copy please contact: [email protected]

Cardinal Koch and Lord Sacks visit Woolf Institute

Earlier this year the Woolf Institute was Due to the dramatic resignation of Pope delighted to welcome Lord Jonathan Sacks, Benedict XVI, the Cardinal and the former former Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Chief Rabbi gave separate rather than Congregations of the Commonwealth, and complementary lectures, as Cardinal Koch Cardinal Kurt Koch, Head of the Pontifical had to return to Rome to join the Papal Commission for Religious Relations with the Conclave. Nonetheless, the two speakers Jews, to offer a day of lectures organised had the opportunity to meet privately by the Woolf Institute in conjunction with between their engagements. the Cardinal Bea Centre for Judaic Studies, To read or watch the lectures please see: Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome. http://www.woolf.cam.ac.uk/resources/audio-visual.asp This day of events followed on from Lord Sacks’ private audience with His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, facilitated by the Woolf Institute’s Director, Dr Edward Kessler, and Father Philipp Renczes of the Cardinal Bea Centre.

After offering an informal seminar to students of the Cambridge Theological Federation, Cardinal Koch gave an open lecture at Westminster College entitled: Trust as the Basic Attitude in a Culture of Humanity. This was followed by an evening lecture in which Lord Jonathan Sacks addressed the theme of Trust and Trustworthiness with a response by Lord Rowan Williams. Lord Sacks, Dr Kessler and Cardinal Koch at Westminster College, Cambridge

PERSPECTIVES 5 PLUS at the Retirement of Chief Rabbi Woolf Institute This September Lord Jonathan Sacks retired as Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew On the 21st April 2013, the Centre for Congregations of the Commonwealth. The Woolf Institute would like to thank him Public Education at the Woolf Institute for his longstanding support and congratulate him on 22 years of inspired leadership was excited to host the pilot event of and contribution to the field of interfaith relations. PLUS (People Like Us). PLUS developed in response to the many exciting initiatives that encourage community learning and engagement (Limmud, Greenbelt, Living Islam to name but a few). The project aims to develop this framework as the basis for an alternative model of interfaith dialogue for all faiths and none.

For more information please see: http://www.people-like-us.org.uk/ Edward and Trisha Kessler with Lord and Lady Sacks at a special tribute dinner in London marking his retirement Woolf Institute at the Festival of Ideas 2013 Morocco: from World War Two to Independence

The Woolf Institute recently held a The Woolf Institute, together with the World War Two to Independence. Exploring panel event as part of the University Centre of Islamic Studies, The British- themes such as the Moroccan-Jewish of Cambridge 2013 Festival of Moroccan Society and the British Council, experience during the wartime period Ideas, including prominent faith Morocco, recently held its first Morocco and the response of Moroccan nationalists, representatives Rt Revd Richard Research Workshop, entitled: Morocco: from the workshop was the first in a series of Harries (former Bishop of Oxford), conferences intended to further academic Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg (New relations between Britain and Morocco. North London Synagogue) and Professor Maleiha Malik (King’s Woolf Institute Visiting Fellow, Professor College London). Susan Miller, contributed to the conference which was held at the University of Addressing the theme: From the Cambridge in May 2013. The conference margins to the mainstream – religions will lead to a special issue with the Journal of and beliefs in narratives of Britishness, North African Studies. this panel explored how religious beliefs are currently represented in ideas of Britain and Britishness, and Faith in Social Action Workshop discussed approaches to inclusive narratives for the future. The Centre for Public Education recently based at Cambridgeshire County Council. undertook a project with Cambridgeshire Discussions continue with both the County 2013 marked the sixth anniversary County Council examining the role of Council and community groups and of the Festival of Ideas, an annual faith-based organisations in social action. organisations. celebration of the arts, humanities and Gathering representatives from across social sciences by the University of Cambridgeshire, the project used focus Cambridge public engagement team. groups to share examples of best practice and discuss barriers to multi-faith (including no faith) social action. Participants included: Romsey Mill, Age UK, Winter Comfort and the Cambridge and Ely Foodbanks. The project then culminated in a vibrant one-day training course addressing faith and social action in Cambridgeshire,

PERSPECTIVES 6 Celebrating 15 years 1998 2013

Celebrating 15 years of Research, Teaching and Dialogue By Dr Emma Harris, Academic Coordinator News

As the Woolf Institute celebrates its 15th anniversary, it is the perfect opportunity to review within their organisational context. its educational achievements and look to new endeavours. Their research will focus on a project developed within the framework of Over the years, the Woolf Institute has International Trust (formerly Cambridge interfaith relations. welcomed over 2000 students from all Commonwealth Trust and Cambridge over the world either as residential or Overseas Trust), will co-fund doctoral Our extensive experience of distance ‘virtual’ students. The list of countries students at the University of Cambridge learning has enabled us to expand our reads like the index of an atlas: Argentina, through the Woolf Institute Cambridge course offerings within a Virtual Learning Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Scholarships. Selected from applicants in Environment (VLE). It began with the the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, pioneering course Muslims and Jews: The Germany, Greece, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, the students will focus their research in Historical and Contemporary Encounter. Japan, Jordan, Macedonia, the Maldives, the multi-disciplinary study of relations This success led to the introduction of Morocco, the Netherlands, New Zealand, between Jews, Christians and Muslims. the current course Bridging the Great Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, the Palestinian Divide: the Jewish-Muslim Encounter and a Territories, Poland, Qatar, the Republic From Michaelmas 2014, the Woolf growing collaboration with the American of Ireland, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, Institute will contribute to the taught University in Washington. Another live Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the modules on the MPhil in Middle Eastern course, Jews, Christians, and Muslims United States of America. Past participants Studies (Specialisation: Muslim-Jewish in Europe: Modern Challenges, focuses have included police officers, educators, Relations) which is offered by the Faculty on the relationships between Jews, medical practitioners, human rights of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Christians and Muslims and their impact officers, lawyers, religious and community (FAMES) at the University of Cambridge. in modern Europe. leaders, film directors, and journalists. Dr Shana Cohen, Deputy Director, and Dr Esther-Miriam Wagner, Junior Research Most recently, the Institute has begun The Woolf Institute ventured successfully Fellow, will teach on two papers in to offer short courses. These provide through the Masters pathway, beginning Muslim-Jewish Relations that will cover participants with the unique opportunity in 1998 with the MA in Jewish-Christian topics ranging from comparative religious to engage with interfaith studies in their Relations under the auspices of Anglia texts to contemporary rights of own time and at their own pace. Current Ruskin University and then, commencing religious minorities. and forthcoming short courses include: in 2006, with the MSt in The Study of • Jewish-Christian Relations in the Jewish-Christian Relations in collaboration Woolf Institute academics will act English Novel with the University of Cambridge as advisers and consultants on the • Shakespeare and the Jewish-Christian Faculty of Divinity and the Institute of Doctorate in Professional Studies Encounter: Beyond the Merchant of Venice Continuing Education. (DProf) offered by the Institute for • Is Interfaith Dialogue Important? Work Based Learning at Middlesex • Diversity in End of Life Care In an exciting development, the Woolf University. The Doctorate in Professional • Evaluation for Faith-based and Community Institute, together with the Cambridge Studies is designed for the professional Organisations. Commonwealth, European and development of expert practitioners Woolf Institute courses continue to appeal to those interested in history, cultural, ethnic and faith identities. Nelson Mandela once said, ‘Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world’. We hope to inspire you for many years to come.

For further details of our online short courses please see: http://www.woolf.cam.ac.uk/courses/ For information on other courses and scholarship opportunities please see page 42.

PERSPECTIVESPERSPECTIVES 7 Commission on Multi-Faith Britain: Community, Diversity and the Public Good

The Woolf Institute recently convened a to contribute to pre-election debates The Woolf Institute would like to thank Commission on Multi-Faith Britain. The and manifesto commitments; and a final the Open Society Foundation and the Commission, which met for the first time report in late spring/early summer of Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust for on the 30th September, is chaired by 2015 to contribute to debates around their support in funding this Commission. Baroness Elizabeth Butler-Sloss and seeks to: the policy and the legislative programme of the new Government following the For further information please contact a) consider the place and role of religion, 2015 general election. Mohammed Aziz: [email protected] belief and conviction in contemporary Britain and the significance of emerging trends, Membership of the Commission b) examine how concepts of Britishness Chair Members may be inclusive of a wide range of faith Baroness Elizabeth Butler-Sloss Bishop Dr Joe Aldred traditions and beliefs, and may influence Dr Ian Bradley self-understanding and a sense of identity Patrons Andrew Copson in different traditions and communities; Lord Bhikhu Parekh Shaunaka Rishi Das (also member of Commission) Prof Gwen Griffith-Dickson c) explore how shared understandings Sir Iqbal Sacranie Mark Hammond of the public good may contribute Lord Rowan Williams Dr Jagbir Jhutti-Johal to greater social cohesion and cross- Lord Harry Woolf Prof Francesca Klug community action; Prof Maleiha Malik Convenor Imam Ibrahim Mogra d) make recommendations for public Dr Edward Kessler Brian Pearce life and policy. Canon Dr Angus Ritchie Advisory Group Rabbi Dr Norman Solomon The Commission will continue to meet (also members of Commission) Revd Dr Robert Tosh over a period of two years and will include Dr Shana Cohen national and local level public hearings and Lord Richard Harries the publication of two reports: an interim Prof Tariq Modood report in late spring/early summer of 2014

PERSPECTIVES 8 News and Announcements News The Woolf Institute Intelligent Trust: welcomes Vice-President Placing Trust of the Arab Parliament and Mistrust in Interfaith Europe The Woolf Institute is delighted to announce that Professor Aisha Yousef Al-Mannai, Director of the The Woolf Institute has received a Mohammed Bin Hamad Center grant of €350,000 to pursue a major for Muslim Contribution to research project over 3 years from a Civilization, Qatar Foundation, European foundation. Intelligent Trust will deliver the Second DICID- seeks to understand the process Woolf Lecture, which this year of placing trust and mistrust in the takes place in Cambridge on the context of contemporary economic 19th of November. The theme is and social pressures in multi-faith My Experience in Religious Studies Europe, including arguments about and Challenges of Contemporary For further information please see: multiculturalism and immigration. Dialogue and will form part of the www.woolf.cam.ac.uk/events 2013 Qatar-UK Cultural Exchange Or contact Claire Curran Programme and Inter Faith Week 2013. [email protected]

Education Project

The Centre for Public Education is practice. The project will include a visit delighted to announce a new transatlantic from US teachers to UK schools, project examining religious education. a collaborative transatlantic symposium Initiated by Woolf Institute alumna Laurie and a national conference based at the Hogen, this project seeks to provide high Faculty of Education at the University quality professional development for of Cambridge. religious education teachers in both the UK and US through identifying, securing For further information please contact The research will consist of a one- and then disseminating examples of best Alice Sandham: [email protected] year pilot study in Tottenham (North London) and surrounding areas, followed by comparative research in Paris, Berlin, and Rome. Dr Shana Cohen, Co-Principal Investigator, explains: ‘we chose four cities to compare the influence of external factors and origin of the particular communities. By making comparisons, we can understand how the culture (including the different combinations of factors external and internal to faith communities) affects behaviour (i.e. trusting or not individuals of different faiths)’.

Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge

PERSPECTIVES 9 Faith in Fiction

By Carolina Gonzalez-Carvajal Features

Carolina Gonzalez-Carvajal grew up in England and Spain. She studied at Jesus College, Cambridge and the University of California, Los Angeles. After working in Los Angeles and Dallas as a lawyer in the areas of international business and trade, she moved back to England. She has a Master’s degree in Creative Writing from Royal Holloway College and is currently working on her second novel.

writer friend recently sent me an article from The Guardian that Aasked the question: where did all the Christian writers go? I decided to try to answer this in a broader context and set myself a simple brief. I would interview four novelists writing from a Jewish, Christian and Muslim perspective and ask them to

consider the relationship between faith and Germán Póo-Caamaño on Flickr. their own writing. But first, I had to find the authors. I approached a number of Charles Dickens chose to have his Naomi Alderman was brought up in an novelists who declined to talk about their retelling of the Gospel narratives Orthodox Jewish family, in a community faith and its impact on their literature. One published after his death. In a letter to a which provided the backdrop for her first writer I spoke with suggested that while reader, he voiced his concern about novel, Disobedience. Her most recent faith might well be relevant, it is often asserting his faith in his novels: ‘I have novel, The Liars’ Gospel, puts the lives of avoided, as including it in your literature always striven in my writings to express Miryam (Mary), Iehuda of Qeriot (Judas), might mean career suicide: ‘Unless you are veneration for the life and lessons of Our Caiaphas and Bar-Avo (Barabbas) at the a great and dead Russian novelist, claiming Saviour; because I feel it;… But I have centre of the story of Yehoshuah (Jesus), a you are a Christian novelist just makes you never made proclamation of this from year after his death. sound slightly mad, potentially boring, and the housetops’. bossily judgemental: not a good look’. Rhidian Brook is Welsh and came to There has long been an awkward For this piece, I spoke with four writers. Christianity after a period of illness in his relationship between fiction and faith in Three established writers: Naomi twenties. His latest book, The Aftermath, this country. In 1928, Virginia Woolf wrote Alderman, Rhidian Brook and Na’ima B. follows Colonel Lewis Morgan as he tries about TS Eliot’s conversion to a friend: ‘He Robert and one first-time novelist, to rebuild his relationship with his wife has become an Anglo-Catholic, believes in Elisabeth Gifford. I posed the same and oversee the rebuilding of Hamburg God and immortality, and goes to church. I questions to all four writers: Naomi after the war, while sharing a home with was really shocked. A corpse would seem Alderman by email, Rhidian Brook and the enemy. to me more credible than he is. I mean, Elisabeth Gifford in person, and Na’ima there’s something obscene in a living B. Robert via Skype from her home in Na’ima B. Robert defines herself as: person sitting by the fire and believing in Cairo. Each of them has made a personal ‘Muslim, Black, mixed-race, Southern God’. Even in the nineteenth century, journey within their faiths. African, Western, revert and woman all in

PERSPECTIVES 10 one’. She is descended from Scottish with a tale of a prodigal lesbian daughter language and its power. However, the Highlanders on her father’s side and the returning to Hendon. However, her latest more important aspect of her religious Zulu people on her mother’s side, although book, The Liars’ Gospel, which takes a upbringing was: she was born in Leeds and grew up in secular perspective of Jesus, is suffused Zimbabwe. She reverted to Islam in her with the language of Jewish ritual and ‘I noticed that my parents had a sense of early twenties. She has written extensively practice. Growing up in a Jewish household, narrative, that they were choosing their about her decision to embrace Islam and she felt she was well prepared to tell this life because of something that you wear the niqab. Her latest young adult story, as she didn’t come to Jesus with a couldn’t see but that was important, that novel, Black Sheep is set in South London ‘childhood idea of who he was or what he they believed enough in to act on. It had and explores a love story between a young meant’ and her Judaism offered a particular a romance and an integrity that inspired girl and a boy who is trying to free himself contextual understanding of the historical my creativity. Although at the time these from his affiliation with gangs. period and its values. It is interesting that advantages didn’t always seem so her novels, which sit more strongly in a apparent… When I was a teenager and Elisabeth Gifford is the daughter of a historical tradition than a theological dabbling in poetry, my mother pointed Church of England minister and comes tradition, can still unintentionally incite out that a lot of people who grew up in from a family with faith at its heart – her controversy. Some of which may only be vicarages ended up as writers, but that sister is ordained and her brother-in-law is the result of a misplaced apostrophe; it is seemed a poor recompense at the time David Ison, the current Dean of St Paul’s. notable that many of the critics of the book for years of social humiliation at school Her first novel, Secrets of the Sea House refer to the novel as The Liar’s Gospel, as if for a general lack of coolness’. has been described as ‘an epic, sweeping Yehoshuah/Jesus is the liar, rather her tale of hope and redemption’, a novel that intended title The Liars’ Gospel. With the Contrastingly, both Rhidian Brook and explores ‘how we heal ourselves with the apostrophe correctly placed, it is clear that Na’ima B. Robert came to their faith as stories we tell’. Set on the wild and remote her intent is to focus on the narratives that adults and present a narrative of their lives island of Harris in the Western Hebrides, it people tell to support their lives and beliefs framed by their discovery of faith. Would it follows a young couple who discover the rather than the figure at its centre. have changed their writing if they had skeleton of a mermaid child and are drawn grown up in their respective faiths? Yes, back to the secrets of its long dead owner, For Elisabeth Gifford, her upbringing as the according to Na’ima B. Robert who told the Reverend Alexander Ferguson. daughter of a minister was at the centre of me that it was only after her reversion and her desire to write. Growing up in a the birth of her son that she was Firstly, I wondered if the writer’s succession of parishes, from council estates prompted to write. Wanting to replicate experience of coming to faith changed the to wealthy villages, she said experiencing the love of story and language that her way that they incorporated faith into their people from different backgrounds was ‘a father had instilled in her as a child, she work? Alderman and Gifford grew up in gift’ for any writer. Like Alderman, she struggled to find books for her son that religious households and both agreed that credits her religious childhood for creating weren’t as dry and colourless as the faith this experience had shaped their literary a particular experience of the English books in her local library: worldview. ‘All novelists have personal language. In Gifford’s case, she recalls reasons for being interested in the topics rifling through her father’s study and ‘There were very few books from that they write about’, Naomi Alderman finding ‘the liturgy, the King James Bible, Islamic publishers and whether it was told me. In her earlier novel Disobedience, lots of sermons, dialectics’, texts that because of the quality of illustration or Alderman had shocked her Jewish critics undoubtedly enhanced her experience of the story itself, these books didn’t have

