The UW Lubar Institute for the Study of the Abrahamic Religions opened
in July, 2005, testimony to the vision and benefactions of Sheldon and Marianne
Lubar of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Concerned about rising religious tensions
worldwide and believing Jews, Christians and Muslims to be capable of prolonged
and honest inquiry into both their common heritages and varying perspectives,
they imagined a center that would advance mutual comprehension by mingling
scholars with the general public, clergy with laity, and members of different
faith communities with citizens of Wisconsin, the United States, and the
world. Through encouraging people belonging to and/or interested in the
Abrahamic traditions to engage each other and to find out more about both of
these several traditions and their intersections, the Lubar Institute is dedicated to
strengthening the values of religious pluralism so vital for sustaining
American civil society and peaceful international discourse.
The Institute's mission emerges from the intimate yet often bitter connections
that have existed historically among Jews, Christians, and Muslims:
The Abrahamic traditions share common origins and values.- Their histories and thought have been intertwined for some 1,300 years.
- Relationships among their practitioners have varied from time and place
but have often been characterized by mistrust and even hatred.
- Much current popular as well as scholarly thinking considers them unalterably
opposed to each other.
- Scholarship has more often treated each tradition in isolation from
each other rather than treating them in a comparative framework.
- The ongoing legacy of misunderstanding and mistrust militates against
peaceful intercourse among Jews, Christians, and Muslims.
These considerations ground the Lubar Institute’s mission: to
create better understanding of the Abrahamic traditions and their interrelationships
by encouraging ongoing discussion of these traditions among scholars,
members of those traditions, and the general public.
As a corollary, the Lubar Institute works to increase religious literacy and tolerance among all members of the UW–Madison campus.
The Institute is a unit of the College
of Letters & Science at the University
of Wisconsin–Madison. Program support comes principally from the Sheldon and Marianne Lubar Fund
administered by the University
of Wisconsin Foundation.