I-House Hosts an Interreligious Dialogue with Union Theological Seminary
On November 4, International House hosted faculty of the Union Theological Seminary (UTS) for a wide-ranging panel discussion on religion, identity, and interreligious understanding.
UTS President Rev. Serene Jones led the discussion alongside panelists Benjamin Kamine, Assistant Teaching Professor of Interreligious Engagement; Su Yon Pak; Associate Professor of Integrative and Field-Based Education; and Rev. Greg Snyder, Assistant Professor of Buddhist Studies. In her opening remarks, Rev. Jones noted the significant historical ties and shared identity between I-House and UTS.
“We share a very long history together in this part of New York City, and we’re close in more ways than just being across the street from one another,” she said. “The founders of both of our institutions had a shared vision for the importance of understanding the world around us, which included understanding different cultures and embedded in that, our religious backgrounds.”
The panel traced how interreligious understanding emerges from personal stories, lived practices, and the willingness to let encounters reshape assumptions about one’s own tradition. Throughout the discussion, panelists described moments of insight across diverse religious identities, and how study, spiritual practice, and shared human experience can reveal unexpected common ground.
“It is necessary for our spiritual health to be able to cross the boundaries of our comfort zone,” Pak said. “Research shows us that cultivating spiritual health requires us to go outside one’s comfort zone, to meet friends, and connect with people who are different from us.”
In that vein, the conversation explored what it means to be not just multireligious, but genuinely interreligious, and how identity, history, and power shape the way people navigate religious borders. Questions from I-House residents included how to move past the fear or discomfort of connecting across religious, ethnic, or cultural boundaries and how to do so without losing one’s own identity.
“I think the first piece of the puzzle in living interreligiously is keeping yourself open to the possibility of change,” Kamine said. “Stay open to the process of really getting to know the other, really understanding not just the ways in which we’re similar—because those are always surprising and fun—but also the ways in which we have deep-rooted differences, and that those differences are productive, exciting, engaging, and meaningful.”
Kamine also stressed the importance of understanding one’s own traditions and religious identity. “If you want to be open to change and to movement across borders, you have to know where you’re standing,” he said. “In some ways, moving past the fear of connection is to remind ourselves of who we are, because it’s much less scary to change if you know who you are to begin with.”
Rev. Snyder agreed, noting that the richness of interreligious study and living often comes from the recognition that we have much to learn from other religious practices.
“It’s great to look at another tradition and say, ‘Wow, that particular set of practices, we don’t quite do that, but that’s pretty fantastic,’” he said. “To Ben’s point, I don’t lose my ground. I don’t lose my root. But not only are the branches of my tree wider, sometimes they turn toward different suns a little bit. They change their shape a little bit. And that’s quite beautiful, actually.”
Questions from I-House residents pushed the panel into deeper reflections on metaphysics and codification of religious practice, as well as the ways different traditions relate to community, continuity, and the state. The event closed with President and CEO Sebastian Fries thanking the panelists and inviting guests to join them at a post-event reception in the Hall of History.
“To me, this is a topic that’s uniquely fit for I-House,” he said. “We have 90-plus countries here in the House, including so many traditions, and so many identities. I hope you will all continue that conversation.”