PERSPECTIVES 11 the same appeal. I didn’t want my son and re-evaluate. Which is where Approaching scripture in this way to feel that the gorgeous books were all novelists come in, saying, “you’ve always undoubtedly influenced the way Alderman about other things and that when he thought about the story this way, but wrote her novel, but does it invite readers read about people in his own faith the how about taking it that way? . . . but if to reappraise scripture through a similar books had to be dry and didactic’. we just rewrite it a little bit, we can turn lens? Alderman commented: ‘I think I it into something really inspiring and can leave it to the reader to make the Rhidian Brook also reflected that it was spiritual”. I love this. It’s a blow against imaginative leap to how that translates after his ‘dramatic conversion’ that he the kind of blinkered fundamentalism I to the gospels and other faith texts’. became compelled to write fiction. grew up with, as well as a genuinely Brook’s first novel, The Testimony of Taliesin spiritual journey in text’. ‘Remember, Jones, was a rite of passage story about the spiritual awakening of a boy searching for Although Alderman is clearly ready to storytelling was the meaning against the background of a family engage with writing as a spiritual breakdown. It was penned during his two enterprise, she has also famously first choice for Jesus’ year convalescence from illness. His commented that storytelling is a ‘lying art’. second book also stemmed from his own If this is the case, how do authors engage For Rhidian Brook, the idea of literature as spiritual awakening but it was family with scripture? Within The Liars’ Gospel a ‘lying art’ is exaggerated but he does history that prompted him to write his there appears to be one answer: the liars’ acknowledge that the issue of subjectivity latest book: The Aftermath. This of the title. The unreliability of Alderman’s in fiction is unlikely to go away: ‘If I’m fictionalised account of his grandfather’s narrators could be seen to powerfully telling a story, I have to distract you and requisitioning of a house in Hamburg in capture the human tendency to look at the never let you look away. I may be spinning the aftermath of the Second World War, world and strongly desire our way of a yarn but it’s complicated. What is true in was, by his own admission, ‘less overtly looking to be reinforced. This keen literature? Facts don’t make a true picture about faith’. However, he says faith has still awareness of subjectivity, Alderman and history is anything but a story’. He informed its writing: suggested, was inspired by reading the uses the example of his history teacher’s New Testament itself. ‘The gospels are publication of historical texts: ‘The idea ‘A few friends have asked why I have to stories told by people for particular that he is doing something factual and give them the ‘Jesus bit’… In the first reasons. We can trace these reasons and therefore, it is more true than what I am two novels I was unashamed about how they influence the things they doing in my novels is delusional’. doing so. If you are a writer it isn’t about concentrated on... Each of their portrayals saying ‘I am a Christian’, you are trying to of Jesus supports their beliefs and ideas’. For Elisabeth Gifford, the writer has to create something good… a true way to earn the reader’s trust, a storytelling tell your story. And just because The mission consistent with her Christian faith: Aftermath isn’t as overt, doesn’t mean ‘Remember, storytelling was the first that the themes of reconciliation and choice for Jesus. It has the ability to redemption aren’t central to the story’. both look back and interpret what has happened to us but also to look forward From my conversation with Elisabeth and to the choices we want to make and thus Rhidian, it appeared that religion in fiction imagine a future: two movements that had become almost taboo: a subject that mirror faith and hope’. had to be explained or qualified in order to be included. For Alderman, however, an For Na’ima B. Robert, however, her role enduring curiosity about religion and its as a writer must always be true to her texts proved to be an inspiration, as she faith and the people she writes for. When has previously written: she started writing young adult fiction she tells me, there was no one offering ‘The shopping mall doesn’t cut it as a teens the sort of book that they could replacement for synagogue, the beach relate to. She talks about young Muslim holiday is no hajj, the TV doesn’t give us girls reading Twilight and thinking that this the guidance of an inspiring sermon. So is ‘not their world’. Her aim has been to I think that there’s an interest now in write books that uphold cultural values going back to look at those old faith but at the same time reflect the realities systems in a more mature way. Not of the world they speak to. Her first treating them as untouchable eternal young adult novel, From Somalia, with

truths, but as tools, things we can remix on Flickr Ethan Hickerson Love, grew out of an encounter with a

PERSPECTIVES 12 Somali girls’ youth group. It was difficult for her to balance the interests of the traditional Somali community who felt it was shameful for her to include a character who was angry with her parents. Finally, she felt she walked a fine line but stayed true to her readers. However, there are other occasions when her faith has tempered the way she tells her story. In her latest book, Black Sheep, she made a conscious decision not to make the story too sexualised or to have her characters swear, even though the characters are part of a London street gang and their real life contemporaries would have done both:

‘I can’t say that I write in an uninhibited shutterhacks on flickr.jpg way, as I am a Muslim. My son’s going to read it and look at my scarves, my niqab, and say: ‘you wrote this’. For me Author’s biographies it is a moral choice. And I know that Naomi Alderman grew up in London and attended Oxford University and this is something that in literary circles UEA. In 2006, she won the Orange Award for New Writers. In 2007, she is not acceptable. It may be alright for was named Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year, and one of Waterstones’ 25 Writers for the Future. Her first novel, Disobedience, was published in ten someone to write in a way that languages; like her second novel, The Lessons, it was read on BBC Radio 4’s glorifies violence, but as a person of Book at Bedtime. Penguin published her third novel, The Liars’ Gospel, in August faith it isn’t alright for me. At the end of 2012. In 2013 she was named one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists in my career, I would like to be a force for their once-a-decade list. good. I know it sounds cheesy. But it’s not just a fun story; I want to write Rhidian Brook is originally from Wales. He worked as a copywriter in London something beneficial’. until he was struck down by a post-viral condition and was unable to work for two years. This was the spur that started his literary career. He has since

written three novels: The Testimony of Taliesin Jones, Jesus and the Adman and When I asked Rhidian Brook to sum up The Aftermath. His first novel has been made into a film starring Jonathan his experiences for me, he remarked: Pryce. He has written for television, including Silent Witness and has also ‘Put yourself into writing and if you have written the feature film Africa United. He is a regular contributor to Thought faith, it will come to be part of that for the Day and his new novel, The Aftermath, was recently published in the UK and has been translated into 23 languages. writing: you can’t compartmentalise’.

Elisabeth Gifford studied French Literature and World Religions at Leeds It seems to me that representations of University. She has written articles for The Times and The Independent and has faith are present in novels but the published poems in Cinnamon Press and The Oxford Magazine. Her biography, nature and extent of its presence The House of Hope, examines the life of Dr Joyce Hill who opened a rescue depends on individual novelists; whether centre for abandoned babies in China. She has a Diploma in Creative Writing a writer has a faith-based childhood or from Oxford OUDCE and a Master’s degree in Creative Writing from Royal Holloway College. Her first novel, Secrets of the Sea House, has recently been comes to faith later in life, great writers published by Corvus. have always wrestled with questions of faith and the cultural heritage of religion. Na’ima B. Robert is an author and magazine publisher. She was born in Writers inevitably draw from the Leeds and grew up in Zimbabwe. After gaining a first-class degree from the narratives of their lives and whether University of London, she began writing fiction when her eldest child was a they choose to whisper or choose to toddler. Her frank and honest autobiographical celebration of her adopted shout, or even step far away from a Muslim faith, From My Sisters’ Lips, was published by Transworld Publishers to much acclaim. Her books include the teen novels, From Somalia, with Love and belief system they have grown up with, Boy vs. Girl and children’s books such as Going to Mecca and Ramadan Moon. it will always be part of that individual’s She is founder and Editor-in-Chief of SISTERS, a magazine for Muslim women. narrative and the narratives they offer to Her latest work, Black Sheep, is a teen novel that explores gang life in London. their readers.

PERSPECTIVES 13 The Parekh Report:

Rethinking the National Story Features By Professor Tariq Modood

Professor Tariq Modood was the Looking through my folder of press-cuttings principal researcher on the Fourth from the time of the launch of the CMEB National Survey of Ethnic Minorities at the report in 2000, I am reminded of some very Policy Studies Institute. Since 1998 he has angry headlines: been a Professor of Sociology, Politics & Public Policy and is the founding Director A National Outrage! The Gang of the Centre for the Study of Ethnicity & Of 23 Who Are Trying To Do Citizenship at the University of Bristol. Down Britain (Sunday Mercury, His work has increasingly focused on October 15, 2000, George Tyndale) Muslims in the West, specifically on British Muslim identity and its relation to Racism Slur On The Word ‘British’ the theory and politics of secular (Daily Mail, London, October 11, 2000, multiculturalism. He co-founded the Steve Doughty) international journal, Ethnicities, and was Adviser to the Commission on the Future of BRITISH IS RACIST, SAYS PEER TRYING Multi-Ethnic Britain. His latest book is TO REWRITE OUR HISTORY (Daily Mail, Multiculturalism (Second Edition, 2013). London, October 10, 2000, Jonathan Irwin; David Hughes) The Parekh Report was the concluding report of the Runnymede Trust’s two- Curse of the British-Bashers year, 23-member Commission on the (The Sun, October 11, 2000). Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain. It was he Commission on the Future of heralded by many as the most Multi-Ethnic Britain (CMEB) had a These damning headlines were comprehensive review of British identity Tnumber of unusual features for a accompanied by scathing attacks on and race relations since Labour came to national commission. It was created by an members of the Commission, individually as power and followed on from the independent race relations think-tank, well as collectively, and were soon joined by Macpherson report’s publication one The Runnymede Trust, and while it was broadsheet articles and editorials, including year earlier. However, due to its launched by the Home Secretary, Jack The Guardian, a natural ally, arguing that conclusion that the term Britishness Straw, it was wholly independent of the Britain was more tolerant and inclusive sometimes carried ‘unspoken racial government and included no members than most countries, including those of connotations’, it met a significant level of of the judiciary or representatives of the continental Europe and the USA. The then controversy and tabloid condemnation. government. Of its 23 members (not all of Home Secretary, it was reported: Nonetheless, the report went on to whom served the full term), over a third become the basis for much of the debate were non-white and nearly a third were ‘was appalled when he read part of on multiculturalism in the UK. Fifteen academics (CMEB, 2000: 366–371). the document suggesting that the term years on from the Commission’s Besides its distinguished chair it included British had racial connotations and was commencement, key contributor, prominent public intellectuals and race no longer appropriate in a multicultural Professor Tariq Modood, reflects on equality professionals such as Professor society. He ripped up a speech prepared both its contentious reception and its Stuart Hall, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, and for the launch of the document eventual success. Trevor Phillips. yesterday and instead delivered a strong attack on the part which he believed lacked intellectual rigour. “Unlike the Runnymede Trust, I firmly believe that there is a future for Britain and a future

PERSPECTIVES 14 for Britishness”, Mr Straw declared. “I am proud to be British and of what I believe to be the best of British values”’ (PROUD to be British Straw raps race report, The Times, 12 October, 2000, Richard Ford).

Yet the previous day, an article had been published in The Guardian by the chair of the CMEB, in which he argued:

‘The report recognises that, while cherishing cultural diversity, Britain must remain a cohesive society with a shared national culture. That culture is based on shared values, including such procedural values as tolerance, mutual respect, dialogue and peaceful resolution of differences, as well as such basic ethical norms as respect for human dignity, equal worth of all and equal life chances. A crowd celebrating the Diamond Jubilee

The common national culture includes as unpatriotic, out of touch with ethnic of national identity. This was sometimes shared symbols and a shared view of minorities and offensive to the minorities expressed as recognising the emergence of national identity, and these are best and majority alike. a post-national space without boundaries, evolved through a democratic dialogue and while this was not my chosen way of between our various communities. The At this point, I suppose it is fair to ask, expressing the point, I recognised that it was report sees Britain both as a national what did I, as one of a small team of so for some members of the Commission community with a clear sense of collective drafters of Part 1 of the report, think this (and of course beyond it) and was unlikely purpose and direction and also made passage was doing? My view was that the to be taken the wrong way as long as it up of different communities interacting Commission had an over-arching message, was harnessed to the dominant message. I with each other within a shared moral which was then qualified in certain ways. thought the report’s text had achieved this framework’ (Parekh, 2000b). The over-arching message was that the because I – naively – thought that a reader rethinking and political action needed to would read the report from the beginning So, what exactly had we said? The whole make Britain more inclusive had to continue. and the chapter as a whole, and would, row was focused on three pages – out of a Furthermore, if the country was to progress therefore, see the centrality of what I have nearly four hundred page report – the final towards an inclusive, non-racial, multicultural called the over-arching message. Of course section of Chapter 3, entitled, The Future Britishness, this rethinking had to focus the critics of the report, especially in the of Britishness. The main points of this angry on British identity itself. Our argument right-wing press, did not read the report in reaction can be summarised as follows: was that the inequalities and exclusions that way but rather, they fixated on some associated with racism, including material ill-chosen and ambiguous phrases – indeed, • that the CMEB were saying ‘British’ inequalities and disadvantages, could not be rephrased them to make them even worse was racist countered by merely materialist strategies – and so were able to give this part of the • that the CMEB were saying the days but required ‘rethinking the national story’, report almost exactly the opposite meaning of a country called ‘Britain’ were over our collective identity, in a plural way. A to the one it was written to convey. Much • that the CMEB wanted to rename qualifying message was that there could be of the media coverage was hysterical and Britain as ‘community of communities’ no complacency about the importance of one-sided, informed as it clearly was by anti-racism, which needed more political a hostile political agenda informed by a Consequently, the respondents suggested, will, if Britishness was to be made inclusive chauvinistic, right-wing nationalism and CMEB was insulting British/White people in fact and not just in rhetoric. Another specifically by wanting to avenge New and seemed unaware that many ethnic qualifying message was that old-fashioned, Labour Government’s acceptance the minorities were proud to be British and that monistic, assimilationist, majoritarian previous year of the Macpherson Report’s Britain was becoming a multicultural society. nationalism was past its usefulness and charge that the London Metropolitan Police Furthermore, the CMEB was represented had to be replaced by a new, plural kind was ‘institutionally racist’ (Parekh, 2000: 6).

PERSPECTIVES 15 Moreover, when one looks closely at the really hostile coverage, it seems that it was not based on independent readings of the report but on repeating one poisonous misreading in The Telegraph (Richardson 2000). Yet, the fact that even sympathetic commentators, such as The Guardian and the New Labour Home Secretary took us to be saying what our critics implied, retrospectively suggests that our text suffered from certain weaknesses and fatal ambiguities (Parekh, 2001b: 7).

