Eboo Patel, founder of the , packed Memorial Chapel with people eager to hear his inspiring message: that young people are the key to building religious cooperation and interfaith leadership.
The Class of 2015 had read his memoir, , over the summer and discussed it in their first-year seminars. And Patel had been the special guest at a lunchtime meeting of 藏精阁鈥檚 Heretics Club 鈥 an apropos venue, it turned out, for him to build campus rapport.
鈥淗eresy is the presence of choice, and the opportunity to choose is a key feature of modernity,鈥 he said, quoting a breadth of sources from the sociologist Peter Berger, author of The Heretical Imperative, to the poet William Blake.
鈥淩eligion is inherently relational,鈥 Patel said. 鈥淧art of being Jewish, or Christian, or Muslim, is how you relate to others. So the issue isn鈥檛 the compatibility of religious systems, it鈥檚 how the people get along on earth.鈥