Mono or Poly? Judaism, Islam, and Hinduism

From: Jewish Museum Berlin

The discussion will be held between Alon Goshen Gottstein of Elijah Interfaith Institute and Muhammad Suheyl Umar from the Iqbal Academy of Pakistan. The main topic of the event is: "How do today’s Jews and Muslims view Hinduism, which recognizes multiple deities?"

The second event of our lecture series “The Others’ Faith” is dedicated to the question: How do today’s Jews and Muslims view Hinduism, which recognizes multiple deities?

Since Antiquity, Judaism has been preoccupied with setting itself apart from polytheistic religions and “idolatry.” Islam, too, has had numerous experiences with non-monotheistic religions, dating back to its emergence in the early seventh century BCE, and particularly during its expansion in Asia.

How do today’s Jews and Muslims view Hinduism, which recognizes multiple deities? As we will see, perhaps these historical perspectives are useful for a contemporary understanding of polytheistic religions, or perhaps such perspectives impede a nuanced exploration.

A discussion with Rabbi Alon Goshen-Gottstein (Elijah Interfaith Institute) and Reza Shah-Kazemi (Institute of Ismaili Studies in London).

Alon Goshen-Gottstein

Rabbi Alon Goshen-Gottstein is a leading scholar of interfaith relations, a scholar of Jewish studies and founder of the Elijah Interfaith Institute that convenes the world’s premier faith leaders in high level study and dialogue. His recent publications are The Jewish Encounter with Hinduism: Wisdom, Spirituality Identity and Same God, Other god: Judaism, Hinduism and the Problem of Idolatry.

Reza Shah-Kazemi

Reza Shah-Kazemi is an Islamic scholar and researcher at the Institute of Ismaili Studies in London. He is one of the signatories of the open letter of 2007 A Common Word between Us and You, with which Muslim scholars called on Christian churches to engage in dialogue on commonalities of religions. Shah-Kazemi is the author of Paths to Transcendence: According to Shankara, Ibn Arabi and Meister Eckhart and Common Ground Between Islam and Buddhism, among others.