Having focused on what we said and how we said it, I think we cannot also ignore who said it. Bhikhu Parekh has pointed out that white Scottish authors had published books with titles such as The Day Britain Died and The Breakup of Britain, without generating anything like the response to the CMEB and Children play at the Notting Hill Carnival without being taken to task for what could easily be taken to be unpatriotic language. to be thought of as necessary, even acknowledge this, as we thought this led to He goes on: relatively uncontroversial, amongst the complacent view that the process could senior politicians. be left to itself, that no action or political ‘…the fact that there were so leadership was necessary. We wanted to many high profile black and Asian To see this, consider what British Prime challenge that complacency and passivity, intellectuals gave the impression that Ministers had been saying about British what we referred to as ‘multicultural drift’. the Commission and its report had national identity in the years up to the a distinctly minority orientation. This CMEB report. In the 1970s and 1980s, ‘positive action must imposed intangible and subtle limits on Mrs Thatcher wanted ‘to keep fundamental what the report should and should not British characteristics’ (Thatcher, 1999) be taken to build a say – limits which it could transgress, as and in the 1990s, John Major hoped that indeed it did, only at its peril’ (Parekh, ‘fifty years from now Britain will survive…. shared identity’ 2001b: 7). un-amendable in all of its essentials’ (Major, 1993). New Labour had a very different This challenge, as we have seen, was not It has rightly been said that the negative press view of Britain, for them it was not so appreciated, to put it mildly. Nevertheless, reaction provoked by the CMEB report: much about a thousand years of history soon afterwards, Cabinet members started as it was for John Major, but it was a expressing exactly the view that had been ‘demonstrates that the public sphere country on the move, ‘a young country’, lambasted; or to put it more precisely, which is highly racialised and patrolled by a as Tony Blair described it. In such rhetoric was not sufficiently identified because powerful conservative press, instinctively and that of ‘cool Britannia’, New Labour of the lambasting. In 2001 John Denham hostile to any intellectual position were signalling a brand that foregrounded argued that Britishness, as it existed, was that problematises national identity changing lifestyles, urban multiculture, the insufficient, hence ‘positive action must be through the lens of race and ethnicity creative arts and youth culture and the taken to build a shared vision and identity…’ or promotes positive discrimination’ ethnic minority dimension within them. (Denham, 2001) and in 2007, Jack Straw (McLaughlin and Neal, 2007: 924). Jack Straw had spoken about Britishness himself said that it was necessary ‘to develop having become more inclusive and multi- an inclusive British story which reflects Undoubtedly, the reception of the ethnic, and Robin Cook, a senior Cabinet the past, takes a hard look at where we CMEB report was a catastrophe for figure, in a highly publicised speech, referred are now and creates a potent vision… the multiculturalist cause it espoused. to chicken tikka masala as the nation’s to make sense of our shared future…’ However, what is interesting is that on favourite dish. The CMEB was aware of (Straw, 2007). Note the active verbs: ‘build’, this specific point of controversy, if we how New Labour were recognising the ‘develop’, ‘creates’ – exactly the view that look only a few years forward we see growing multiculturalising of the national had motivated the CMEB. Moreover, and that what was deemed by the press and identity. The Commission, however, was somewhat surprisingly, in this same period politicians to be unacceptable has come not content for senior politicians to merely of time, senior Conservatives have started

PERSPECTIVES 16 to express the same view. The current we have advanced (Katwala, 2012). An seems that the detailed academic analysis Education Secretary, Michael Gove, has Australian political theorist opined that the which concluded ‘the erasure of the said ‘Britishness is about a mongrel identity’ Britain displayed at the Olympics meant Parekh Report as a progressive intellectual (Gove, 2009, 2010). This used an expression that ‘[many] countries are [now] looking imaginary through which to make sense that a Tory MP had previously tried to to Britain as an example of a dynamic of the multitude of complex dilemmas make out was an insulting inference of multicultural society united by a generous facing twenty-first century Britain is all but Robin Cook’s suggestion that the British patriotism’ (Soutphommasane, 2012). Yasmin complete’ (McLaughlin and Neal, 2007: 927) were not a race (BBC, 2001). Even while Alibhai-Brown, the left-wing journalist and may yet prove to be premature in relation some Conservatives speak derisively of a member of the CMEB, who returned to the report’s understanding of the need multiculturalism, Pauline Neville-Jones, her MBE as a protest against the Iraq to pluralise Britishness. Not an easy task a figure regarded to be on the right of War, wrote: and one, as we have seen, which will be the Conservative Party, led a review experienced by some as threatening, but group which argued ‘we need to rebuild ‘these two weeks have been a watershed it does seem to be a process that some Britishness in ways which… allow us to of true significance. There has been a British politicians and publics have embarked understand the contributions which all visceral reaction among black and Asian upon. Moreover, if we look beyond the traditions, whether primarily ethnic or Britons to what we have seen. For some, symbolic, at what has happened to ‘state national, have made and are making to it has been perhaps the first time they multiculturalism’ or multiculturalist policies, our collective identity’ (CPNISG, 2007a: have really felt a part of this country. it will be seen that contrary to what some 23). A Leverhulme project that took For others, the promise of tolerance academic commentators say, we do not interviews from Cabinet Ministers and and integration has come true’ (Alibhai- have a ‘retreat’ or a ‘return to assimilation’. Shadow Cabinet Ministers during 2007–08 Brown, 2012). There have been a number of new did not find a uniformity of views on this policies in relation to community cohesion, matter but found considerable cross-party So, my optimistic ‘then-and-now’ conclusion security, immigration and naturalisation, agreement that British national identity had is that despite the ferocious attack on which considered by themselves may to be opened up to include minorities and the CMEB report and the relentless not be particularly multiculturalist but that politicians and the state had a role to anti-multiculturalist rhetoric of the last have to be seen in a larger context. The play in this process (Uberoi and Modood, decade, some progress is being made by multiculturalist agenda of New Labour’s first forthcoming 2013). the standard of multiculturalism. Hence it term (1997–2001) has seen no reversal during its later terms but rather a steady With Ed Miliband declaring at the Labour advance on a number of fronts such as the Party Conference in September 2012 that outlawing of religious discrimination and ‘One Nation’ is to be his master-concept, incitement to religious hatred, the expansion one might fear a return to some form of of state-funded Christian and non-Christian assimilationism or majoritarianism. While schools, public funding to develop Muslim that cannot be ruled out in practice, it is community infrastructure and the inclusion unlikely. In a later speech he celebrated of Muslim organisations in various spheres diversity and the contribution of migrants of governance (Meer and Modood, 2009; and the second generation (like him and O’Toole, DeHanas and Modood, 2012). his brother, David), and made glowing Hence this process is best understood references to the 2012 London Olympics as a civic rebalancing of multiculturalism, a opening ceremony. He celebrated the correction of any view that multiculturalism success of Team GB, including Somali born, is not about the pluralisation of national Mo Farah, and mixed race, Jessica Ennis, citizenship (Modood, 2013). The while emphasising that laissez-faire was Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition the mistake of the past and integration government is not so committed to this is something that has to be worked at on-going civic multiculturalism and have (Miliband, 2012). Indeed, the opening an anti-multiculturalist rhetoric but it is ceremony of the Olympic Games in London noticeable that they too have not reversed in July 2012 was an excellent expression Mo Farah celebrating at the 2012 Olympics any major multiculturalist policies. of a multicultural Britishness that New Labour tried to articulate without ever quite succeeding. Its positive reception Further reading Parekh, B. C. Rethinking Multiculturalism: Cultural Diversity and Political Theory. (Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University in the British media – including by some Press, 2000). of the same papers that had previously Modood, T. Still Not Easy Being British: Struggles for a Multicultural Citizenship. (Stoke-on-Trent: Trentham, 2010). lambasted the CMEB – shows how far Modood, T. Multiculturalism: A Civic Idea. Second Edition. (Cambridge: Polity Books, 2013).

PERSPECTIVES 17 Human Rights Narratives:

Words, Faith and Action Features By Professor Robert McCorquodale

Professor Robert McCorquodale is the Director of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law in London. He is also Professor of International Law and Human Rights, and former Head of the School of Law, University of Nottingham. His research and teaching interests are in the areas of public international law and human rights law. He has published widely on these areas, and has provided advice to governments, corporations, international organisations and non-governmental organisations concerning international law and human rights issues, including advising on the drafting of new constitutions and conducting human rights training courses. Here Professor McCorquodale reflects on the influence of faith and narratives on understandings Martin Luther King Jr. at the Lincoln Memorial, 1963 of human rights and their impact on international law. Arab world have been removed, though amount of common structure and ‘I have a dream, that my four little children others still remain. We see pictures of understandings in the narratives, even if will one day live in a nation where they will people seeking to overcome oppressive rule, the tone and language may differ, at least in not be judged by the colour of their skin but often at great cost in terms of life and loss relation to the Christian faith. I do this from by the content of their character’. to them and their loved ones. Time and the standpoint of an international human again they use the words ‘right’ and ‘freedom’ rights lawyer, who is a Christian and who hese words were spoken by as part of their reasons for their actions. seeks to use knowledge in a practical way Reverend Martin Luther King on the with the aim of increasing the protection T28th August, 1963, as part of a During these changes, religion and human of human rights in the daily lives of people movement to support the civil rights process rights are often seen as competing and around the world. Thus I hope to show that in the United States. Such words are contradictory narratives. Indeed, some much of the legal and social dialogue of powerful motivational messages for social religious leaders have been vocal in human rights is grounded in Biblical material change. His dreams were shared by others demanding actions, in helping propel social and that the contemporary narratives of and enormous changes have happened since movements and in proclaiming the need human rights are consistent with Christ’s those words were spoken. Children of to respect human rights, and yet others words and actions. former slaves and children of former slave- have resisted the expansion of human owners do sit down together in the United rights protections, through their actions and Law States, and there is a black President. inactions, occasionally in order to preserve Since Martin Luther King’s speech, laws have Apartheid has been overcome peacefully. their own positions, authority or power. been agreed at national and international The Berlin Wall has come down. Many levels to protect human rights and freedoms. authoritarian and military rulers in Eastern What I intend to explore in this article is International agreements, such as the Europe, in the Americas, in Asia and in the to demonstrate that there is a considerable International Covenant on Economic, Social

PERSPECTIVES 18 and Cultural Rights (1966), the International president or promisee. And fourth, between the world of the powerful and Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966), if there are human rights, they have that of the powerless, all the more so and the Convention on the Rights of the Child the additional characteristic of being because these worlds are never divided (1989), as well as regional agreements, assertable, in a manner of speaking, by a sharp line: everyone has a small part including the European Convention on Human “against the whole world”’. 1 of himself in both’. 2 Rights, place legal obligations on governments to protect the human rights of all those in The international community has confirmed The special aspect of that relationship that their jurisdiction. These human rights include the essence of these characteristics in is expressed by human rights is that the the right to freedom from torture, the the Universal Declaration of Human Rights relationship is viewed from the perspective right to freedom of expression, the right to (1948) when it proclaimed the ‘inherent of the one without power. There is a form conscience and religion, the right to health, dignity and... the equal and inalienable rights of duty that is owed to the person without the right to education, the right to cultural of all members of the human family’. The power and they have a worth that should be expression, the right to an adequate standard International Covenant on Economic, Social respected. This perspective is different from of living, the right to self-determination, the and Cultural Rights (1966) provides that ‘the the action by a person in authority assisting right to equality, and the right to freedom equal and inalienable rights of all members another through an act of charity or because from discrimination. of the human family... derive from the of their own responsibilities, or simply not inherent dignity of the human person’. acting and leaving an area of liberty to those Indeed, an extraordinary fact is that every without power. Indeed, as has been noted in single country in the world – of nearly There can be a problem with the abuse of terms of black Americans today: 200 countries – has accepted that it has the term ‘human rights’. It has been used international legal obligations to protect in situations where there is no aspect of ‘[F]or the historically disempowered, human rights. While most countries, sadly, human dignity, such as a ‘right to a car’ or ‘a the conferring of rights is symbolic of do not comply with all their obligations, right to a TV’, neither of which are human all the denied aspects of their humanity: and there is often weak enforcement, no rights. It can be a divisive term in some rights imply a respect that places one in government in the world today proclaims contexts, and its use without understanding referential range of self and others, that that it can legally abuse human rights. can diminish the chances of peaceful elevates one’s status from human body The language of ‘human rights’ is found in resolution to conflicts. So an informed use of to social being... ‘Rights’ feels new in the international discussions between heads the term ‘human rights’ is essential. mouths of most black people. It is still of governments and between leaders of deliciously empowering to say. It is the opposing forces in civil wars, as well as in One key aspect of a human right is that it is magic wand of inclusion and exclusion, international trade and investment debates. about a relationship between a person and of power and no power. The concept of another person or body with power. That rights, both positive and negative, is the Words power is usually political power but it can maker of citizenship, our relation The use of the term ‘human rights’ is be economic power, social power, cultural to others’. 3 relatively new, at least in the context of power or any other form of relationship enabling an individual to bring a claim we encounter in our daily lives. As Václav It is in these contexts of powers, justice and against an authority. However, the notion Havel noted: ‘[t]he exercise of power is of relations to others, that the narrative of of the liberty of humans from oppression determined by thousands of interactions human rights have been shaped and debated. can be found in, for example, ancient Greek philosophy, and ancient Chinese and Indian practice. A more contemporary writer has offered four characteristics of a human right:

‘First, it must be possessed by all human beings, as well as only by human beings. Second, because it is the same right that all human beings possess, it must be possessed equally by all human beings. Third, because human rights are possessed by all human beings, we can rule out as possible candidates any of Eleanor Roosevelt those rights which one might have in and the Universal virtue of occupying any particular status Declaration of or relationship, such as that of parent, Human Rights

PERSPECTIVES 19 Faith he read from the book of Isaiah (61:1–2): of the Good Samaritan was to teach Christian philosophy was important in the ‘The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because “that the word neighbour extends development of the concept of human He has anointed me to preach good indiscriminately to every man, because rights into law with Christians active in the news to the poor. He has sent me to the whole human race is united by a protection of human dignity through law. proclaim freedom for the prisoners and sacred bond of fellowship”’. 4 Understandably, the Christian Bible does recovery of sight for the blind, to release not use the term ‘human rights’ in the the oppressed and to proclaim the year Further, all humans are created in the image technical sense of a legal entitlement of an of the Lord’s favour’ (Luke 4: 18–19). of God. So a consistency can be seen individual to bring a claim against another, between Christian concepts of loving one’s who has a duty to uphold the entitlement. This statement of mission by Christ is neighbour and all of humanity created in Nonetheless, the Bible is replete with consistent with his teaching about the the image of God. 5 references to justice and to righteousness, in greatest commandments. When he was which notions of human rights can be seen. asked which is the greatest commandment Therefore, there can be discerned within he replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with the Bible a strong conceptual basis for all your heart and with all your soul and human rights. While the discourse is ‘Administer true with all your mind. This is the first and not exactly in human rights terms as we greatest commandment. And the second understand it today, the concepts dealt with justice; show mercy is like it: Love your neighbour as yourself. create, as the Latin American bishops have and compassion to All the Law and the Prophets hang on affirmed, a ‘gospel of human rights’. 6 It is these two commandments’ (Matthew also consistent with the international legal one another’ 22: 39). When Christ is asked ‘who is my concept that human rights are universal and neighbour?’, he responded by telling the inalienable, and based on an understanding The Hebrew word mishpat, which means parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10: of requirements of human dignity. justice or justice and righteousness, is 25–37). In this parable, a man walking from often used to refer to an entitlement Jerusalem to Jericho was attacked by a Action to justice. For example, ‘This is what group of robbers who beat him, stripped What emerges from a consideration the Lord Almighty says: Administer true him and left him to die. A priest, who was of this Biblical discourse is that Christ is justice; show mercy and compassion to walking the same road, saw the man and committed to helping the oppressed. But one another. Do not oppress the widow passed on the other side of the road. A this commitment is not mere words; it is a or the fatherless, the alien or the poor’ Levite did the same. Then, a foreigner, a commitment to uphold and protect human (Zechariah 7: 9–10). This injunction not to man from Samaria, came along and took rights by action. It is putting Christian faith deprive others of their rights is repeated pity on the man. He poured oil on his into action to help those in need that is elsewhere and is particularly directed wounds, bandaged them and put the man required to love one’s neighbour as oneself. at the need to protect or uphold the on his donkey. He then took the wounded Indeed, the people who God will consider rights of widows, orphans, the poor and man to an inn and paid the inn-keeper at final judgment to be the righteous are foreigners. These doctrines were of such to look after the man until the Samaritan those who fed the hungry, gave drink to nature largely because these groups were returned. At the end of the parable, Christ the thirsty, received strangers, clothed the the powerless in that society, who were then asks which of the people in the naked, cared for the sick and visited the often the subject of oppression, and so parable was the neighbour. The questioner prisoners (Matthew 25: 31–46). Thus a needed to be helped by God’s people. answers that it was the one who had Christian’s responsibilities to protect human There is a responsibility to God to help mercy on the man. At which answer Christ rights are not limited to just a few political and to protect the oppressed, as those says: ‘Go and do likewise’. or civil rights but include a full range of who oppress others are to be held social and economic rights, such as the right accountable to God for their treatment. Christ’s teaching is that there can be no to access to health care, and to act without limit to the concept of neighbour. As discrimination. While the focus of Christian Similarly, the Greek words dikaios and Wolterstorff notes: thought has been overwhelmingly on dikaiosyne are used in the New Testament Christian responsibilities, in fact rights and to refer to the need for justice or ‘The commandment to love one responsibilities are closely linked. Almost distributive justice, and to be righteous another is grounded on this common all human rights in international law are not requires that justice for all must be given. sharing in the image of God – on the absolute. Because they are exercised As well as the concept of justice requiring fact that my fellow human being is, in within the context of societies, they are the protection of human rights, the Isaiah’s words, of my ‘own flesh and limited both by the rights of others and concept of loving one’s neighbours is a blood’.... Every human being is, in this by the general interests of society. Yet the key element of Christian teaching. In one deep sense, my neighbour. Indeed, says human right is still the priority and not of the first actions of Christ’s ministry, Calvin, Jesus’ purpose in the parable the responsibility.

