Exploring the possibilities and pitfalls of moving interreligious dialogue onto an online platform in times when in-person conversation is impossible, the speakers will consider some of these questions:
- How does the environment or platform affect interpersonal interactions? Can we experience each other as persons online?
- Does the online environment affect the topics that can be discussed or the activities that can be undertaken?
- Is it possible to be spiritually moved online as sometimes occurs in person? If so, how can such experiences be encouraged?
- Is it possible to build trust online as happens gradually as we get to know people in different contexts in real life (meals, informal chats, traveling together, experiencing each other’s special requirements [e.g., kashrut])?
- Are there certain “rules for the road” specifically for online interreligious dialogue, a sort of “digital dialogue decalogue”?
- Does the online environment provide new possibilities, for example, for people who cannot afford to travel but can participate online or as preparations for the “real” encounter in person? For people who live in areas where Jews and Christians are not neighbors?
Join us on June 28, 2020, 6 pm UTC
[i.e. for example Heppenheim, 8 pm / Jerusalem, 9 pm / Los Angeles, 11 am / New York, 2 pm / Santiago de Chile, 2 pm]
REGISTER HERE[Zoom registration form]
Please note: For this webinar the ICCJ provides simultaneous translation into Spanish!
Speakers:
 | James Caccamo Associate Professor of Theology and Religious Studies and Associate Dean for Students and Experiential Learning at Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia, USA. He specializes in the ethics of information and communication technologies. |
 | Ruth Tsuria Assistant Professor in the College of Communication and the Arts at Seton Hall University in South Orange, NJ, USA. She studies the intersection of digital media, religion, and feminism with a focus on developing theoretical tools to understand online discourse. |
 | Tara Zammit Communications and Digital Media Officer at the Woolf Institute in Cambridge, U.K. She develops, maintains, and facilitates the Institute's various webinar series and its website and social media channels and also teaches in its international online programs. |
Moderator:
Phil Cunningham
ICCJ Immediate Past President, Professor of Theology and Co-Director of the Institute for Jewish-Catholic Relations of Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia, U.S.A.
Host and Contact: Anette Adelmann, ICCJ General Secretary, adelmann(at)iccj.org