Notre Dame College Professor Traces Religions’ Unique Quest for Monotheism | Schools

SOUTH EUCLID, OH - The underlying mission Notre Dame College’s Abrahamic Center is the conviction that Jews, Christians and Muslims worship the same God. Religious persecution, mass genocide and terrorism, however, are often perpetrated in the name of religion, despite the similarities between the three faiths and their potential for collaboration. One professor at NDC has now studied these similarities and how each of the Abrahamic traditions has come to embrace monotheism.  

Sr. Karita Ivancic will present her findings in the College’s 2011 President’s Lecture on Tuesday, March 22.  Her presentation entitled “One God, Three Quests: The Journey of Jews, Christians and Muslims Toward Monotheism” explores how each of the Abrahamic traditions came to embrace monotheism and traces the unique quest for the One God undertaken by Jews, Christians and Muslims.

The talk also focuses on five characteristics of the One God affirmed by each branch of Abraham’s religious family. The God who emerges is an ineffable, benevolent, Self-revealing, living – even “personal” – Being who has definite expectations of men and women.

“I learned through my research that the three Abrahamic families each came to know the One God by long and arduous paths, and that it is important to understand the unique journey of each religion to appreciate their common discovery of the One God,” Sr. Karita said. “I found it quite amazing that the portrait of God in each tradition is strikingly similar, despite the divergent paths of the quest.”

Sr. Karita Ivancic’s paper was chosen from five submissions, which underwent a blind review and were judged by Dr. Sheila E. McGinn of John Carroll University and Sr. Mary Louise Trivison, SND, professor emerita of Notre Dame College. Her presentation will begin in the College’s Great Room around 7 p.m.