AU Wackerlin Center for Faith and Action

Monthly Musings

March 2007

Not so long ago, I went with Udho to see some Silk Road exhibits at Chicago’s marvelous Art Institute. It was touching and instructive to see how, on the medieval trading routes, there was an artistic and aesthetic interaction that led to at least a small growth in the knowledge of other civilizations, and mutual ‘borrowings’ that have enriched human art, sculpture and other aspects of culture.

The point is that this positive interaction is part of the human story, and part of the human religious story. There are some secularists who think that religion is solely a negative phenomenon, a tapestry of wars, violence and intolerance, caused by alternative and competitive narratives of faith. There are also some conservative people of faith, who don’t understand that dialogue and mutual enrichment aren’t some wicked innovation but have long been part of the meetings of differently religious people. And there are many liberals who want to reduce the diverse manifestations of faith to some naïve, anodyne and dull commonalities. The stories of the Silk Road suggest other possibilities for humans to live together, in a harmony created out of difference and diversity, and enough respect for the other to think it worthwhile to ‘pinch’ things from it.

For those who do not have the benefits of the city of Chicago close by, the universal yet divers language of music fits the bill. The Chinese-American cellist Yo-Yo Ma has made a number of Silk Road CDs, with musicians from the world’s wide-ranging civilizations. Just listen to central Asian vocal chanting, for example; literally, a hair-raising experience. It makes one bathe and rejoice in the mystery of what it means to be human in a world of transcendent wonder.

Martin Forward