PERSPECTIVES 20 Further, the Christian Churches, as The Good institutions, have a responsibility to Samaritan take action against violations of human by Paula rights whenever they occur. There is a Modersohn-Becker responsibility to resist oppression, whether it is political, economic, social or religious. The action taken might include making public statements, using their moral authority in societies and motivating their members where human rights are an issue. It could be said to be a harmony in the rejection of the absolute power and sovereignty of governments found in both international human rights law and in Christianity. It is surely a challenge to Christians (and followers of other faiths) that the Church, its leaders and members, have too often acted as oppressors by Christians to grapple with it. More law that upholds human rights. Otherwise, their actions of discrimination and abuse profoundly, the struggle for human rights as Martin Luther King noted, an unjust law of power, and misused the emancipatory has to do with what it means to be fully is ‘a human law that is not rooted in eternal narrative of human rights. human, with how and to what extent and natural law... [and] any law that uplifts the human race can reach its potential human personality is just. Any law that It is also possible to see Christian concepts and destiny. Any area of thought or degrades human personality is unjust’. 8 as influencing the legal protection of endeavour that deals with man in his human rights. For example, international essence must be the concern of those Finally, while the general narrative of law protects the right to an adequate who are committed to the gospel of human rights in international law does not standard of living, which could be part of Jesus Christ, for he came to seek and to resolve all social and moral issues, it does the Christian concept of righteousness in save the same humanity’. 7 offer a basis for an interfaith dialogue. A which there should be provision of food to human rights narrative acknowledges that the hungry, clothes to the naked, etc.; and Indeed, I would argue that it is vital that there are greater interests to serve than that rights are to be protected at all times, Christians and the institutions of the Christian our own self-interests, including our own even in wartime, is consistent with Christian churches understand this responsibility if they religion’s self-interests. It can be a means thought. In fact, national courts have used are to play a positive role in the education, of building hope and restoring a sense Christian ideas in reaching conclusions on clarification and dialogue of human rights. of community, with a foundation of care law, such as the determination of the extent for the oppressed and acting from the of liability of manufacturers to consumers Conclusions perspective of the oppressed. It offers based on the question ‘who in law is While it is clear that care needs to be parameters for making judgments about my neighbour?’. taken in the use of human rights language, human relationships and about the nature human rights can be a unifying narrative, of being human because it is saying that, at On this understanding of the narrative which can assist in a universal clarification of the deepest level, all humans have equal of Christian thought, it is clear that God’s word and about Christ’s social justice worth. This, after all, is one area where the the responsibility of Christians to take mission. It can give a voice to the powerless. major faiths can be united: a shared belief action to help others is consistent with Laws can be used to assist in putting words in seeking true justice and in upholding the the general human rights discourse into clear obligations, as long as this law is a dignity and worth of the human person. concerning the protection of human rights. The protection of human rights is Endnotes at the core of righteousness, is part of 1 R. Wasserstrom, ‘Rights, Human Rights and Racial Discrimination’ in J. Rachels (ed) Moral Problems (1979), p.12. a Christian’s responsibility to God and 2 V. Havel, Disturbing the Peace (1990), p.182. is an aspect of putting faith into action 3 P. Williams, The Alchemy of Race and Rights (1991), p.164. to love one’s neighbours. As Drew 4 N. Wolterstorff, Until Justice and Peace Embrace (1983), p.78 – his emphasis. Morphew has stated: 5 See D. Tutu, ‘The First Word: To be Free’ in J Witte and F Alexander (eds) Christianity and Human Rights (2010). 6 Final Document of the Fourth General Conference of Latin American Bishops 1992 in Santo Domingo, published ‘[H]uman rights have become possibly in Santo Domingo Conclusions (1993). the pressing global issue of our time. This 7 D. Morphew, Christians for Human Rights (1991), p.1 – his emphasis. alone makes it imperative for thinking 8 J. Washington (ed), A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings of Martin Luther King (1986).

PERSPECTIVES 21 Morality tales:

Narrative strategies for living with HIV Features By Dr Corinne Squire

Members of the Bambanani Group and their paintings: Our Hopes and Dreams

Dr Corinne Squire is Co-Director to save my baby. AZT [antiretroviral very helpful. Such stories may be told to of the Centre for Narrative Research medication] helped me, my baby was yourself, to those close to you, and to the and Professor in Social Sciences, University tested negative. That made me a very wider community. of East London, UK. She is the author of happy person. Living with HIV and ARVs and HIV in South Linda1, Cape Town, 2001 The pictures illustrating this article provide Africa: Talking about the Big Thing, and examples of some visual ‘stories’ of living the editor of Doing Narrative Research, For people living with HIV, like people living with HIV, produced by the Bambanani What is Narrative Research? and Culture with other chronic illnesses, telling stories Women’s Group from Cape Town, South in Psychology. about how the illness came to affect them, Africa, in association with the artist Jane how they are dealing with it, how they are Solomon and REPSSI (Regional Psychosocial The importance of stories going to live with it in the future, and what Support Initiative). These ‘body maps’ tell Okay! In the first place I am glad it all means, can be very important. HIV is tales of the women’s lives and bodies before that I know of my HIV positive status a potentially fatal condition. Antiretroviral diagnosis, how they envisage the virus and because now I know what to do. Then treatment is effective but difficult, and the drug treatment within their bodies, and my husband… I told him. At first, he leaves some HIV symptoms untouched. the resources they draw on to live positively could not accept it… I then continued HIV stigmatisation and discrimination still with HIV positive status. The visual and oral talking about it every day. I used to chat profoundly impact on how people view storytelling associated with the images has about it, so that it would sink into him and live with the virus (UNAIDS, 2012). In been valuable for them, the women say. that I am HIV positive... Truly, eventually these circumstances, narrating stories about The group has also facilitated body mapping he accepted it.... Then he asked about diagnosis, coming to terms with the virus, workshops for people living with HIV in the baby. I said the baby will be tested getting treatment, living healthily, disclosing Canada, Tanzania and Zambia, demonstrating at nine months, I then explained. Truly one’s status, and educating others, can be the power of such processes across different when I was told [about] the baby, I economic and social contexts (Bambanani was very happy, because I was happy 1 All participants chose their own pseudonyms. Women’s Group, 2011).

PERSPECTIVES 22 Because HIV is intimately tied to morally- judged sexual behaviours, HIV stories are also linked to morality. Because of HIV’s associations with sexual wrongdoing, and because illness generally may be understood as punishment for sin, the virus is sometimes equated, by religious people, with spiritual failing. More generally, an HIV story is always a morality tale about oneself as an ethical person. It may deal in sin, possession, blame, exculpation and forgiveness. However, it can also be a way to reframe yourself as an ethical agent, rather than as a transgressive subject excommunicated from faith.

I don’t think of myself as having HIV because I am still alright. There is no difference… my health is still good… The thing that really helped was the support groups. It really, really helped us because you feel free when you are there… you become very happy and forget… when you get home it is then that you remember that you have HIV… today I am not ready, I am not yet free… I am not open yet to stand up and say I have HIV. I am still getting there, you understand?… But I feel alright, most importantly I thank God. God said these things before, he said there will be these incurable diseases, so I believe in God truly. What he talked about, is happening today. So that is something else that inspired me, because God mentioned this before, he said they will happen, they are happening today, unto people, they would not fall in steep places, so I believe Group member with her body map in that. Linda, Cape Town, 2001 programmes. Most acknowledged faith as who ‘feel(s) alright’ and who ‘thank(s) God’. an important factor, whether they belonged She does this through her story. Linda was a black South African woman to denominations familiar in Europe, such as in her 30s, unemployed, and living in very Catholicism or Methodism, were members Researching HIV ‘morality tales’ resource-constrained circumstances. She of African evangelical Protestant churches, My interest in people’s story strategies volunteered to talk to me and my research held traditional African beliefs, engaged with for addressing HIV came from working assistant, Lumka Daniel, in a township near faith through their own private beliefs and for several years as a volunteer with Cape Town. In her initial answer to the prayer, or some combination of these. For HIV support groups in the USA. In question, ‘What helps you?’ she told us that those with more political backgrounds, faith these groups, in the late 1980s and early knowing about HIV allows her to ‘know had less of a role (Squire, 2007). 1990s, the diversity of people affected what to do’: to take her medication, to rely by the epidemic – gay men, current on her support group, to trust in her faith However, Linda is also doing something else. or ex-intravenous drug users and their in God. This answer was given, in broadly She is putting herself in the foreground of this partners, current and ex-sex workers similar ways, by many of the 37 women picture. She is the one who ‘knows what to and their partners, all from a variety and men in the study. Some mentioned, do’, who brought her husband to understand of class and ethnic backgrounds – was in addition, the helpfulness of family what being HIV positive means. She is the very much in evidence, as was the range members, friends, and radio and television one who is struggling to be open and free, of people’s life strategies. Across this

PERSPECTIVES 23 diversity, though, my research evidenced the presence and importance of HIV ‘morality tales’. As people often do when they encounter serious, life-threatening events, HIV support group members frequently told stories of rediscovering religious institutions, of the power of prayer, of finding spirituality, or simply of re-evaluating the ethics of their lives. These stories were important aspects of how they lived with HIV. They were often stories that they told to other people, and to themselves, in order to help them live with the condition.

In my research, I never ask people to tell stories, but they often do. These can be short stories about particular events, or longer stories, like Linda’s, about coming to terms with HIV. They may be extended narratives of lives lived with HIV for many years, or entire life stories. They may also be co-constructed stories, put together in interaction with me and with other imagined audiences in participants’ heads, or, as with Linda, with supportive others – in her case, with a support group for pregnant HIV positive women. Studying people’s strategies for living HIV positive lives by analysing these stories has proved very fruitful. The approach requires me to focus on how stories develop over long interviews, layered with repetitions, contradictions and omissions. It is a route that allows the complexities and the creativity of people’s strategies for living with HIV to come into view.

HIV is a condition with a large ‘psychosocial’ aspect, which makes personal narratives about it central to how it is experienced and dealt with. The virus is transmitted by social actions with psychological meanings. These actions are judged in different ways across societies, but the judgements are frequently negative. Stigma often attaches to HIV itself as a fatal or disabling, transmissible, ‘dirty’ disease. Moralising judgements about HIV positive people pronounce them ignorant, feckless, scrounging, or criminally negligent. Such negative assessments may combine with the labelling of HIV positive people as sinful or socially transgressive because they are gay men, sex workers, drug users, or women (or less commonly, Body map II

PERSPECTIVES 24 men) who have had sex outside marriage. daughter without forfeiting her asylum claim. Being judged negatively can have deleterious She was still funding her daughter’s care consequences both personally and socially: it and education from the minimal income can lead to depression, isolation, and refusal she received as an asylum seeker, which was of testing and treatment. itself inadequate for the healthy food she needed or for transport to HIV clinics and Linda took great care to protect herself support groups. She was also unable to leave from negative judgements by positioning the country when her son fell ill and died: herself as knowledgeable and responsible. In her narrative, knowing her HIV status I used to pray every day that I’ll be able made her a morally valuable person. She to see my children again but when my narrated herself as an HIV positive subject son died I said I wasn’t going to pray who was also a good wife, open with her anymore… I was so angry… and I stopped husband; a good mother, protecting her praying… and I said to myself, ‘I can’t baby; a socially integrated member of the compete with God’… I don’t know if God HIV-aware community, preparing to educate is punishing me for something I’ve done, I others; and a Christian, guided by her faith don’t know, things are so difficult for me, to accept and understand HIV. things are so hard for me, I don’t know if I’ll be able to see my daughter again. In studying narratives of living with HIV, Penelope, London, 2011 I define narratives in a broad sense, to include any sequence or movement of However, for most interviewees who take symbols that builds meaning. Of course, up explicitly faith-based positions, these ‘narratives’ defined in this way will to positions offer additional ethical resources. some extent be specific to their social and Linda, for example, borrowed the moral historical contexts. We won’t always be able weight of her Christian faith to tell her story to understand each other’s stories. However, of ‘speaking out’ about HIV, and to proclaim narratives about the self have a feature in her commitment to telling more people common, across all these contexts. Such about what HIV is and how to live with it. Body map III stories, because they are socially situated, Even Penelope later returned to prayer and are also always morally situated. They church. She described how going to church, relatively new, previously pathologised respond to the demand we all live with, to followed by meeting friends and having food condition, with which people are only now give an account of ourselves as subjects with them, was now the highlight of her starting, world-wide, to live long-term. If within the social order, acting as that order week. This pleasure was moral, as well as they do this from a faith-based position, requires. In narrating ourselves, we narrate social. For in these situations, Penelope’s HIV they can position themselves especially what we have done, wish we had not done, status was ‘normal’, shared with her friends, powerfully as ethical agents of HIV belief and should have done; and what we plan and within the church. She was just one of and action. and desire to do (Butler, 2005; Squire, 2012). many within a community of faith: Changing faith stories Socio-moral positioning is very apparent At least I like going to the church, it’s full Faith organisations, religious leaders, in the stories that my research participants of fun, we sing and dance… I really like to popular religious media and perhaps most tell about living with HIV. This positioning go there, I look forward to it every Sunday of all, personal beliefs, have always played happens, whether or not the narrators … then at times after church we go to my a powerful role in the HIV pandemic. In situate themselves as religious. For some friend’s house, wait for the other friends and South Africa, as elsewhere, this role has narrators who wonder how they have then maybe they will come to my house, shifted over the course of the epidemic, in offended God, or why God has deserted yeah, it keeps me going (laughs). many churches, mosques and synagogues, them, religious positionings can make Penelope, London, 2011 and among traditional spiritual healers. their narratives more difficult. Penelope, Discourses of sin, possession and for instance, a woman in her mid-fifties, Given the freight of transgressive meanings punishment, condemnations of condoms, an African migrant, described how her attached to HIV, it is perhaps not surprising and emphasis on the power of prayer difficulties had initially alienated her from that an important narrative strategy for or spiritual healing in place of western faith. She had been forced to stay in England people living with HIV is to explicitly narrate medication, have weakened. Currently, the after her HIV diagnosis in order to access their stories, for themselves and others, as collaborative approach of many religious treatment unavailable in her own country. moral subjects. They re-moralise themselves institutions promotes HIV testing, talks about She could not leave the country to see her in the stories they are creating about this condoms and views medicine and prayer,

