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Respect Graduate School offers Master degree and certified programs in Islamic Sciences to its participants. The school supports students with scholarships and grants raised through donations and contributions from its supporters.

Conference

Cultivating a Heart for the Earth - An Interfaith Conversation

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We hear much these days about living in a time of environmental anxiety, even despair, when many of us find it hard to imagine a positive future (or any future at all). Yet major religious traditions speak of keeping hope alive, especially in complex and challenging times, and even of participating in a new creation.  How do we envision a “usable future” in times like these? In this conference, distinguished scholars will explore major environmental statements from Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, and discuss how, thinking with both our heads and our hearts, we can blend current environmental science with spiritual wisdom, and work together for the renewal of our common home.

Keynote Speaker

Rabbi Arthur Waskow
The Shalom Center, PA

Presenters

John F. Haught (Ph. D. Catholic University, 1970) is Distinguished Research Professor, Georgetown University, Washington DC. He was formerly Professor in the Department of Theology at Georgetown University (1970-2005) and Chair (1990-95). His area of specialization is systematic theology, with a particular interest in issues pertaining to science, cosmology, evolution, ecology, and religion. He is the author of 24 books. Haught has also authored numerous articles and reviews. He lectures internationally on many issues related to science and religion. In 2002 he was the winner of the Owen Garrigan Award in Science and Religion; and in 2004 the Sophia Award for Theological Excellence. He testified for the plaintiffs in the Harrisburg, PA “Intelligent Design trial” (Kitzmiller et al. vs. Dover Board of Education); in 2008 he received a “Friend of Darwin Award” from the National Center for Science Education. In Fall 2008 he held the D’Angelo Chair in the Humanities at St. John’s University in New York City. In April 2009, for his work in science and religion, he received an honorary doctorate from Louvain University, Belgium. He and his wife Evelyn now live in Alexandria VA.
Dr. John Haught
Georgetown University
Dr. Melinda Krokus is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Marywood University, where she teaches comparative religion courses with a focus on nature, ecology and environmental justice, health and healing, and women and gender studies. Her research specialization is in Islam, with particular attention to Sufism. Through ethnographic fieldwork in Turkey, South Africa, Mauritius, and Europe, she explores the intersection of sacred texts, lived religious experience, and the poetry that arises from that encounter. Dr. Krokus is deeply committed to promoting religious literacy, interfaith dialogue, and mutual understanding through her teaching, research, and service. She holds a Ph.D. from Boston University, an M.Div. from Harvard Divinity School, and a B.A. from Prescott College. Her recent publication, “‘There is an ‘I’ Deeper than Me’: The Ansari Qadiri Rifai Tariqa and Transcendence in America,” appears in Varieties of American Sufism (SUNY Press, 2020).
Dr. Melinda Krokus
Marywood University
Nina Beth Cardin is a community rabbi who works to promote environmental policy, justice and sustainable behaviors. She is the Chair of the Sustainability Subcommittee of the Social Justice Commission of the Masorti/Conservative Movement, and co-author (with her husband, Rabbi Avram Israel Reisner) of the movement’s paper on sustainability. She was in the first class of women ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary, has founded several organizations and authored numerous books including her latest: To Forever Inhabit this Earth: an ethic of enoughness.
Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin
Chair of the Sustainability Subcommittee of the Social Justice Commission of the Masorti/Conservative movement

