The Lubar Institute for the Study of the Abrahamic Religions (LISAR) 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
these several traditions and their intersections, LISAR 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
or antagonistic to the other though in a comparative framework.The ongoing legacy of misunderstanding and mistrust militates against
peaceful intercourse among Jews, Christians, and Muslims. These considerations ground the 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.
LISAR carries out its mission by running programs in two linked spheres,
the academy and the community. The academic enterprise contributes to
scholarship and provides intellectual scaffolding for the community-oriented
activities, which invite individuals to meet with members of other traditions
and which, in turn, inform scholars about emerging issues in the relationships
among the Abrahamic traditions. The Institute's academic projects include
hosting the annual LISAR conference, offering lectures, publishing
scholarly work, supporting initiatives concerning the Abrahamic religions
developed by other units on campus, and contributing to the teaching
mission of the Religious
Studies Program. Its community-oriented activities include on-campus
projects such as the Undergraduate Forum and the
Undergraduate
Fellows, as well as off-campus works being developed under the auspices
of the External Steering Committee, which is comprised of clerical and lay figures
from around southern Wisconsin. This merging of academic and community-oriented
activities exemplifies the Wisconsin
Idea, articulated by University President Charles Van Hise a century
ago, that the walls of the University extend to the boundaries of the
state. In the twenty-first century, those walls reach even farther.
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. LISAR has received an award from the Anonymous
Fund of the College of Letters & Science, and it administers a grant
from The Metanexus
Institute, Local Societies Initiative (LSI) for the Isthmus
Society, a collaborative project. Together with the Religious
Studies Program, the Institute makes the University of Wisconsin-Madison
an important site for learning about religion.