PERSPECTIVES 25 and to some extent, traditional and western Genres of religious narrative: Unexpectedly, this move towards medicine, as working together. This shift the conversion story testimony was also strong in the 2011 seems to have happened across religions Beyond these stories of how faith and stories of people living with HIV in the and denominations. It may relate partly to faith institutions form part of the moral UK. It was unlikely that these interviewees increased HIV education and awareness, world of HIV citizenship, I am interested had become more embedded in religious but also to greater treatment availability, in the cultural genres of stories on which and spiritual narratives than in previous to a prevalence of HIV in congregations research participants draw. In storying their years. What seems more to be the case, sometimes so high it cannot be ignored, and attempts to come to terms with their HIV is that the current invisibilising of HIV in to religious leaders affected by HIV, either status, for example, many interviewees the UK, in an era of successful treatment, themselves or in their families. draw on something like a ‘conversion’ cuts in HIV services, and the ‘othering’ genre. They describe initial ignorance of the epidemic as ‘African’, renders self- Some faith communities or individuals are still or even rejection of HIV, followed by a narration as a moral HIV positive citizen, opposed to conventional medical approaches struggle to discover and then confront ready to speak out about the epidemic, to the pandemic. In 2011, three people were their HIV status. The stories often increasingly salient. reported to have died in the UK because culminate in a transformative conversion they took the advice of pastors from moment marked by interviewees saying Conclusion evangelical Christian churches in London something like, ‘then, I believed’, or, as My work and that of many others suggests that serve African communities, to stop with Linda’s husband, ‘truly, eventually he strongly the importance of faith narratives, antiretrovirals and pray for a cure. Claims accepted it’. For women who, like Linda, as well as faith institutions, in supporting – from traditional healers in South Africa still receive antiretroviral treatment during and sometimes, impeding – HIV positive sometimes suggest that traditional medicine pregnancy, this moment of transformation people’s contemporary lives. Particular is all that is needed to stop the epidemic. is often revisited through the salvational faiths do not seem to have necessary event of their baby testing negative. relations of antagonism or support to the However, these difficulties were not epidemic. These relations tend to change reported by participants in my recent The stories may also move to a kind of with time, to depend on specific faith studies. In my 2011 UK research, several HIV witnessing, aimed at converting others leaders, congregants and national contexts, participants, all of them relatively new to an accepting, knowledgeable and hence and to be quite heterogeneous. They may African migrants, mentioned being open ethical life with HIV. The speaker’s own be articulated differently across a faith about their statuses with their pastors and telling of their status to others is frequently community; they may also be developed other congregation members, and one the first step in this testimony, as for Linda syncretically. In my interview studies, I have, had spoken to the whole congregation with her husband. Linda’s story becomes though, found many times that a specific, about it. Something similar was reported explicitly entwined with Christian discourse culturally prevalent, ‘conversion narrative’ by my South African interviewees in 2012, at the end, when she seems to be evoking structure gives shape and meaning to who seemed able to be much more open Isaiah’s promises of protection of the interviewees’ stories. Moreover, even when about HIV in religious institutions than faithful and the punishment of the wicked. people’s stories of living with HIV have interviewees a decade previously. For many, But personal transgression is shifted here little religious content or structure, they are HIV had become integrated into spiritual from people who are HIV positive, often frequently, perhaps unavoidably, framed life and duty, not an excommunicated part seen as sinning at this time, to people who with a kind of secular religiosity, as morality of them: a big change. Lusi, for example, a fail to understand and come to terms with tales. This framing turns out to be, for most woman in her mid-30s, narrated how her HIV, while grace accrues to those who research participants, a strongly significant family’s approach could be understood accept and witness about their status. means of positioning themselves as moral through their faith. Belief no longer led This kind of story was also often told with agents, not transgressors. It enables them them to reject but to include her: no explicit religious content, still deploying to story themselves as people who know a ‘conversion’ structure that moved from how life with HIV, and life in general, should Lusi: My family helps me a lot, by talking ignorance and conflict to acceptance be lived, and who want to spread this about it and by giving me strength that I and witnessing. understanding, this grace, to others. am going to be okay and giving me hope. Interviewer: So how… why do you think your family reacted so well? Because some Further reading families don’t react so well… Andrews, M., Squire, C. and Tamboukou, M. Doing Narrative Research. Edition 2. (Palgrave Macmillan: 2013). Lusi: Most of my family, they are religious. Bambanani Women’s Group. Bodymaps for the Khayelitsha Hospital Art Project. They are people that have Jesus, so they do http://www.memorybox.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=41&Itemid=54 (2011). Heelas, P. and Woodhead, L. The Spiritual Revolution. (Wiley-Blackwell McAdams: 2004). understand a lot of things… They support Squire, C. Living with HIV and ARVs: Three-Letter Lives. (Palgrave Macmillan: 2013). me like this. Squire, C. What is Narrative? National Centre for Research Methods Working Paper. Lusi, Cape Town, 2012 http://eprints.ncrm.ac.uk/3065/ (2012).

PERSPECTIVES 26 Contested Narratives of Revelation: Features Pluralist and Ambiguous Approaches

By Dr Edward Kessler

Dr Edward Kessler is a leading thinker in interfaith relations, primarily contemporary Judaism, and Jewish-Christian and Jewish- Muslim Relations. He is Founder and Executive Director of the Woolf Institute and Fellow of St Edmund’s College, Cambridge.

In Jewish, Christian and Muslim Scripture, God speaks and so his people would do well to listen and obey. The focus of revelation is God. It is God who calls forth creation by speaking his word (Genesis 1). It is God who reveals his will on Mount Sinai (Exodus 34), who, Christians teach, speaks his final word in his son, Jesus (John 1) and who, Muslims Jesus Solana on Flickr Jesus believe, speaks to Mohammed from his first Bibles in translation revelation in 610 CE onwards, when he was ordered to recite and teach ‘mankind what How might these verses be interpreted? the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept, when was not known’ (Surah 96). Since there is One reader might say that if the first were we remembered Zion’ but few are familiar a great emphasis on the word of God in revealed before the second, the second with the final verse, which reads, ‘happy is all three faiths, it is hardly surprising that would abrogate its meaning. Alternatively, the one who seizes your infants and dashes sacred narratives are so important to Jews, another reader could suggest that not being them against the rocks’. Sometimes, then, Christians and Muslims. compelled into the truth does not make we have to deal with (meaning, in practice: falsehood acceptable. Finally, another reader overcome) long-held readings that have Looking at another’s sacred narratives may might make the case that islam is used in been death-dealing, not life-giving. help us to see those paradoxes that we often the lower-case sense of ‘submission to God’, fail to locate in our own. It may also teach and that, for example, a Christian (or Jew) is For Jews, the Rabbinic Bible, Mikraot Gedolot, us the importance of interpretation. For submissive to God within his Christian (or with its commentaries spanning the centuries example, in talking with Muslims, Jews and Jewish) faith, just as a Muslim is within hers. ranged around the biblical text, suggests Christians, interlocutors may refer to: This very process of discussing contested a way forward. A narrative consisting of narratives is vital, offering insight into our different possible meanings stands in marked ‘There is no compulsion in religion; truly own faith as well as others. We also come contrast to the single ‘authentic’ meaning the right way has become clearly distinct to realise that serious differences, intra-faith backed by clerical or scholarly authority. It is a from error; therefore, whoever disbelieves as well as interfaith, are seriously held. form of exegetical pluralism: in the Shaitan [Satan] and believes in Allah he indeed has laid hold on the firmest Of course, narratives have a history; and a ‘In the School of Rabbi Ishmael it is taught: handle, which shall not break off, and Allah compromised history at that. It is impossible “See, My word is like fire, an oracle of the is Hearing, Knowing’ (Surah 2: 256). to read the Passion narratives of the Gospels Eternal, and like a hammer that shatters a without recognising the antisemitic uses to rock” (Jeremiah 23: 29). Just as a hammer Less helpfully (at least, at first glance), is: which past readings of them have been put. divides into several sparks so too every When Matthew wrote: ‘And all the people scriptural verse yields several meanings’ ‘And whoever desires a religion other answered, “His blood be on us and on our (Sanhedrin 34a). than Islam, it shall not be accepted from children!” ’ (27: 25), how are we to read him, and in the hereafter he shall be one them from our perspective, not his? Or Muslim commentators also offer multiple of the losers’ (Surah 3: 85). Psalm 137, which begins famously with, ‘By interpretations and scholars have long

PERSPECTIVES 27 noticed the use of familiar hermeneutical Of course, exegetical pluralism may The point is that one term should not principles, such as ‘Scripture explains result in an uncomfortable tension or exclude the other. Although one is left Scripture’, (or, as expressed by Muslim ambiguity owing to the presence of a with unresolved ambiguity and even commentators, ‘one verse (ayat) clarifies number of interpretations arising out of a contradiction, multiple narratives can be another’). Tafsir, derived from the root single passage. A narrative of ambiguity is liberating because they indicate that the fassara (to explain, to expound) possesses demonstrated by the following translations plain, obvious and literal interpretation similar features to midrash, a Hebrew of Job 13:15, which describe Job’s feelings is not the final meaning of the text. term for asking, searching, inquiring and as God allows him to suffer: Indeed, more than one interpretation interpreting. of a contested narrative is not simply • Behold, He will slay me; I have no acceptable but welcome. Classical Christian exegesis, illustrated by the hope (Revised Standard Version). fourth-century church father, Ephrem the • Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Contested Narratives about Jesus: Syrian, contains similar attributes: Him (King James Version). hostile and shared approaches One of the most obvious contested ‘The facets of God’s word are more The reason for the difference between narratives between Christians and Jews numerous than the facets of those who the RSV and KJV is the result of a variation is that of Jesus of Nazareth. And yet one learn from it. God depicted His word in the read and spoken versions. The of the most certain facts about Jesus with many beauties, so that each of Masoretic vocalisation (spoken reading) was that he was a Jew. He was a child those who learn from it can examine indicates that Job has hope while the of Jewish parents, brought up in a Jewish that aspect of it which he likes. And God consonantal text (written text) offers the home and reared among Jewish traditions. had hidden within His word all sorts view that Job has no hope. The Mishnah Throughout his life, Jesus lived among of treasures, so that each of us can be acknowledges the ambiguous meaning Jews and his followers were Jews. No enriched by it from whatever aspect of the biblical text and recognises that other Jew in history has rivalled Jesus in he meditates on’ (Commentary on the both translations are possible: ‘the matter the magnitude of his influence. The words Diatessaron I:18). is undecided – do I trust in Him or not and deeds of Jesus the Jew have been, trust?’ (Sotah 5: 5). The contradiction is and are, an inspiration to (literally) billions Thus, narratives, even when contested, have meaningful as it expresses the tension of men and women. His death marked a plural meanings, as one midrash states, ‘the of one who is torn between hope and turning point in the history of the world. Torah can be interpreted in forty nine ways’ doubt: the very tension that inhabits our In his name a great religion was founded (Pesikta Rabbati 14: 20). The existence of mind when we read contested biblical and Christians have gone forth carrying his exegetical pluralism promotes breadth and narratives today. Job pronounces two message to the remotest corners of the plurality of viewpoint. words, which signify simultaneously hope earth; Muslims revere him as a Prophet. and hopelessness. Jewish, Christian and Muslim exegetical Strange, is it not, that narratives about traditions also provide a means by which to We can apply a hermeneutic of this outstanding Jew have been given deal with texts which run contrary to what ambiguity elsewhere. For example, many little attention by Jews. Yet, this is true. we regard as the fundamental values of our conversations about the Israeli-Palestinian For almost two thousand years, Jesus tradition, or which may be read as a license conflict brim with emotion and passion. was ignored because Christians came for violence or bigotry. Israel is controversial because it cannot to cherish beliefs about Jesus’ life, which be viewed simply as a geographical and no Jew could hold. When the Church ‘when human life is political entity whose emergence is like the persecuted Jews, sometimes in an effort establishment of any new state. Political, to convert them, Jewish indifference at stake the narrative social, cultural and religious concerns all turned to hostility. It is a sad fact of history have a role, making this a complex as that the followers of this great Jew have needs reinterpretation’ well as a sensitive topic. It is not even brought much suffering upon the Jewish easy to choose the appropriate words people, so that for centuries it was very This approach is based on a shared in discussions. Are we to use the term hard for any Jew even to think of Jesus hermeneutical principle: humanity should ‘Holy Land’, perhaps with a qualifier without difficulty. Up until recently, most live by the commandments and not die such as ‘Christian’, or, alternatively, Jews have chosen not to think of him by their observance. The rabbis coined ‘the Promised Land’? Or must we seek at all. the term pikuah nefesh, referring to the ostensibly more neutral terms such as duty to preserve life as taking precedence ‘Israel and Palestine’? Should we refer to However, changes have taken place in over the commandment: simply put, when ‘Jerusalem’, to ‘Yerushalayim’, or to ‘Al- the last half-century, epitomised by Jewish human life is at stake the narrative needs Quds’? Is it ‘Hebron’ or ‘Al-Khalil? ‘Nablus’ New Testament scholars Géza Vermes reinterpretation. or ‘Shechem’? and Amy-Jill Levine who have researched

PERSPECTIVES 28 Of course, there remains areas of contention, not least the significance of the death of Jesus which cannot be the same for the Jew as for the Christian. For the Christian, it is the supreme example of self-sacrifice; the willing sacrifice of his life by the Son of God that the world might be redeemed from sin. For the Jew, the significance of Jesus must be in his life rather than his death.

Contested Narratives: a final word Whether we are discussing the meaning of a sacred text or the significance of a holy figure, accepting that there can exist, alongside one another, different approaches is, in my view, critically important. Every religion raises questions and offers different answers. For example, there is no single definition of Judaism that is acceptable to all Jews. Some maintain that Judaism is solely a 4th century mural of Jesus from the catacomb of Commodilla. Earlier Christian art in Rome religion; others that it is a culture, still others portrayed Jesus as Orpheus, young, beardless and in a short tunic. This is one of the first images of Jesus as being of identifiably Jewish appearance, with a full beard and long hair, a style not usually emphasise nationhood and attachment worn by Romans. with the Land of Israel. And just as there is disagreement about the definition of and written about Jesus. Although ‘Christians can and ought to admit Judaism, so there is rarely a single agreed Jesus narratives remain contested that the Jewish reading of the Bible Jewish view of any topic. and the traditional Jewish attitude of is a possible one, in continuity with indifference to Jesus has not by any means the Jewish Sacred Scriptures from One common rabbinic teaching is to have disappeared, the signs are encouraging. the Second Temple Period, a reading more than one right answer to a question. There is an increased awareness that many analogous to the Christian reading The Talmud sometimes concludes a discussion of his teachings are shared. As it states in which developed in parallel fashion. with the word teyku (let the problem stand). the Gospels: ‘What commandment is the Both readings are bound up with the This was because the rabbis were unable to first of all?’ he was asked. Jesus answered vision of their respective faiths, of choose one from a number of answers to as any good Jew would have answered: which the readings are the result and a problem, so they decided it was better to ‘the first is: Hear O Israel the Lord our expression. Consequently, both are accept that there could be more than one God, the Lord is One. And you shall love irreducible. On the practical level of answer than choose the wrong one. the Lord your God with all your heart, exegesis, Christians can, nonetheless, with all your soul and with all your might. learn much from Jewish exegesis The ability to allow for conflicting positions The second is this: You shall love your practised for more than two thousand is a feature of Judaism. It is generally posited neighbour as yourself. There is no other years, and, in fact, they have learned that the opposite of truth is falsehood: a commandment greater than these’ much in the course of history. For Jew might suggest that the opposite of one (Mark 12: 28–31). their part, it is to be hoped that truth may well be another more profound Jews themselves can derive profit truth. In my brief investigation of contested Jews will recognise in Jesus’ answer the from Christian exegetical research’ narratives, I simply hope that the reader Shema, a Jewish declaration of faith, (The Jewish People and their Sacred will be more willing to ask questions, offer which is recited at every Jewish service, Scriptures in the Christian Bible, 2001, multiple approaches and accept that there day and night (Deuteronomy 6: 4–9). para 22). may be more than one answer. The famous command of Leviticus 19:18 is also a fundamental precept of Judaism. Further reading Jesus’ words demonstrate a shared narrative, which allows for both Jewish Forward, F. Jesus: A Short Biography. (Oneworld: 1998). Kessler, E. Jews, Christians and Muslims. (SCM: 2013). and Christian interpretation. Thus we Magonet, J. Talking to the Other: Jewish Interfaith Dialogue with Christians and Muslims. (IB Tauris: 2003). read, according to the teaching of the Cunningham, P. et al, Christ Jesus and the Jewish People Today: New Explorations of Theological Interrelationships. Roman Catholic Church: (Eerdmans: 2011).