Respondents

Rabbi Daniel J. Swartz is a leader in the intersection of faith, ethics, and environmental action. He has participated in interfaith climate dialogues at the Vatican and spoken at global environmental gatherings. Formerly the Executive Director of the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL), he is also the author of Bim and Bom: A Shabbat Tale and lead editor of To Till and To Tend: A Guide for Jewish Environmental Study and Action. Rabbi Swartz holds degrees in Geological Sciences and Environmental Policy from Brown University and has received multiple honors from Hebrew Union College for educational excellence.
Rabbi Daniel Swartz
Temple Hesed, Scranton, PA
Erin Lothes is a theologian and author of Inspired Sustainability: Planting Seeds for Action (Orbis 2016) and The Paradox of Christian Sacrifice:The Loss of Self, The Gift of Self (Herder & Herder, 2007). She has written articles on faith-based environmentalism, Catholic energy ethics, and an introduction to Pope Francis's Laudate Deum (Orbis Books). She was a tenured Associate Professor before serving as senior manager of the Laudato Si Animators Program with the Laudato Si Movement. She has been a long-time collaborator with the Catholic Climate Covenant, the Forum on Religion and Ecology, and the Center for Earth Ethics at Union Theological Seminary as a visiting scholar. Erin is supporting the LSRI in research, planning, and outreach towards the proposal for a Feast of Creation in the liturgical calendar of the Christian churches.
Dr. Erin Lothes
Union Theological Seminary
Arash Naraghi, Ph.D., is Professor of Philosophy and Global Religions and Director of the Ethics Program at Moravian University in Pennsylvania, USA. His research focuses on ethics, philosophy of religion, moral theology, and Islamic philosophical theology. Dr. Naraghi has published widely in both English and Persian, with recent works appearing in Dialogue (Cambridge University Press) and in volumes published by Brill, Palgrave Macmillan, and Lynne Rienner. His notable Persian book, Critical Traditionalism: A New Model of Reform in Islamic Thought (Negah-e Moasser, 2016), explores innovative approaches to reform within Islamic intellectual traditions.
Dr. Arash Naraghi
Moravian University
Stephen Simmons is a retired professor of theology and director of continuing education at Moravian Theological Seminary in Bethlehem, PA. A native of the Chicago area, he earned AB and PhD degrees at the University of Chicago, and an M. Div. at San Francisco Theological Seminary. His doctoral dissertation focused on the writings of Scottish theologian T. F. Torrance, bridging historical theology, philosophy of language, and philosophy of science. An ordained pastor in the Presbyterian Church USA, he has pastored congregations in Oregon, Illinois, and Pennsylvania. At Moravian, he taught courses in theology, ethics, community ministry, and societal advocacy and change. In 2023, he co-authored the book Hear Us Out: Six Questions on Belonging and Belief, a study of the ways in which members of emerging generations find meaning, purpose, and community in the absence of religious faith. He currently serves as an editor for the International Journal of Practical Theology, with a special interest in interfaith relations, theologies of the Global South, and scientific and environmental concerns.
Dr. Stephen Simmons
Moravian Seminary (ret.)
Dr. Adnan Aslan is a professor of philosophy of religion who worked on religious pluralism, problem of evil, Sufism and Islamic philosophy. He received an MA degree from the Department of History and Philosophy of Religion, at Kings College London, in 1990, and a Ph.D. from Religious Studies at Lancaster University, England in 1995. He published several scholarly articles, encyclopedia entries, book chapters and books both in English and Turkish generally in various disciplines including the field of philosophy of religion. His Ph.D. thesis was published under the title of Religious Pluralism in Christian and Islamic Philosophy: The Thought of John Hick and Seyyed Hossein Nasr, (London: Rutledge Press 1998). It was translated into Turkish, Persian and Indonesian languages. He worked at the Center for Islamic Studies (ISAM) in 1996-2010. He served as the Dean of Faculty of Humanities and Social Science at Süleyman Şah University in Istanbul. He was an adjunct professor at the Department of Philosophy at Notre Dame University, Holy Cross College, Indiana University of South Bend and Southwestern Michigan College. Currently, he is dean of academics at Respect Graduate School, and teaches courses such as “Survey in Islamic Thought,” “Introduction to Philosophy of Religion” and “Critical Thinking in Philosophy” in MA in Islamic Studies.
Dr. Adnan Aslan
Respect Graduate School

Program Schedule

Wednesday · October 29, 2025
10:30–11:00
Registration
11:00–11:10
Welcome
Dr. Suleyman Eris, Respect Graduate School President
11:10–12:40
Presentation and Responses on “Laudato Si’”
Presenter: Dr. John Haught
Respondents: Rabbi Daniel Swartz & Dr. Adnan Aslan
12:40–1:40
Lunch & Prayer Break
1:40–3:10
Presentation and Responses on the “Mitzvah of Sustainability”
Presenter: Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin
Respondents: Dr. Arash Naraghi & Dr. Erin Lothes
3:10–3:25
Break
3:15–4:45
Presentation and Responses on “Al-Mizan: A Covenant for the Earth”
Presenter: Dr. Melinda Krokus
Respondents: Dr. Stephen Simmons & Rabbi Daniel Swartz
4:45–4:55
Closing Remarks
Dr. Stephen Simmons
5:00–5:30
Reception
Dinner
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