Jon Pahl

Mt. Airy resident Jon Pahl was an undergrad at Valparaiso College in Indiana when lost his Christian faith. He was majoring in history and theology and, among other things, studied the Bhagavad Gita [Hindu scripture] and Native American spirituality. “It made me wonder if Krishna is lord, how can Jesus be lord? I learned what happened to the first peoples in North America, and it made me wonder if these Christian ancestors of mine were so holy after all?” he said.

These were big questions for a boy who grew up in Appleton, Wisconsin and attended church every Sunday and Christian education night every Wednesday. He would play church at home, dressing up in one of his father’s white dress shirts, proceeding into the living room, singing a hymn, saying a prayer, and even collecting an offering. He wrote a letter to the president of Concordia College in Milwaukee when he was just 7 years old asking for books on how to be a pastor.

What his education at Valparaiso did was teach him critical thinking. He thinks it was the best thing that could have happened to him. It allowed him to bring his religious upbringing and his intellectual curiosity to terms with each other. After graduating in 1980, he attended Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, Ohio, in a further attempt to define his thoughts.

While there, he wrote his thesis on the “New Right” movement of the 1980s that included Jerry Falwell and James Baker, which argued that while this movement represented itself as something new in American history, that there had been many waves of religious fervor before in America.

On the strength of that thesis, he applied and was accepted to the PhD program at the University of Chicago Divinity School where he studied with and was mentored by Martin Marty, a leading Lutheran religious scholar. Pahl’s dissertation there, which was subsequently published in 1992 by Johns Hopkins as a book, was entitled Paradox Lost: Free Will and Political Liberty in American Culture, 1630-1760.

It focused on the theological debate during that time period over the issue of freedom, and how these theological “parties” organized into political parties. “The royalties from that book bought me a quilt rack. It was a pretty obscure work,” he said. What it did do was help solidify his analytical way of studying and discussing religion, something he continues today, “where I study problems of religion and violence and try to promote religious dialogue to overcome indifference.”

Since 2001, Dr. Pahl, 53, has been a professor at The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia in Mt. Airy. He also is a visiting professor of religion at Temple University, and the author of numerous articles and books about religion.

He also is the head of the seminary’s Master of Arts in Public Leadership program, which is a partnership with the Fox School of Business and the School of Social Work at Temple. Its goal is to develop social entrepreneurs, people both theologically articulate and capable of understanding religious pluralism while possessing business skills or social work experience.

It is this idea of religious pluralism, that two different faiths can be equally valid, that lies at the heart of Pahl’s intellectual life. In the end, he believes that religions are good. “Religions exist to end violence. That’s why we created them as human beings, to use words and rituals rather than force, to solve our social problems.”

To that end, Pahl is a frequent guest and speaker at many area interfaith dialogues. He’s become very engaged with Hizmet, a global movement of Muslims founded around three principles: education, social enterprise, and interreligious dialogue.

“I know the movement, I’ve read pretty much everything that’s been translated into English. I’ve traveled the globe and seen the schools. This has been a part of my life for the last five years,” he explained. “It’s also an example of the broader currents of religious peace-building that I’m examining in the book I’m working on right now: A Coming Religious Peace.”

Whether it be the Civil Rights movement in the United States, the Solidarity movement in Poland and the Eastern Bloc, or even the cessation of the civil war in Liberia, it is Pahl’s contention that “over the course of 20th century history, consistently, culture after culture, people have engaged religious communities on behalf of peace making.

“If we can get beyond the extremes - the parochialism of religion (‘my way or the highway’) and, on the other hand, the cultural despising of religion that just dismisses it - we could appreciate the robust contribution of people of faith who are trying to make things better.

“We need a much more nuanced, critical appreciation for the contribution of people of spirit, whether they are associated with a traditional community or they are an environmentalist who understands their connection to the earth in a spiritual way. Jesus said, ‘You’ll know them by their fruits.’”

Even though he’s been teaching at the seminary for more than 10 years, Pahl and his wife just moved to Mt. Airy in January. He’s very happy with their decision. “I like the intellectual vitality of the community, there’s always good conversations to be had with people. I like the diversity of the community as well, the fact that people seem to get along, and that people here like music.”

Music is important to Pahl, as he unwinds from his scholarly life by playing saxaphone with gospel choirs, in chapel at the Seminary, and with two different bands in the community (The Groove Daemons and Sonoma Sound).

During his life, Pahl has questioned his faith, found it again, and discovered new ways to look at it. But in the end, he says, life comes down to one simple belief: “You have to understand how things work, and then make choices that promote the good, the true, the beautiful. And that’s our task as human beings.”

For more information, please visit: http://ltsp.edu/people/jpahl