PERSPECTIVES 29 Messenger of the Spirit:

Sculpture and Narrative at Salisbury Cathedral Culture

Constable’s iconic picture, Salisbury both in and outside the Cathedral Cathedral from the Meadows, was buildings, inspiring and intriguing many. saved for the nation earlier this year. Here we invite you to read thoughts Capturing the magisterial beauty of the and reflections by two authors; the Cathedral within the context of its rural Revd Dame Sarah Mullally, Canon landscape and a turbulent sky, this work Treasurer of Salisbury Cathedral, who contains for many a moment of spiritual saw the exhibition inhabit the Cathedral awe. It was this sense of encounter in and witnessed the responses of those art and the presence of the divine that who worshipped, visited and worked lay at the heart of Salisbury Cathedral’s amongst it, and artist and lecturer Alan recent exhibition: The Messenger of the Caine, who invites us to walk with him Constable’s Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows Spirit by Helaine Blumenfeld. Including through the exhibition and engage with monumental sculptures from across the complex imagery of the sculptures her career, the exhibition was situated themselves.

Cathedral and Sculpture in Collaboration

By the Revd Dame Sarah Mullally Canon Treasurer

The Revd Dame Sarah Mullally is the sacred and so it is fitting that Helaine everyday thoughts outside and are open Canon Treasurer of Salisbury Cathedral, Blumenfeld, whose pieces seek to do to receiving an experience, not necessarily one of 3 residentiary canons who, with the same, brought this exhibition to the religious, but rather being open to the the Dean, are the senior members of the Cathedral and the Close. The Cathedral notion that art is a form of revelation. As Cathedral body. In 2005, she became a and Helaine Blumenfeld recognise that the title suggests, art can be the bearer of Dame Commander of the British Empire in the spiritual incorporates a search for this message’. recognition of her contribution to nursing meaning and purpose, which may include and midwifery. a relationship with an ultimate other Abiding is about dwelling more such as God, but above all it takes us consciously upon something and it is here From the moment the lorries, sculptures beyond ourselves. that we encounter the possibility of the on-board, began to enter the Cathedral sacred, the transcendent and God. For me, Close, people started to engage with the In a world which is filled with what Josef this sense of abiding with art rang an echo 20 extraordinary pieces which make up The Pieper calls ‘visual noise’ we find ourselves of the sentiment of the poem Love (III) by Messenger of the Spirit. bombarded by images and information, George Herbert: and in a society which demands us to keep Salisbury Cathedral was built over 750 years moving, we so often fail to abide and find a ‘Love bade me welcome: yet my soul ago; it rises out of the water meadows place to reflect on things of beauty and the drew back, towards the heavens but holds its place as sacred. Both the Cathedral and the exhibition Guilty of dust and sin. part of the Close and wider city. It was built offered an invitation to stop and abide. But quick-ey’d Love, observing me in a way which sought to say something grow slack about God without using words. The Helaine writes: ‘When people come into From my first entrance in, architect used light, stone, glass, symbols, Salisbury Cathedral, they enter prepared Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning, colour and space to say something about for a spiritual experience. They leave their if I lack’d anything.

PERSPECTIVES 30 A guest, I answer’d, worthy to be here: take to achieve change. After listening to love said, You shall be he. Helaine speak about this piece, one of the I the unkind, ungrateful? Ah, my dear, audience was moved to tell me how Helaine’s I cannot look on thee. reflection resonated with the decisions she Love took my hand, and smiling did reply, was taking in her life and gave her courage. Who made the eyes but I? Truth, Lord, but I have marr’d them: The sculpture, Messenger of the Spirit, was let my shame inspired by the role of Angels as messengers Go where it doth deserve. of God. Angels appear in most religions And know you not, says Love, who and faiths and they seem to connect with bore the blame? those of no faith. Angels give us a way of My dear, then I will serve. expressing our longings for beings that are You must sit down, says Love, and more powerful than ourselves. They help taste my meat: us understand our place in the world, our So I did sit and eat’. relationship with other people and with God. Within the narrative of Christian Many visitors, whether they happened scripture, Angels appear when the human to encounter the exhibition by chance mind struggles to comprehend. As such, the or whether they planned to come, have sculptures have provided a focus for our been moved by the sculptures and Helaine preaching in the Cathedral, and they have Blumenfeld’s motivations behind them. provided that focus to abide in a number of

Children interacted with the sculptures in Ash Mills evening mediations, which have occurred the Close with a sense of exploration of Messenger of the Spirit during the time the sculptures were present. the unknown, they played around them and ran up to them exclaiming without Taking Risks is a piece which came about as Helaine Blumenfeld suggests that art is there prompting, ‘It’s an angel!’. You could see Helaine changed her style and approach to to remind us of our spirituality – to look and visitors stopping, looking and abiding with sculpture, the transparency of the marble in doing so, we are moved – The Messenger the thoughts that the pieces inspired. reflecting the risks you sometimes have to of the Spirit has successfully done this.

Faith Narratives: Encountering the Spiritual through Art

Alan Caine

Alan Caine is a painter and a teacher. But when Henry Moore presents a massive, these names turns immediately into a visual For 30 years, he was responsible for bronze, reclining figure with marks and illustration. Harnessed to the marble or art in the University of Leicester’s adult shapes which suggest the female form, bronze images, we catch sensuous elements education programme. He was one of the which are more ‘earth’ than ‘flesh’, we are in which speak of movement, grace, flesh. founders of the Richard Attenborough a different territory. There is no particular There are tense shapes and flowing shapes Centre for Disability and the Arts. story to be embodied nor is there a simple – and we discern in most of these works human form to represent a clear thought. the presence of a figure, though we cannot When the sculptor Rodin presents us with We need to respond to a variety of signals quite detect its borders and attributes. As his monumental sculpture, The Thinker, before the puzzlement recedes. Landscape, we move around the sculpture, our first we immediately discern a solid human earth, mother earth: all come to mind. response seems almost to be erased: image, embodying aspects of thought and a graceful flow of metal or marble is contemplation which seem to involve his Take another step away from direct overcome by tense, chiselled marks or by whole being. When Michelangelo takes representation and meet Helaine a dangerous sharp edge. But still, in almost on the biblical story of David and Goliath, Blumenfeld’s sculptures. They include strong all of these sculptures, the sense of the well-known to most viewers, the mixture elements which speak of the human figure; human body – and the spirit which inhabits of scale, white marble, virility, tension and but there is no clear body; no clear head; it – seems indelible. This is the language of tradition hover in the background while no features. They are presences, not figures. the eye; not a translation of familiar images we encounter this clear and monumental A title may help: Espirit, Mysteries, Creation into representational objects. This process human presence. or Messenger of the Spirit, but none of is, of course, very familiar in music. Although

PERSPECTIVES 31 angelic – with wings. From the green lawn, where some of the largest sculptures stood Ash Mills under the graceful reign of the Cathedral’s steeple, visitors moved indoors to the long nave, unbroken from end to end. Aisle windows allowed clear light into their space and fine modern stained glass created a deep blue darkness at the east end. Between the arches separating the nave and the aisle, a dozen horizontal sarcophagi, including stone knights resting on the lids of their tombs, are part of the cathedral’s furniture. Two of the sculptor’s strong and delicate white marble images, like angelic presences, filled empty spaces. One was named Angel 1 and the other Il Vento. A strange and wonderful contrast between the solid mortal knights and the flickering vertical grace of these sculptures occurs. Just as music can re- order the atmosphere of the architecture it inhabits, art can transfigure the space in which it is placed.

Perhaps the most arresting image within the Cathedral was Angels: Harmony, placed in the centre of the south transept. A two-piece sculpture with similar figures, life-size, standing back to back, it can be read as a single presence with clear, outspread wings. In white marble, its strong outline, robust grace and the impression of winged movement, creates the sensation of a miraculous presence against the delicate arched grandeur of the building. Upon careful scrutiny, we find that a toughness about these figures is created by tension in the shapes and a physicality in the ‘wings’ which refuse to be pretty. The Angels: Harmony sense of awe increased as we moved back occasional twitters of forests or thunder The materials are white marble and cast and forth, from close-up to distance. The of battle contribute sounds, most musical bronze, which at times is given a golden dynamic harmony of two separate figures structures do not ‘illustrate’. They only finish and at other times painted to achieve which created a unity when viewed together evoke, using the logic of sound and how darker ‘metallic’ tones. The shapes are was profound. it can play upon the mind, the body and smooth and often intricate, with little the soul. evidence of the earthier qualities associated The fact that the sculptor’s background is with Henry Moore. The presence of Jewish rather than Christian adds an extra The Messenger of the Spirit is the title of a elements which suggest figures is evident dimension to the impression that each of the recent exhibition of sculpture by Helaine in all of these works, but they are never works is very much ‘at home’ in this place. Blumenfeld at Salisbury Cathedral. Twenty imitations of the anatomy of human bodies, Angels abound in many religious traditions. sculptures were exhibited in the nave, the and their corporeal impact varies from view Greek and Roman artists present them, and cloister and on the lawns, inviting visitors to view as they are encountered. the very Roman-looking angels which can be and worshippers to encounter them found in early Christian art continue to be – perhaps as a form of revelation. Her So what is their story? No receptive eye repeated to this day. In the Old Testament, first major retrospective exhibition, they could miss the sheer poise and gracious Jacob wrestles with an angel, and Abraham represent a career spanning more than bearing of these finely tuned images, which meets three men at the door of his tent, not four decades. usually suggest feminine presences, often realising that they are, in fact, angels who

PERSPECTIVES 32 will reward him and his wife with a child reflecting the weight of mortality and an mark the building, there was a kinship of in old age. The angel or messenger is not almost certain sense that the possibility spirit, but they clearly did not belong to the necessarily winged and religious literature and of winged flight is present. On its solid same era. art from many traditions, including Islam, offer circular marble plinth, this sculpture seems variations on the theme. But for the moment to exude a sort of aching humanity and Perhaps the most intriguing part of the it may be sufficient to remember that the also a sense of wonder. Not far away, a exhibition’s story is this: again and again angel as divine messenger, often winged, is three-piece bronze group called The Space viewers have agreed that these sculptures a recurring theme in religious traditions, in Within offers separate shapes which must seemed completely ‘at home’ within the art and in the consciousness of a wide range be standing figures. It is clear that they are Cathedral, the cloister and the lawns. This people. Even ‘pop’ culture seems to have human presences, though their forms do is by no means inevitable. When churches embraced the idea of the angelic messenger not in any exact way imitate our anatomy. and cathedrals have invited artists to show as comforter. We sense a conversation among these their work, very often an aisle turns into bronze shapes, each with a different ‘stance’, a small gallery, and for the time being the There is a core of intensity in most of this each with a ‘body’ which leans and bends exhibition takes over – interrupts for a work, so we are unlikely to use the word in a different way – although none have purpose – the rhythm of architectural space. ‘charming’ in spite of the seductive delight of either legs or heads or hands or feet. There I have seen overtly ‘pious’ work neutralise or flowing white marble. Although there are no is grace; also the peculiarity of individual destroy the rhythmic peace of a place. But direct images of any actual thing or any being beings or presences; there is mortality, and what was stunning here, at Salisbury with on earth, she has enlisted human drama, there is monumentality. Mysteries is both Helaine Blumenfeld’s work, is that these partially transfigured into a language parallel awesome and troublesome, while the Space works were not made specifically for such to music. Not ‘man’ or ‘mankind’ or ‘nature’ Within looks as if a race of tall and graceful a space, and its overt content in no way ‘fits but ‘spirit’ in the wide and ambiguous fullness figures had found their way into this space the bill’ for such a location. And yet, in spirit, of its meanings: this is what matters. Flesh and and were profoundly connected with each the mixture succeeds, and many of us were bone are never absent but do not dominate. other. The placement of sculptures on the particularly moved by the interaction of this lawn, easily available to casual passers-by art and this architecture. On the lawn, next to the North porch including children and dog-walkers, was stood a white marble presence. Mysteries an important dimension of the exhibition. The fact that these works were so utterly is slightly larger than life. It appeared, from The backdrop of the Cathedral and its at home in Salisbury Cathedral reflects, I some views to be a massive figure, perhaps splendid spire, built at the height of the believe the essential spirituality of the artist’s even a winged angel. This stone seems to gothic period, embodies a sense of the vision throughout the years. This spirit is not contain a figure, although it almost eludes divine much broader than the language of a matter of being or not being religious or us. As we explored the surface, we found any single architect. These new presences pious. It is about finding and using marks, ourselves hovering between what appears entered this space. Possessing some of the shapes, materials; about the pursuit of to be cloth stretched over flesh and bone, qualities of mystery and elegance which ideas and visions which may be scarcely understood, but matter. Painters and sculptors are often closer to musicians than

Julian Jans Julian to storytellers. To illustrate is not enough. Even conventional images such as the Madonna and Child, can convey thoughts as far apart as an image of domestic charm, a gracious and revered mother and child or a riveting sense of holiness caught in a frozen icon image. Deep spiritual statement is much more than a story which can be read at a glance. What seems to have happened here is that the spirit of the exhibition was somehow in harmony with what mattered to the Cathedral builders – a thought which may be humbling to the artist and which the viewer could experience.

To view the sculptures, or for more information on the work of Helaine Blumenfeld, please see: The Space Within http://www.helaineblumenfeld.com

PERSPECTIVES 33 The Book Shelf The Most Reverend Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury

In each edition of Perspectives a guest shares their favourite and most formative books. Culture We hope this inspires us all to widen our reading, thinking and knowledge.

