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The true intent of all the great world religions is to help people find meaning and purpose amid life’s endless tensions—especially the tension involved in trying to live a meaningful life despite the certainty of death, which would seem to obliterate all meaning. (83)
At their core, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and all of the major world religions are committed to compassion and hospitality. As the religious historian Karen Armstrong has written, “All the world faiths insist that true spirituality must be expressed consistently in practical compassion, the ability to feel with the other.” In this fact lies the hope that we might reclaim their power to help reweave our tattered civic fabric. (40) (“Five Habits of the Heart”)
Q. Have you had an experience in which religion helped heal divisions? Have you had an experience in which religion created divides?
