An award worth celebrating
02/03/16 05:23
I'm not much of a movie-goer and I don't get excited about the Oscars, but there is a prize awarded at this time of the year to which I always pay attention.
In 1972 the late philanthropist Sir John Templeton inaugurated an annual prize to honor a person who has made an exceptional contribution to affirming the spiritual dimension of life. The first prize was awarded to Mother Teresa in 1973. Last year the winner was Jean Vanier, founder of L’Arche, an international network of communities where people with and without intellectual disabilities live and work together as peers. Along the way there have been many winners whose names have become household words: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Charles Taylor, Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama. Some winners, like the Czech priest and philosopher Tomas Halik, were less well known at the time of winning the prize.
It has just been announced that year’s prize winner is Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. Lord Sacks served as the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth from 1991 to 2013. As chief rabbi of Britain, he was a leader in efforts to promote interfaith understanding. His vision of a better world and his “future-mindedness” were listed as key reasons he was chosen for the honor according to Jennifer Simpson, chair of the John Templeton Foundation Board of Trustees. “After 9/11, Rabbi Sacks saw the need for a response to the challenge posed by radicalization and extremism and he did so with dignity and grace,” said the statement announcing the prize. “He has always been ahead of his time and, thanks to his leadership, the world can look to the future with hope, something we are very much in need of right now.”
His most recent book, “Not in God’s Name: Confronting Religious Violence,” Sacks writes specifically of the need to counter extremism: “Too often in the history of religion, people have killed in the name of the God of life, waged war in the name of the God of peace, hated in the name of the God of love and practiced cruelty in the name of the God of compassion,” he said. “When this happens, God speaks, sometimes in a still, small voice almost inaudible beneath the clamor of those claiming to speak on his behalf. What he says at such times is: ‘Not in My Name.’”
It is important to note that Rabbi Sacks was nominated for the prize by Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey. A prominent Christian leader wholeheartedly nominated a Jew for a million dollar prize for many reasons, and one of those reasons I understand deeply. Rabbi Sacks gives hope to all who truly care about the future of religion.
In this era of declining attendance and increasing numbers of people who claim to be secular and who distance themselves from religious institutions, it is easy to get down on the future for religious leaders. There are prominent voices in the world who believe that religion will continue to decline and one day die, with all of the people in the world becoming either secular or agnostic.
Of course those predictions have not come to pass. And those of us whose lives are engaged in the practice of religion every day know that they won’t. We get to speak directly with those who find religion to be important vital and deeply meaningful. We are allowed to enter into the lives of others at critical moments when they discover their need for a deeper understanding of life.
Rabbi Sacks reminds us of the reason we do the work that we do:
"There are three questions any reflective individual will ask in the course of a lifetime: Who am I? Why am I here? How, then, shall I live?" he says.
"Those questions can't be answered by science or resolved by technology, or dealt with by market economics and the liberal democratic state. They're questions about meaning - and ultimately they are religious questions."
Jonathan Sacks is a leader of my generation. He is just four years older than I. And he is a model for the kind of leadership to which I aspire. He is intellectually brilliant, a clear and articulate writer. But he doesn’t just live in his head. He is a passionate man of spirit who lives his faith in many dimensions. That combination of intellectual intelligence with spiritual depth allows him to articulate a vision that goes beyond the sound bytes and aphorisms of our time.
He reminds us that history is filled with secular revolutions and secular nationalisms that promise prosperity and freedom and fail to deliver on either. In many generations, religious leaders have allied themselves with those secular philosophies and allowed the name of God to be used to promote ideologies. When religion becomes allied with the pursuit of power, tragedy is always the result. Ideologies, however, are always trumped by reality. At some point, the truth will emerge, even when it seems that evil has prevailed.
The answer to contemporary religious extremism and sectarianism is a careful and deep commitment to education: "The only thing you can do is to develop a counter-idealism that speaks to the real passions of young people today. Many of them are searching for meaning," he says. "They don't find it in a culture that's terribly materialistic: they want ideals, and we have to make sure that the messages that deliver a set of ideals about inclusiveness and tolerance and respect for the other are as powerful and altruistic as the hate-filled messages that are hitting young people through the internet all the time."
Perhaps one of my favorite quotes of Jonathan Sacks is this: “The God who created the universe in love and forgiveness asks us to love and forgive others.”
I am not a Jew and I will never be a Jew. My course in this life is framed by my Christian faith. But there have been several Jews whose contributions to the world have enriched my life and ministry. Jonathan Sacks is one of those people and I celebrate his winning of the Templeton prize. It is an honor that is well placed and well deserved.
"No Jew who is mindful of Jewish history can be an optimist. But no Jew worthy of the name ever gives up hope.”