Justin Welby is the 105th and of post-colonial life in Nigeria, a country refusal, especially in the later poetry, current Archbishop of Canterbury that I have been privileged to get to to sentimentalise. and senior Bishop in the Church of know over many years. I was honoured England. Born in London in 1956, to have been asked to take Dr Achebe’s Staying with poetry, RS Thomas’ Collected his father’s family were German funeral recently in Nigeria. Even though Poems bring the implications of human Jewish immigrants who moved to I was not able to get to his home town suffering firmly into the realm of personal England to escape antisemitism in of Ogidi, where the funeral took place, belief. The power of Thomas’ poetry the late 19th century. For 11 years I was represented there and hear that for me is that it represents a continual he worked in the oil industry, it was an extraordinarily powerful challenge to the faithfulness of God, yet becoming group treasurer of occasion. This is a testimony to a man from a position of faith. RS Thomas, a a large British exploration and who was willing to write out of a deep Welsh priest who never gave up practising production company. In 1989, sympathy combined with a willingness to his ministry, nevertheless persists in after sensing a call from God, speak out fearlessly. coming back to a sense of God’s absence, Archbishop Justin stood down from industry to train for ordination. From a rather different time and place, ‘…such a fast For 20 years, his ministry has and maybe the most romanticised of God, always before us and blended deep devotion to his Charles Dickens’ novels, Oliver Twist is leaving as we arrive’ parish communities with Church nevertheless also a hard-hitting critique work around the world, especially of that author’s own social context. What He is unafraid. We might think of Thomas in areas of conflict. An expert on I particularly appreciate in Oliver Twist is as a modern-day Psalmist, one who has the politics and history of Kenya Dickens’ capacity, through melodrama and mastered that type of prayer we call and Nigeria, he has lectured description, to shape a Christian world lament. Lament is the tireless tackling of on reconciliation at the US view and ethic. Here is another book that God with those concerns for we hold State Department. demonstrates the power of story-telling God ultimately responsible. Such fierce for engaging the reader in social change. conversation inspires me, helping to build I would like to begin by congratulating the transparency, intimacy and trust. Woolf Institute on its 15th anniversary As we celebrate Benjamin Britten’s and expressing my thanks for the centenary, I have been reflecting on his Lastly, I would commend to readers a invitation to contribute to the special War Requiem, written for the consecration favourite book on the Bible: The Moral edition of Perspectives in this way. It is a of the new Coventry Cathedral in 1962, Vision of the New Testament: Community, tribute to Lord Woolf, Dr Edward Kessler where more recently I have worked Cross, New Creation by Richard B. Hays, and all those involved that the Institute as director of the Cathedral’s Centre Dean of Duke Divinity School. If Thomas’ has developed in such an extraordinary for International Reconciliation. That poetry is honest engagement with God way over the years. I appreciate especially extraordinary piece weaves together the from the heart, here is honest engagement the involvement of my office at Lambeth Latin Mass for the dead with nine poems with God from the head. Hays addresses Palace and the Woolf Institute in helping by the great poet of the First World War, how to read Scripture well. This includes to convene the Lambeth Jewish Forum, Wilfred Owen. A fascinating book which how we use Scripture to shape our ethics which has produced a number of useful explores the complexity of that poet’s – how we live into the story and how we resources for Jewish-Christian dialogue interaction with war is Wilfred Owen: A apply its principles today. It is not an easy and mutual understanding. New Biography by Dominic Hibberd. There read because it is deeply challenging to my is a tension in Owen’s poetry, as there assumptions, convictions and comforts. But My first book off the shelf would be is in Britten’s music, which surrounds it as you will have gathered already from the Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. This in the Requiem. The tension is between reading list above, I thrive on challenge. novel, first published in 1958, is an an appreciation, even admiration, of the I’m not sure I could have found a way to unsentimental and hard-hitting account sacrifice that comes with war and an utter accept my current role otherwise.

PERSPECTIVES 34 Shaping Narratives with Edmund de Waal Culture

In conversation with Trisha Kessler

Watching Edmund de Waal throw pots is This portrait of my father, painted by his Edmund: I find it very interesting, a meditative experience. Each small lump cousin, Marie-Louise von Motesiczky, an generationally, where stories get placed. of porcelain, handled with trust, moulded impressionist painter, felt different. I also And I don’t think this is happenstance at all. and shaped with (slight) pressure, taken remember his very public stance on the There is an emotional logic about this and off the wheel, placed alongside others, rise of the National Front in the 70’s and I think it is very rare that a person doesn’t similar but different, each unique. As being struck at how strong his reaction was tell someone something. It does happen that we sat by his wheel, watched by his to the resurgence of far-right racism. He there is a synapse of energy between people, adoring dog, he answered my questions didn’t articulate our sense of being different sometimes outside the family and often with thought, reflection and a gentle but he didn’t hide it either. And then I had across generations, and the experience that smile. Edmund is not just a potter but a two very different sets of grandparents. I have had over the last few years, listening shaper of narratives with his enormously My mother’s father was an Anglican vicar to lots of people who begin to tell me their successful book, The Hare with Amber from the Welsh borders, an Edwardian stories, is that it falls into two profoundly Eyes, a compelling history of the Ephrussi figure who was a Parish Priest for 66 years, different camps. Those who belatedly family as told through the fate of a extraordinary; he died in his 90’s. And realise that someone was trying to tell them collection of Japanese ornaments, his then my grandmother and grandfather something but at that moment in their life netsuke. If you haven’t read it, do so. in Tunbridge Wells but not of Tunbridge they were not able to listen to it. This can be Edmund is a shaper of both narrative Wells. So an interesting mixture. very upsetting and complicated later on in and form and I find it hard to distinguish life, when they realise the story has been lost. between the potter and the writer. Trisha: I am interested in how and when There are also those for whom, almost by He sends objects and stories out into family stories are told and why they often osmosis, they pick something up which they the world to be encountered and skip a generation. try and shape into their lives. engaged with.

Trisha: Edmund, in your book, The Hare with Amber Eyes, the reader enters a family history in all its richness, vulnerability and desperation. At what point did you realise that your family held such diverse narratives?

Edmund: I grew up in an Anglican world, moving from Nottingham to Lincoln, where my mother taught at a theological college and then to Canterbury, where my father became the Dean. And as much as we were very much part of a British establishment, there was always a slight sense of oddness about it right from the beginning – partly with a father with a European name and a strong accent, as well as being visited by elderly relatives from different parts of Europe. I remember the moment my father’s portrait was hung alongside these very conventional portraits of the Deans of Canterbury in their robes. Edmund de Waal in his studio

PERSPECTIVES 35 Trisha: Tell us a little about the Edmund: Well, you are sitting here and To begin with, I will take the objects out challenges you faced in trying to shape I am making pots and so in one way, on of their comfort zone and put them into your family narratives. one level, absolutely not; my life revolves new places. completely around making things and will Edmund: There is nothing more complex continue to do so. In another sense, of Trisha: Are there some particular favourite than trying to negotiate a family narrative course, yes. It suggested to me that there pieces that you love? – on all kinds of levels. Where does are things that I care about, to do with something start and where does something memory and exile, what objects really Edmund: There are some fantastic pieces; finish? Also, at any point in a family story mean and I can express both, through the some yellow ground Ming dynasty dishes you are listening not just in mono but in things I make and write, and that both are that seem to look almost banal, but when stereo; you are hearing all the cadences of legitimate. So basically I discovered I can you look at their proportions you see that everyone else’s reactions to that person. write and can work in a different medium. they are the most beautiful things in the So immediately you are trying to tune into world. They are exquisite. And in their form, a story which you know is a contingent Trisha: Thinking about shaping narratives they do something with great austerity, story but has different implications. So what with words, in a way ceramics also tell perfectly. There are lots and lots of white do you do with the narrative, to use your their own stories, they hold their own pots that I love. All the whites are different, word, of such complexity? Well you can biographies. Can you tell us about your of course, and part of the point of this spend your life trying to write it down, or forthcoming exhibition: On White – Porcelain exhibition is to show the whites in their you can find a coherent form which allows Stories from the Fitzwilliam? great magnificent difference, so that’s a joy. you to put some things down and pick other things up, and let people know that is Edmund: It is a collection that I know Trisha: I am interested in how you position what you are doing. So you are not trying well from studying in Cambridge and and house your pots. It seems to me that to say: ‘this is the authoritative biography of having spent lots of time in a much-loved giving your pots protection, a safe space, is my grandmother’, which would be a bogus collection. There are things there that I very important to you. thing to do. It is an intriguing thing. adore and what I am interested in doing is allowing a few things more space, bringing Edmund: I am concerned with the And then you have the after-effects. some unexpected things together and concept of protecting things, a sort of Writing a family story can be very allowing some unexpected stories about obsessional idea about putting objects in powerful and very negative. It doesn’t porcelain to emerge. It’s a sort of exercise the world and the impossibility of keeping bring closure. Indeed, it brings a lot of in rearrangement. things together and, of course, that is also unresolved things to the surface. People true of people. To me there is a really write family stories at risk. Writing a Trisha: Guide me through how you think strong connection between the almost family story can make you feel that you someone will access and engage with anthropic nature of the world, things are making an emotional land-grab for Porcelain Stories? dissipate, they fall apart, get lost and this collective memories and claiming some desire to find them, restore them, bring kind of ownership over the family. It can Edmund: Everyone knows that china them back together again. I suppose the imply that because you have chosen to comes from China but then perhaps do ridiculousness of the years it took to write write the family story, someone else hasn’t not realise that for a thousand years this that book is also present in my work, written the family story. It is all powerful, material has been in transit, coming across which is the madness of making things out powerful stuff. in huge quantities, often facing perilous of porcelain which is so fragile, bringing journeys across the silk route, huge cargoes them together into an installation, naming Trisha: With all this in mind, do you have to be used both for tremendously luxurious them and then putting them out into the any regrets in having written the book? display and everyday life. Who would have world. It makes any other art form look thought that porcelain from China would substantive. It is a ridiculous thing to do; Edmund: No, it has brought with it a lot of inspire all these extraordinary attempts put them on a shelf, how is that going to complexity but if I hadn’t written it I would at imitation around Europe? That people survive? It’s a sort of bet on people. still be living with a series of very strongly would send great ideas and drawings back unresolved emotional and fragmentary to China to get them fabricated? With Trisha: And this idea of space and silence, stories, so no. I am very glad I spent those porcelain you have a history of movement, allowing something to be and with thought, years writing it. It has brought with it journeys in all directions. How you visibly could you expand on this? wonderful things and hard work as well. display this history and inspire people to write about it is kind of complicated. Yet Edmund: When I was writing my book, I Trisha: Do you think that it has steered it has the makings of a huge generational came up against different types of silence, you on a different path? Was it a moment of force for interaction and the thing is to try there was this personal withholding of intersection in your life? things out, perhaps even to fail honourably. things from the people I love, who didn’t

PERSPECTIVES 36 want me to go on this journey; which is an interesting silence to meet. It needed a lot of thinking through; what’s going on when someone doesn’t want to tell you something? How do you deal with that, how do you respect it? There are also the silences, we all know, where other people have silenced members of the family or have made spaces, silenced parts of the record, bits of archives. The effacing of families in history is another kind of silence, a profound silence. There is also a sort of spatial thing about silence, both my Grandmother and Great Uncle found the space in which to be. I don’t want to romanticise this, it has got nothing to do with upbeat stuff, they found a difficult kind of space in Japan and Tunbridge Wells, they didn’t choose it. So I am trying to Yourself, you: currently on display in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge work out what sort of space to put around objects, it has got to be dynamic, some push Trisha: Has this book and your book Trisha: What are you working on at and pull; the housing of the object has got inspired many to write to you about their the moment? to be in conversation with the space it own experiences of exile? inhabits. That is the exercise, making things, Edmund: It is an installation called finding the space in which to put it and the Edmund: Over the last few years I have Atemwende for the Gagosian Gallery, spaces around it. received an extraordinary correspondence New York. It is constructed around Paul from thousands of people who want to Celan’s essay, The Meridian, which is this Trisha: The ideas of silence and space seem connect with me, and very many of them amazing journey into breath and what a world away from that of movement and deal with lots of jagged bits of memory, happens at the turn of the breath and the noise, the life of refugees in exile, which brings unresolved bits of their lives. I have also possibility of seeing with enormous clarity me to your Grandmother Elisabeth de Waal’s encountered a lot of anger in these and complexity at the same moment. book, The Exiles Return, recently published fractured life stories. It is a whole series of work around my by Persephone. This book, about the act of readings of Celan and I love him. He is a returning, engages with the complexity of the Trisha: At the moment a lot of your work painful troubled person, with such beauty, picking up of old threads and the beginnings is in galleries and museums. Are you hoping incredible beauty. of new stories. What compelled you to have to find different places for your work, such Elizabeth’s book published, apart from that it as your installation in the pavement at the Trisha: Edmund, you strike me as a deeply tells a very interesting story? University of Cambridge? contemplative person. What do you think about when you sit at the wheel? Edmund: To be honest it was quite difficult Edmund: My installation, A Local History, and I thought very hard about it. Here is a outside the Alison Richard Building, was Edmund: Oh, all kinds of things. Objects woman, a writer, who never managed to very definitely trying to find a way of and words are so close to each other, I get anything published in her life. When you having public art. I am just starting a hear and see my pots as words, I put them read the book, you can see it is the sort of really interesting project with an architect down and see them as stories. thing an English publisher would not have in Central London, which is to make a published in the 1950’s, writing about Jewish series of pieces that I hope you will find As I walk up a busy South London high refugees, I mean who is going to publish by chance near Victoria. I love the idea street, I experience a sense of well-being that? So there was this lovely feeling that of people on their way to the station about the world and wonder for just a you could bring something of value into the or somewhere else, finding something moment how much more we have yet to light but it is also bitter sweet… because I which is fragile, something you might hear from Edmund de Waal. know how much she would have adored want to return to, or bring someone to having seen it published, and the experience see it, but isn’t signposted. What I really Edmund de Waal’s exhibition On White – of being excited and praised, she would have want to do is have something in the Porcelain Stories from the Fitzwilliam will be enjoyed the whole process! As you know world without signs, the idea being that on display from Tue 29 October 2013 to all the royalties are going to the Refugee you can unexpectedly find things in Sun 23 February 2014 in Galleries 33, 26 Council… that I really liked. the world. & 28 of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.

PERSPECTIVES 37 Book Review The Undivided Past: History Beyond Our Differences David Cannadine Culture

Described by The New Yorker the state lends its arm to empowering as an ‘impassioned and erudite clerics (not ‘religion’) to enforce their critique of historical thinking’, ‘orthodoxy’. That this has often happened The Undivided Past, written by is no wonder, because religion is a great the renowned historian David social and moral power, one which, if it Cannadine, argues that much does not ‘move mountains’, can at least of the writing of history has mobilise millions to do so: hence the been driven by a fatal desire to state’s interest in claiming religion as one dramatise differences – to create of its mainstays. an ‘us versus them’. Here Eugenio Biagini, Professor of Modern and A similar tendency to generalise, Contemporary History at the perhaps unduly, from a certain liberal University of Cambridge, reviews understanding of a concept characterises the book for Perspectives. many of the other chapters. About ‘nations’, for example, Cannadine stresses Religion, nation, class, gender, race and the extent to which the development notions of ‘civilisation’. These are for of such identities owed much to the Cannadine, ‘the most resonant forms transnational and internationalist activities of human solidarity’, forms which have and aspirations of wide cross-sections of shaped man’s experience ‘across the successful societies in different ages. True. centuries and around the world’. This However, something also ought to be book is a reflection on such concepts antagonistic traditions. Religion is the said about the role of patriotism in raising and notions, and how they have been first – a sign of the extent to which the the perspective of ordinary people above interpreted and fought over. They have secularisation paradigm of the 20th century the narrow horizons of individual, family been used to erect barriers between now feels obsolete. Cannadine argues and local life. For such raising creates an human beings, to such an extent that that, while black and white, ‘Manichean’ imagined nation-wide ‘us’ and makes a thinkers as different as Karl Marx and perceptions of identities and values are crucial contribution to sustaining a social Clifford Geertz have argued that conflict found in all major religions (including cooperation that is based on principles between groups ‘is what makes the Buddhism, as recently illustrated by the other than self-interest. If this is so, then world go round’. By contrast, Cannadine Thai monk Wirathu), the precepts of what the main question is not how much makes here ‘a case for a broader, constitutes a good life in this world are nations owe to one another – though it more ecumenical, and even more similar across different religions. From is true that ‘civilisation’ flourishes when optimistic view of human identities and here to viewing some form of humanism nations trade and communicate within relations – a view that not only accepts as an antidote to the dogmatic ‘Word’, some wide common market. Instead, difference and conflict based on clashing the step is short: ‘Whatever the claims of the question is surely how we define the sectional interests, but also recognises political or scriptural authorities to the ‘us’ that matters, whether this is done affinities and discerns conversations contrary, the intuitive apprehension of a through some arbitrary ethnic criteria, across these allegedly impermeable common humanity transcending religious or through the endorsement of a shared boundaries of identity’. This is, of differences, has always moderated the legal and constitutional tradition, one that course, quintessentially the historian’s extravagant and invariably overstated in principle can welcome new citizens, as responsibility, as Cannadine has brilliantly claims of faith on individuals’. This is true, exemplified by the ancient Roman Empire argued in some of his older works, but except that much in the faiths about which and, nowadays, the United States. here addresses questions which are not Cannadine writes is about toleration and of method, but of substance. compassion for human fallibility and love The chapter on class sheds further counteracting judgement. The trouble light on the problem behind excessively Each chapter explores the common begins when a church (or a religious stressing the ecumenical dimension and ground between different and historically majority) and the state become one and the flaws of dogmatism. It is true that,

