good discussion; the gods are pleased

I think we had somewhere around ten people for the Spirituali-Tea today. The Spiritual Activities Room is a multipurpose worship space in the basement of Prentiss Hall. It strongly reminds me of the interior of a Japanese Zen temple: spare furnishings and an immaculately polished wood floor. It was a shame to walk across that floor in shoes, but at the same time, I didn't want to kill the discussants with my foot odor (which probably escaped from my shoes, anyway). The room is mostly bare because different religious groups are allowed to put in whatever accoutrements they feel are appropriate for their style of worship or meditation.

Adam Kirtley, the gent who coordinates campus activities related to religion and spirituality (see the Whitman Spiritual Life page here), is just as kind in person as he is on the phone. I arrived a bit early; Adam was already there, prepping the room. Students trickled into the room in ones and twos; we didn't have our full complement until a good fraction of the hour had passed. I was humorously reminded of what it was like teaching non-credit courses in Seoul: when a grade isn't on the line, you can expect a certain laxity from the students.

The physical setup for the discussion involved the placement of a dining room-style table roughly in the middle of the room (we had to avoid some load-bearing columns, so things were sort of wabi-sabi), around which we placed some chairs. Adam had already set up another table for tea and cookies. It wouldn't be a Spirituali-Tea without the tea, right? In the end, there weren't enough tea mugs for everyone, so some folks had to engage in the ancient practice of Doing Without while others of us sipped happily away. There were, however, plenty of leftover cookies by the end of the hour; I hadn't eaten any of them during the discussion, so I greedily downed two after almost everyone had left, then took the box over to the library and gave it to some library staffers.

Some folks had a chance to introduce themselves at the beginning; many of the people who came later were pretty much silent throughout the hour (I hope we talkers didn't put them to sleep!). I know we had one Baha'i; we also had at least one Episcopalian, three Unitarian Universalists, one Orthodox Christian, one non-practitioner (who nevertheless had a lot of interesting things to say on the subject of interreligious dialogue)... and then, as mentioned, a few quiet folks who never had the chance to introduce themselves and mention their religious affiliation or non-affiliation.

At the beginning of the hour, Adam introduced me and I had a chance to tell my story; I offered a condensed version of my FAQ. Adam then allowed the discussants to introduce themselves, and we dug into the issues.

I once again have to kick myself for not recording the session, but I don't feel so guilty about it this time around, because many of the ideas I heard were familiar to me. In no particular order, some of the themes and topics covered by all of us were:

-whether to "agree to disagree" when hitting a sticky point (I'm reminded of feisty Father Komonchak at Catholic U: "I hate it when people say they want to agree to disagree. I'm a New Yorker. For New Yorkers, disagreement is the beginning of the discussion, not the end!")
-the difference between a debate and a dialogue
-the practical aspects of creating an interfaith service (Adam talked about this; it's an interesting topic, and I would have liked to hear more)
-problems with the pluralistic position (talk mainly centered on what happens when potentially substantive religious differences are demoted to the level of "mere detail" in the search for common ground-- a critique I've come to respect over time, and a topic about which I want to record another little YouTube vid)
-the establishment of "ground rules" for interreligious dialogue (something that thinker and all-around Godfather of Religious Pluralism Raimondo Panikkar would be in favor of; I myself am not so sure)
-coming together not so much through self-conscious discussion of doctrine, theology, philosophy, etc., as through (1) doing meaningful things together, such as helping the poor, and/or (2) simply living in proximity to each other and allowing interreligious dialogue (well, encounter) to happen naturally and organically

We covered other topics, too, and I hope that the folks who appeared at tonight's discussion will leave comments that either remind me of what those topics were, or that continue the discussion in some way.

I had two regrets by the end of the hour. First: one hour simply isn't enough time to do more than allow a diverse group of people the merest taste of what the issues are; in a single hour, ten people can't possibly hope to discuss seven or eight meaty topics deeply; any one of the above topics could engender a days-long discussion. So it's too bad we didn't have more time; I had so many questions for the group, and I felt guilty for having monopolized so much time jabbering about my own point of view.

Second: we were all so damn solemn! While there were a few light-hearted moments in the discussion, I began to wish that someone would accidentally fart, or at least stand up and shout the word "FART!" There's no better therapy for serious religious discussion than a bad case of the giggles. Of course, I can't really blame anyone for this state of affairs, least of all the students: this was the first Spirituali-Tea of the semester, and I imagine that no one really knew anyone else (except, maybe, the folks who arrived in pairs), so people were, on some level, sniffing each other out and getting used to the surroundings.

The idea behind Adam's Spiritual-Teas is fascinating. If he's amenable, I think I'll attend the one happening next week-- this time more as a listener and only occasional contributor. The students obviously had a lot to say (several of them distinguished themselves with their perceptive, thoughtful commentary), and while today we covered ground familiar to me (cast not your stones! "familiar" doesn't mean "uninteresting"!), I imagine that the coming weeks will provide plenty of new and equally engaging topics.

My thanks to Adam for the invitation to attend and to speak a bit about issues close to my heart, and to the other folks I met tonight-- Jill and Phil and all the students who contributed either by participating in the discussion or by listening well to the proceedings. Thanks, as well, to the larger Whitman College community for tolerating my massive presence on campus.

Hope to see everybody next week. I promise I'll be quiet.


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