CLAREMONT, Calif. – A rabbi, a minister and an imam walk into a classroom and it’s no joke.
The venerable Claremont School of Theology has taught Methodist ministers and theologians for more than a century, but in the fall they’ll try an unorthodox approach: cross-training the nation’s future Muslim, Christian and Jewish religious leaders in classrooms scattered around Southern California as they work toward their respective degrees.
The experimental approach is intended to create U.S. religious leaders who not only preach tolerance in an era of religious strife but who have lived it themselves by rubbing shoulders with those in other Abrahamic faiths.
The idea has already met resistance from more conservative elements in some religious communities; its architects say that only underscores the need for such an approach.
“Christians attend school with Christians, Jewish with Jewish and Muslims with Muslim,” said the Rev. Jerry Campbell, president of the Claremont School of Theology. “Educating people in a segregated environment is not a way to teach them to be peacemakers. It only steeps them in their own religion and with their own people.”
Conceived in 2006, the University Project will allow seminary students at Claremont to cross-enroll in programs that train future Muslim and Jewish religious leaders while working toward their own degrees in Christian theology. Claremont already has chaplaincy programs for Muslims and Jews who ultimately work as counselors in institutional settings, but they don’t have rabbinical and imam certification programs. Course topics will include inter-religious conflict resolution, scripture and ethics.
The exchange will also work in the other direction. Starting this fall, rabbinical students enrolled at the Academy of Jewish Religion’s California chapter will be able to study at Claremont. And by next year, the project will include an Islamic program that aims to create a standard for training American imams by working with the LA-based Islamic Center of Southern California. Classes at the Islamic institute will be taught by Claremont professors and will also be open to seminarians and rabbinical students.