PERSPECTIVES 38 Culture

This is the dimension that is missing from Cannadine’s otherwise thought-provoking and enlightening analysis – namely the extent to which each of the concepts surveyed in this book contributes to human progress and liberty not only when its precepts are toned down and made more ecumenical, but especially when they are not, provided that each group – in trying to establish its particular vision – does not have the power to overcome the others. While the resulting contest may be one between dogmatists, it is a competition for the souls of the wider population. They do not consist of ‘true believers’, but of people who may be persuaded to consider favourably one or the other idea, or a number of them together, when a good case can be made. Waving over the Berlin Wall And one does not need to be either sceptical or ecumenical to accept the view when contrasted with Marx and Engels’ ‘product’ to distracted and unorganised that competition is healthy for a society views about the allegedly inescapable ‘consumers’. In this respect, class struggle as much as for the soul, in the economic Armageddon of a ‘class’ clash, any person – whether or not there is any substance sphere as much as in many others. of good will and common sense ought to behind any particular notion of ‘class’ – is consider the greater complexity of most important for a healthy democracy, as old- The Undivided Past: History Beyond Our social entities. However, class struggle, like fashioned liberals like Luigi Einaudi and Ralf Differences is published by Allen Lane, national consciousness, had the important Dahrendorf used to preach. ISBN 978-1-846-14132-4. function of mobilising people for common goals which transcended the narrow and specific local grievances involved, for example, in a particular strike or lock- out, and indeed in the election of one parliamentary deputy instead of another. It had the function of creating a vision which, in competition with others, sustained a constructive, dynamic, complex sense of the ‘common good’, to be negotiated continuously and therefore truly inclusive. Nowadays, as ‘class’ has been discredited and often replaced by more pluralist, subjective and volatile forms of collective identity, such as gender, the risk is the apathy of the masses and the short- termism and cynicism of the politicians, who, like pedlars and salesmen, are primarily interested in selling their political Civil Rights demonstrators

PERSPECTIVES 39 Woolf Institute Profiles

Sughra Ahmed relation between felt experience which in life, and spent 6 months volunteering This spring Sughra Christians often take as religious, and the as a Special Educational Needs Ahmed joined the belief in God. His other research interests Coordinator in Walsall. He then spent a Woolf Institute as include philosophical aspects of interfaith year volunteering in South-East Asia for

Noticeboard Programmes Manager relations, especially those between Jews, a charitable home for the blind. There, in the Centre for Public Christians and Muslims in the countries Matthew put his skills and experience Education, where she of the former Yugoslavia. His research as a of sales and management to good use, has responsibility for the design and delivery JRF will engage with varieties of interfaith working as Head of the Fundraising of research and training on issues such as encounter in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Department. faith and belief, integration and cohesion. Previously she worked as a Research Fellow Returning to the UK in 2008, Matthew in the Policy Research Centre where she Mohammed Aziz then worked for The Outward Bound explored the migratory and settlement Last autumn Mohammed Trust as Head of Corporate Partnerships experiences of first generation Muslim Aziz joined the Woolf – liaising closely with both the Duke women and men in the UK. Sughra also Institute as Director of of York and the Duke of Edinburgh’s worked with a number of organisations to the Centre for Public offices. Matthew left that position to take consider the issues young people face whilst Education. In his previous a short term Games-time contract with growing up in the UK and the impact of work Mohammed was the London 2012 Olympics in the role this on wider British communities. She has the founding CEO of the Forum Against of Group Leader for the International published a number of papers and a key Islamophobia and Racism and the British Federation Services. report, Seen and Not Heard: Voices of Young Muslim Research Centre, and the founding British Muslims. Sughra is active in interfaith Director of FaithWise Ltd. He subsequently work both locally and nationally, working worked for 8 years in central government Esther-Miriam with organisations to help build stronger and as Advisor and Senior Advisor to senior civil Wagner more effective relationships across faiths servants and ministers in race and religion. This September Esther- and beliefs. He has held various public appointment Miriam Wagner joined positions, including Commissioner at the the Woolf Institute Sughra is a Trustee of the Inter Faith Network Commission for Racial Equality, the Equal from her role as UK, the Islamic Society of Britain and an Opportunities Commission and the TUC’s Research Associate at advisor to FaithxChange, which is concerned Commission on Vulnerable Employment. the Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research with young people of faith who are engaged He has also been a Chair of the European Unit, Cambridge University Library. She in civil society. She has a BA (Hons) in English Network Against Racism and is currently completed her doctorate on Judaeo-Arabic Language and Literature and an MA in Islamic a Vice-Chair of the Equality & Diversity letters at the University of Cambridge. Studies; she is a qualified Chaplain and holds Forum. Mohammed is a Research Associate Her main research interests include a Diploma in Islamic Jurisprudence. She at the Centre of Islamic Studies, Cambridge Judaeo-Arabic, sociolinguistics, Yiddish, contributes to debates in the media both and a Nohoudh Scholar/PhD Candidate at and Jewish-Muslim relations in Egypt and locally and nationally. SOAS, London. Muslim Spain as reflected in the Genizah sources. As part of her work at the Woolf Institute she is working with Deputy Gorazd Andrejc˘ Matthew Teather Director, Shana Cohen to develop a series This summer Gorazd Matthew Teather joined of interdisciplinary panels. These panels Andrejc˘ joined the the Woolf Institute as explore historical and contemporary Woolf Institute as a Development Officer dimensions of Muslim-Jewish Relations and Junior Research Fellow. in September 2012. are intended to showcase original research. Gorazd is a CJCR After completing a Alumnus who recently BSc (Hons) degree at For more information about Junior Research completed his Doctorate in the Philosophy Lincoln University in Behavioural Science, Fellowships or the forthcoming panel series of Religion at the University of Exeter. His Matthew began his career in business. please contact the Deputy Director, Doctorate examined the question of the Matthew then took a change of direction Dr Shana Cohen: [email protected].

PERSPECTIVES 40 Woolf Institute Resources

MSt DISSERTATIONS Egypt in the Greco-Roman Period, Exhibit Literature Recommended to 12–16 Commonalities in Ritual Practices? Year-Olds in the Irish School System by The following MSt dissertations are The Holocaust Education Trust, Ireland. now available to borrow from the Jewish Marriage and Inheritance Cases Woolf Institute. A full list can be before Eighteenth-Century English Courts. A Critical Comparison of the found in the Cambridge Theological A Critical Analysis. concept of Repentance in Soloveitchik Federation Library Catalogue: a n d B a r t h . The Texts of Leviticus from the Dead http://affint-newton.lib.cam.ac.uk. Sea Scrolls and the Septuagint. A Critical To What Extent does the Later Analysis in Light of Purported 2nd-Century To borrow a dissertation please Augustine Provide a Corrective to Rabbinic Concerns. contact the Office Manager: Recent Scholarship on Augustine and [email protected], A Critical Analysis of the Portrayal of the Jews? +44 (0)1223 741 048. Jewish-Christian Relations in Current A Critical Analysis of the Significance Catholic Religious Education Resources of Amy Levy for the Study of Jewish- for English Secondary Schools. Christian Relations. recently SUBMITTED Judicial Conception of ‘Religion’. A Critical Analysis of the Significance Imagined Others: A Critical A Critical Analysis of the UK Court of of Religious Identity in Arab-Israeli Examination of the Representation of Appeal and Supreme Court Judgements Literature in Hebrew, with Special Jews in Medieval Scandinavia. in R (On The Application of E) Reference to the Novels of Anton V Governing Body of JFS (The JFS C a s e ) . A Critical Analysis of Christian Shammas and Sayed Kashua. Perceptions of the Temple in A Critical Analysis of Post-Shoah Dialogue A Critical Analysis of Healing Seventeenth-Century England. between James Parkes and Victor Gollancz. Procedures as a Reflection of Early To What Extent do Jewish and A Critical Analysis of the Depiction of Rabbinic Perceptions of, and Interaction Christian Burial Practices, in Lower Judaism and Anti-Judaism in Holocaust with, the Christian ‘Other’.

VISITING FELLOWS ONLINE RESOURCES Professor Susan Miller Professor Sébastien Morlet The Woolf Institute is proud to offer Professor Susan Miller joined the Professor Sébastien Morlet will join a wide range of online audio visual Woolf Institute for Easter Term 2013. the Woolf Institute as a Visiting Fellow recordings of lectures, interviews, Susan is an historian of North African for Lent Term 2014. A Maître de and course sessions. Please visit the and Mediterranean history, with a conférences (Assistant Professor) at website to watch and listen again: special interest in Jewish history. the Université Paris-Sorbonne, Morlet http://www.woolf.cam.ac.uk/resources/ She has taught at Wellesley College, is a Classicist and a Patrologist in audio-visual.asp Brandeis University, and from 1990 the Department of Greek. His work until 2008, at Harvard University, examines Christian polemics against where she led the Programme in Judaism (1st – 6th century CE), with RECENT HIGHLIGHTS North African Studies. Susan Miller is a special interest in the work of INCLUDE: currently a Professor of History at UC Eusebius of Caesarea (c. 260 / 340), • Dr Edward Kessler: Jewish-Christian Davis. Whilst at the Woolf, Professor a major witness, and protagonist, of Relations in Light of Vatican II Miller hosted the first Morocco the ancient Jewish-Christian debate. • Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks: Research Workshop, entitled Morocco: During his time at the Woolf Institute Trust and Trustworthiness, with a From World War Two to Independence. Professor Sébastien Morlet will preside response from Lord Rowan Williams This is part of a new initiative to foster over a two-day conference examining • Cardinal Kurt Koch:Trust as the Basic academic links between Britain and Ancient and Medieval Disputations Attitude in a Culture of Humanity Morocco and is leading to a special between Jews and Christians: Rhetoric issue with the Journal of North & Reality from the 2–3 April at Lucy • Professor Akbar Ahmed: Islam in African Studies. Cavendish College, Cambridge. America

PERSPECTIVES 41 Woolf Institute courses

Bridging the Great Divide: the Jewish-Muslim Encounter Woolf Institute Cambridge Scholarships An e-learning programme: 13 January – 27 April 2014 PhD Scholarships for students This fifteen-week course is taught in partnership with the School of International interested in Jewish-Christian- Service at the American University in Washington. Muslim relations. Taught at undergraduate level and committed to the highest levels of scholarly In partnership with the Cambridge integrity, the course explores the history, culture and theology of Muslims Commonwealth, European and and Jews, reflecting both on similarities and differences as well as the major International Trust, the Woolf challenges. Institute has established the Woolf Institute Cambridge Scholarships. The course fee for Woolf Institute students is £450. Bursaries are available. The Each scholarship will cover the full deadline for the submission of applications is 15 November 2013. Late applicants cost of studying for a PhD at the should contact Dr Emma Harris directly. University of Cambridge, and will be tenable at any of the thirty-one Cambridge Colleges. Jews, Christians and Muslims in Europe: Modern Challenges Applicants are required to apply to the University by the published An e-learning programme: scholarship application deadline 1 September – 12 December 2014 (3 December 2013). Applicants are encouraged to contact the Woolf This three-part course focuses on the relationship between and impact of Jews, Institute prior to submitting their Christians and Muslims in Europe today, their history, culture and issues of application to discuss whether their citizenship. Students will be encouraged to address challenging questions, some research proposal is relevant to the easier to answer than others, through set readings and online discussions. Institute’s focus. The course is taught at a final-year undergraduate level. You will work with fellow students and receive feedback from Woolf Institute tutors. On completion of the course you will be awarded a Woolf Institute Certificate of Completion. Doctorate in The course fee is £350. Bursaries are available. The deadline for the submission of applications is 4 August 2013. Professional Studies In June 2013, the Woolf Institute announced that it had signed a Memorandum of Agreement with MPhil in Middle Eastern Studies (Specialization: Middlesex University to work together Muslim-Jewish Relations) in the provision of the Middlesex University Doctorate in Professional The Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (FAMES), University of Studies for senior level practitioners Cambridge, is delighted to announce the launch of a course in Muslim-Jewish in areas of mutual interest. Relations within the MPhil in Middle Eastern Studies. The MPhil will consist of three modules each assessed by an examination or a 5,000-word essay, and a Students will be selected from 15,000-word dissertation. amongst the applicants whose research is relevant to the focus Applicants are required to apply to the University by the published application of the Woolf Institute – the multi- deadline (See FAMES website: www.ames.cam.ac.uk). disciplinary study of relations Depending on the number and quality of the applicants, the Woolf Institute will between Jews, Christians and offer one bursary (£9,000) or two bursaries (£4,500 each) to contribute to the Muslims. Applicants are required to fees. If applying for a bursary, submit your application by 3 December 2013. apply to Middlesex University.

For further information: www.woolf.cam.ac.uk/courses Contact Dr Emma Harris, Academic Coordinator: [email protected]

PERSPECTIVES 42

studying

lf relations between Jews ChrPERSPECTIVES 43 istians nstitute

woo i & Muslims Teaching Our Own and Highlights Calendar Other Faiths in Schools: International Issues in Muslim-Jewish Relations Woolf Institute Religious Education Panel Series open Lectures Conference and Symposium aiming The Woolf Institute and the Faculty to identify and share international of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, all welcome good practice in teaching RE with Cambridge, are delighted to announce a view of identifying, securing and a series of open panel events examining My Experience in Religious then disseminating high quality themes in Muslim-Jewish Relations. Studies and Challenges of professional development for schools Held at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Contemporary Dialogue and teachers in both the US and UK. Eastern Studies, these events will DICID-Woolf Lecture 20–22 March, explore historical and contemporary Prof Aisha Al-Mannai (DICID) Faculty of Education, University dimensions of Muslim-Jewish Relations 19 November, 17.30, Garden Room, of Cambridge. and are intended to showcase St Edmund’s College, Cambridge. original research. Ancient and Medieval Assessing the Impact of Disputations between Jews Themes will include: Interfaith Activities and Christians: Rhetoric • The World of Commerce and Trade Part 1 of Series & Reality • Exploring Identity Harriet Crabtree (Interfaith Network), Conference with Woolf Institute • Cultural Interactions Paul Weller (University of Derby). Visiting Fellow Sébastien Morlet 10 December, 17.00, 2–3 April, Lucy Cavendish College, Wesley House, Cambridge. Cambridge. 15th Anniversary Dinner Exploring Identity Assessing the Impact of Celebrating 15 years of the Muslim-Jewish Relations Panel Series Interfaith Activities Woolf Institute Shana Cohen (Woolf Institute), Part III of Series 14 November, St James’s Palace. Uradyn Bulag (University of Ray Gaston (The Queen’s Cambridge) and Oskar Verkaaik Foundation), Dilwar Hussain (University of Amsterdam). (New Horizons). Assessing the Impact of Interfaith 25 February, 17.00, Faculty of Asian and 29 April, 17.00, Activities Series Middle Eastern Studies, Cambridge. Wesley House, Cambridge. This year the Woolf Institute will launch a major three part lecture series Assessing the Impact of Cultural Interactions examining the impact and future of Interfaith Activities Muslim-Jewish Relations Panel Series interfaith activities in the UK. Speakers Part II of Series Yaron Peleg (University of will include: Harriet Crabtree, Toby Toby Howarth (Secretary for Inter- Cambridge), Michael Rand Howarth and Ray Gaston. Religious Relations for the Church of (University of Cambridge), England), Adam Dinham (Goldsmiths, Charlotta Salmi (Queen Mary, For further information please University of London). University of London). see the calendar or: 4 March, 17.00, 13 May, 17.00, Faculty of Asian and www.woolf.cam.ac.uk/events Wesley House, Cambridge. Middle Eastern Studies, Cambridge.

Woolf Institute Wesley House Jesus Lane Cambridge CB5 8BJ United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0)1223 741 048

Reg Charity No. 1069589 For full event details please see: www.woolf.cam.ac.uk www.woolf.cam.ac.uk/events or scan the [email protected] QR code with your mobile

PERSPECTIVES 44