With the Best of Intentions: Interreligious Missteps and Mistakes

With any new human endeavor, errors and failures are inevitable. In With the Best of Intentions more than three dozen scholars and practitioners of many faiths explore cases of missteps and outright failures of interfaith encounters. Each case also provides critical discussion of what went wrong, and why.

Lucinda Mosher, Th.D., is Faculty Associate in Chaplaincy and Interreligious Studies at Hartford International University for Religion and Peace [HIU; formerly, Hartford Seminary], working remotely form her office in northeast Florida. She is the co-director of HIU’s Master of Arts in Chaplaincy program, senior scholar for Executive and Professional Education, and an affiliate of the Macdonald Center for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations. Concurrently, Dr. Mosher is the senior editor of the Journal of Interreligious Studies and the rapporteur of the Building Bridges Seminar--an international dialogue of Christian and Muslim scholars under the stewardship of Georgetown University. She serves on the Episcopal Church’s General Convention Task Force to Coordinate Ecumenical and Interreligious Work and the executive committee of the Interfaith Center of Northeast Florida.

A prolific public scholar, Dr. Mosher is the author of Personhood, Illness, and Death in America’s Multifaith Neighborhoods: A Practical Guide (2018); Toward Our Mutual Flourishing: the Episcopal Church, Interreligious Relations, and Theologies of Religious Manyness (2012); and the Faith in the Neighborhood book series (2005, 2006, 2007). She is the editor of The Georgetown Companion to Interreligious Studies (forthcoming 2022); the award-winning Hindu Approaches to Spiritual Care: Chaplaincy in Theory and Practice (2020), with Vineet Chander; Deep Understanding for Divisive Times (2020), with Axel Takacs, Or Rose, and Mary Elizabeth Moore; nine volumes (seven with David Marshall) presenting Christian and Muslim perspectives on themes studied by the Building Bridges Seminar; and thematic issues for several peer-reviewed journals. Her publications also include a contribution to Christian-Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History (University of Birmingham), plus numerous book-chapters, book reviews, and journal articles on multifaith matters.

Dr. Mosher holds degrees from Boston University, the University of Massachusetts (Lowell), and Hartford Seminary, and a doctorate in theology from the General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church.

Elinor (Ellie) Pierce is the research director for the Pluralism Project at Harvard University. Ellie served as a section editor, researcher, photographer, and writer for the CD-ROM On Common Ground: World Religions in America (1997 and 2002; 2013 online) and helped launch and expand the Webby-award winning Pluralism Project website, pluralism.org. She leads the Pluralism Project’s Case Initiative and is developing a collection of case studies, Pluralism in Practice. Ellie co-edited World Religions in Boston: A Guide to Communities and Resources (1998), helped develop the film Acting on Faith: Women’s New Religious Activism in America (2005), and co-produced the documentary Fremont, U.S.A. (2009). Ellie wrote ＂What is at Stake? Exploring the Problems of Pluralism＂ for the Journal of Interreligious Studies (2015), contributed a chapter on the case method to Interreligious/Interfaith Studies: Defining a New Field (Beacon, 2018), and wrote the chapter ＂Toward Leadership, Listening, and Literacy: Making the ’Case’ for Interreligious Studies,＂ in the Georgetown Companion to Interreligious Studies (Georgetown, 2022). In addition to her part-time role at the Pluralism Project, Ellie is actively engaged in consulting, writing, and filmmaking: she is the former Festival Director for Boston Jewish Film Festival’s ReelAbilities; she is currently an advisor to the Smithsonian Folklife Festival and is a teaching fellow for Lived Religion in a Digital Age. Ellie is now in production on A Bridge Over Hell’s Creek, a documentary chronicling the growth and development of the Tri-Faith Initiative in Omaha, Nebraska. She completed her B.A. in anthropology and international studies, with a core in religious studies, from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota; she earned her Master of Theological Studies degree from the Harvard Divinity School.

Rabbi Or Rose is the founding Director of the Betty Ann Greenbaum Miller Center for Interreligious Learning & Leadership of Hebrew College. Before assuming this position in 2016, he worked in various administrative and teaching capacities at Hebrew College for over a decade, including serving as a founding faculty member and Associate Dean of the Rabbinical School. Rabbi Rose was also one of the creators of CIRCLE, The Center for Interreligious & Community Leadership Education, cosponsored by Hebrew College and Andover Newton Theological School (2007-2017). In addition to his work at Hebrew College, Rose has taught for the Bronfman Youth Fellowships, The Wexner Graduate Fellowship, Me’ah, and in a variety of other academic, religious, and civic contexts throughout North America and in Israel. Rose is the co-editor of Speaking Torah: Spiritual Teachings from Around the Maggid’s Table (Jewish Lights), and the award-winning anthology, My Neighbor’s Faith: Stories of Interreligious Encounter, Growth, and Transformation (Orbis). His most recent publication is the anthology Words To Live By: Sacred Sources for Interreligious Engagement (Orbis 2018). In 2009-2010, he was selected as a member of the Shalom Hartman Institute’s inaugural North American Scholar’s Circle. In 2014, Northeastern University honored him for his interreligious educational efforts.