Jonathan Sacks continues to renew hope for the whole world.
In 1972 the late philanthropist Sir John Templeton inaugurated an annual prize to honor a person who has made an exceptional contribution to affirming the spiritual dimension of life. The first prize was awarded to Mother Teresa in 1973. Last year the winner was Jean Vanier, founder of L’Arche, an international network of communities where people with and without intellectual disabilities live and work together as peers. Along the way there have been many winners whose names have become household words: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Charles Taylor, Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama. Some winners, like the Czech priest and philosopher Tomas Halik, were less well known at the time of winning the prize.
It has just been announced that year’s prize winner is Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. Lord Sacks served as the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth from 1991 to 2013. As chief rabbi of Britain, he was a leader in efforts to promote interfaith understanding. His vision of a better world and his “future-mindedness” were listed as key reasons he was chosen for the honor according to Jennifer Simpson, chair of the John Templeton Foundation Board of Trustees. “After 9/11, Rabbi Sacks saw the need for a response to the challenge posed by radicalization and extremism and he did so with dignity and grace,” said the statement announcing the prize. “He has always been ahead of his time and, thanks to his leadership, the world can look to the future with hope, something we are very much in need of right now.”
His most recent book, “Not in God’s Name: Confronting Religious Violence,” Sacks writes specifically of the need to counter extremism: “Too often in the history of religion, people have killed in the name of the God of life, waged war in the name of the God of peace, hated in the name of the God of love and practiced cruelty in the name of the God of compassion,” he said. “When this happens, God speaks, sometimes in a still, small voice almost inaudible beneath the clamor of those claiming to speak on his behalf. What he says at such times is: ‘Not in My Name.’”
It is important to note that Rabbi Sacks was nominated for the prize by Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey. A prominent Christian leader wholeheartedly nominated a Jew for a million dollar prize for many reasons, and one of those reasons I understand deeply. Rabbi Sacks gives hope to all who truly care about the future of religion.
In this era of declining attendance and increasing numbers of people who claim to be secular and who distance themselves from religious institutions, it is easy to get down on the future for religious leaders. There are prominent voices in the world who believe that religion will continue to decline and one day die, with all of the people in the world becoming either secular or agnostic.
Of course those predictions have not come to pass. And those of us whose lives are engaged in the practice of religion every day know that they won’t. We get to speak directly with those who find religion to be important vital and deeply meaningful. We are allowed to enter into the lives of others at critical moments when they discover their need for a deeper understanding of life.
Rabbi Sacks reminds us of the reason we do the work that we do:
"There are three questions any reflective individual will ask in the course of a lifetime: Who am I? Why am I here? How, then, shall I live?" he says.
"Those questions can't be answered by science or resolved by technology, or dealt with by market economics and the liberal democratic state. They're questions about meaning - and ultimately they are religious questions."
Jonathan Sacks is a leader of my generation. He is just four years older than I. And he is a model for the kind of leadership to which I aspire. He is intellectually brilliant, a clear and articulate writer. But he doesn’t just live in his head. He is a passionate man of spirit who lives his faith in many dimensions. That combination of intellectual intelligence with spiritual depth allows him to articulate a vision that goes beyond the sound bytes and aphorisms of our time.
He reminds us that history is filled with secular revolutions and secular nationalisms that promise prosperity and freedom and fail to deliver on either. In many generations, religious leaders have allied themselves with those secular philosophies and allowed the name of God to be used to promote ideologies. When religion becomes allied with the pursuit of power, tragedy is always the result. Ideologies, however, are always trumped by reality. At some point, the truth will emerge, even when it seems that evil has prevailed.
The answer to contemporary religious extremism and sectarianism is a careful and deep commitment to education: "The only thing you can do is to develop a counter-idealism that speaks to the real passions of young people today. Many of them are searching for meaning," he says. "They don't find it in a culture that's terribly materialistic: they want ideals, and we have to make sure that the messages that deliver a set of ideals about inclusiveness and tolerance and respect for the other are as powerful and altruistic as the hate-filled messages that are hitting young people through the internet all the time."
Perhaps one of my favorite quotes of Jonathan Sacks is this: “The God who created the universe in love and forgiveness asks us to love and forgive others.”
I am not a Jew and I will never be a Jew. My course in this life is framed by my Christian faith. But there have been several Jews whose contributions to the world have enriched my life and ministry. Jonathan Sacks is one of those people and I celebrate his winning of the Templeton prize. It is an honor that is well placed and well deserved.
"No Jew who is mindful of Jewish history can be an optimist. But no Jew worthy of the name ever gives up hope.”
Jonathan Sacks continues to renew hope for the whole world.