Fostering understanding, cooperation and friendship
Jay Phillips Center for Interreligious Studies
About the Jay Phillips Center
The Jay Phillips Center for Interreligious Studies at the University of St. Thomas is dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of interreligious relations and understanding. The center collaborates with the Jay Phillips Center for Interfaith Learning at Saint John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota to promote the public understanding of interreligious relations through dialogue, encounter, and civic engagement.
Upcoming Public Events
Past Programming Archive
Retracing Jewish Roots on the North Dakota Prairie
Stories and Lessons about Life, Family, and Faith with Rebecca Bender
Published in September 2021, this video features Rebecca Bender introducing her recently published book Still (North Dakota State University Press, 2019). View the video by clicking on the image. You may also read more about this video and instructions to order a discounted copy through Oct 1, 2021.
Interreligious Encounter in a Virtual Covid-19 World
As the world migrated online in the spring of 2020, interreligious learning and encounter moved with it. For students completing their interreligious engagement experience for THEO468 in Summer and Fall 2020 at St. Thomas, this meant a pivot to encountering religious diversity across the globe in virtual spaces. Their experiences culminated in several short public narratives and stories with video, pictures, and audio published in a single online StoryMap that documents their insights gained. Visit the StoryMap at the link below to read their narratives about interfaith leadership and virtues, appreciative knowledge and (inter)religious literacy, and global dialogue.
Programs and Resources
Engagement
The Jay Phillips Center engages campus and community in many ways.
Public Events
We serve the campus community and the public by hosting events that promote the public understanding of religion and interreligious relations.
Conferences and Symposia
We host conferences and symposia organized around timely questions, relevant events, and innovative ideas in the area of interreligious studies, interfaith leadership and civic pluralism.
Bridge Building
The Jay Phillips Center promotes interfaith community relations by bringing together people of different religious, spiritual, and secular identities to learn from, and serve alongside, each other.
Seminars and Lecture Series
Our seminars and lecture series invite scholars, leaders, practitioners, and community members with various religious, spiritual, and secular identities together for conversation around important topics and issues. Past seminars and lectures have focused on topics such as Muslim identities in Minnesota and North America, Hindu-Christian encounters in India, and interfaith leadership in business education.
Interreligious Micro Grant for Guest Speakers in Classrooms
This program provides micro grants to faculty to enhance their courses with an interreligious component by inviting guest speakers to their class to offer views from religious minority traditions or on topics that relate to interreligious studies and interfaith relations. More about the Interreligious Micro Grant program for Guest Speakers in Classrooms.
Engagement
The center sponsors programs and conversations, often focused on books, films or current events, among groups of students, faculty, and people from the wider community.
Research Resources
The Jay Phillips Center offers a variety of resources that support research and scholarship in the field of interreligious studies, including the Jan Phillips Database.
Engagement
The Jay Phillips Center engages campus and community in many ways.
Public Events
We serve the campus community and the public by hosting events that promote the public understanding of religion and interreligious relations.
Conferences and Symposia
We host conferences and symposia organized around timely questions, relevant events, and innovative ideas in the area of interreligious studies, interfaith leadership and civic pluralism.
Bridge Building
The Jay Phillips Center promotes interfaith community relations by bringing together people of different religious, spiritual, and secular identities to learn from, and serve alongside, each other.
Seminars and Lecture Series
Our seminars and lecture series invite scholars, leaders, practitioners, and community members with various religious, spiritual, and secular identities together for conversation around important topics and issues. Past seminars and lectures have focused on topics such as Muslim identities in Minnesota and North America, Hindu-Christian encounters in India, and interfaith leadership in business education.
Interreligious Micro Grant for Guest Speakers in Classrooms
This program provides micro grants to faculty to enhance their courses with an interreligious component by inviting guest speakers to their class to offer views from religious minority traditions or on topics that relate to interreligious studies and interfaith relations. More about the Interreligious Micro Grant program for Guest Speakers in Classrooms.
Engagement
The center sponsors programs and conversations, often focused on books, films or current events, among groups of students, faculty, and people from the wider community.
Research Resources
The Jay Phillips Center offers a variety of resources that support research and scholarship in the field of interreligious studies, including the Jan Phillips Database.
Student Interreligious Research & Interfaith Leadership Programs
The Jay Phillips Center offers two robust programs for students to study interreligious relations and engage with religious diversity while building their skillset to lead in a world growing in religious diversity.
Contact Hans Gustafson for more information.
Right image: Dominique Stewart ’21, Interreligious Research Fellow (2019-2020, 2020-2021), Interreligious Cohort Leader (2019-2020)
Jay Phillips Center News
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Statement from the Jay Phillips Centers at the University of St. Thomas and Saint John’s University on the Violence in Israel and Gaza
The Jay Phillips Centers at the University of St. Thomas and Saint John’s University affirm our solidarity with all those who in any way have been affected by the recent genocidal attack by Hamas terrorists on people in Israel — especially those who have loved ones who were killed, wounded or taken as hostages — and also with innocent civilians in Gaza and elsewhere who have been directly and indirectly affected by the Israeli government and military response to the Hamas attack. Along with millions of people in Israel and worldwide, we grieve the suffering and death on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We hope and pray that the Israelis and Palestinians who yearn for peace will be able to bring about a just solution to this conflict and thereby increase the collaboration and friendship that many of them have already fostered between their communities. Acknowledging that brief statements like this inevitably fall short of the reality about which they speak, both because of what they say and what they leave out, we recognize that they remain important for fostering awareness and advocating for peaceful solutions. In times such as these, the inadequacy of silence compels us to amplify diverse voices that […]
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Statement from Jewish Community Action
Dear Beloved Community, We write to you with love and with heartbreak. We are mourning the death and violence happening in Israel and Gaza. We witnessed a massacre perpetrated by Hamas on Israeli citizens. And now, we are witnessing the catastrophic loss of Palestinian life as Israel counterattacks. We grieve for each person caught in the impossibility of this moment. We grieve for the people of Israel and for the people of Gaza. There can be no words of comfort; the devastation these actions tears at our moral fiber. We long for a way towards peace. In moments of fear and pain, we turn to our tradition to guide us. Our JCA values remind us that Anachu Ma’amimin – it is our deepest ethical responsibility to repair a broken world and to work towards an interconnected future knowing that none of us are free until all of us are free. While our organizing work is local, our relationships bind us to global events. Our hearts are with our mishpacha and chevre struggling for peace, safety, liberation, dignity, and justice in Gaza and Israel. We know that we are safest when we honor our shared humanity and build bridges of solidarity […]
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Jay Phillips Center and the CCJR issues “Call to the Churches of the United States to Confront the Crisis of Antisemitism”
December 14, 2022 The Council of Centers on Jewish-Christian Relations (CCJR), of which the Jay Phillips Center is a member, issued today a statement entitled, “A National Reckoning of the Soul: A Call to the Churches of the United States to Confront the Crisis of Antisemitism.” The CCJR is a network of Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and nonreligious scholars at centers and institutes devoted to the study of the history of Jewish-Christian relations and to promoting interreligious understanding and dialogue. Alarmed by a level of antisemitic rhetoric and violence not seen since the Second World War, the statement calls upon churches in the United States to intensify condemnations of antisemitism as “antithetical to the very essence of Christianity itself.” It also urges Christian leaders to encourage their congregations to reflect upon the profound religious significance for Christian faith of Jesus’ identity as a Jew. A deeper understanding of Christianity’s intimate relationship with Jews and Judaism, the CCJR states, will help Christians to reject sacrilegious claims put forth in social media that Christians should hate Jews. The full text of the statement can be accessed HERE. — Related: This Advent, churches urged to assess worship for inadvertent antisemitism December 14, 2022 By Kathryn […]
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Statement in Support of our Muslim Students, Colleagues, and Neighbors
Late this past Sunday evening (September 4), a lone individual broke into the Tawfiq Islamic Center in Minneapolis, smashing office doors and destroying offices. In all about $50,000 worth of damage was caused. This is fourth significant mosque incident this year. We stand with our Muslim brothers and sisters and deplore all acts of vandalism against places of worship in the Twin Cities. Authored: Father Lawrence Blake, Chaplain and Director of Campus Ministry University Interfaith Council co-signees (listed alphabetically by surname): Linda Baughman, Dean of Students Father Lawrence Blake, Chaplain and Director of Campus Ministry Consuela Collaso, Interfaith Council Student Representative Rev. Neil Ellingson, Associate Chaplain, Campus Ministry Hans Gustafson, Director, Jay Phillips Center for Interreligious Studies Lisan Hasnain, Interfaith Council Student Representative Amy Kadrmas, Dougherty Family College Karen Lange, Vice-President for Student Affairs Fr. Steven J. McMichael, OFM Conv., Theology Department Christopher Wong Michaelson, Opus Distinguished Professor of Principled Leadership Fuad Naeem, Asst. Professor, Theology Department Rabbi Avi Olitzky, Associate Chaplain, Campus Ministry Delaney Sacia, Interfaith Council Student Representative Dr. Sadaf Rauf Shier, Muslim Chaplain, Campus Ministry Othman Zaimi (Ozzy), Assistant Director, Office of International Students & Scholars
Affiliations
The Jay Phillips Center is affiliated with the following external organizations to foster local, regional, and (inter)national engagement in the areas of interreligious studies and relations.
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Our Staff
Dr. Hans Gustafson
Director
Dr. Gustafson is the Director of the Jay Phillips Center and teaches courses in (inter)religious studies and theology.
Ali Chamseddine
Faculty Fellow Coordinator for the Interfaith Fellows Program
In his position as Faculty Fellow Coordinator for the Interfaith Fellows Program, Chamseddine coordinates and facilitates the Multifaith Leadership Seminar and Workshop. Currently pursuing a doctorate in Sacred Theology, he specializes in Ecumenical and Interreligious Studies.
Contact Information
Please feel free to contact us if you have questions about the Jay Phillips Center.
Tel: (651) 962-5780
Email: jpc@stthomas.edu
Mailing Address
Jay Phillips Center for Interreligious Studies
University of St. Thomas
2115 Summit Ave. MAIL 57P
St. Paul, MN 55105
Campus Location
Our address is 2057 Portland Avenue