Reflections from the May 6 Tri-Faith Dialogue on the Afterlife

On May 6, the First Analysis Institute of Integrative Studies, with co-organizers Rabbi Wendi Geffen and the Othman family, convened a Tri-Faith Dialogue at the Islamic Cultural Center of Greater Chicago on The Afterlife: Perspectives from Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The evening brought together Jewish, Christian and Muslim speakers to consider a question every faith must answer and none can fully describe: what becomes of us when we die?

The evening sat within a longer arc of FAI’s interfaith work. For more than twelve years, FAI co-organized the In Good Faith seminars with the Catholic Theological Union, and today this related work continues through the Tri-Faith Dialogue with the Islamic Cultural Center of Greater Chicago, North Shore Congregation Israel and Divine Mercy Parish. The underlying premise of this work is that the three Abrahamic traditions form a triune — three complementary emphases on a shared inheritance, more often read across centuries as a source of friction than as parts of a larger pattern. The afterlife is a particularly searching test of that premise, since each tradition has thought about it deeply and, on its own account, no tradition has thought about it completely.

Rabbi Michael Balinsky reflected on Jewish teachings about Olam Habah, the world to come, and the way sacred study allows the voices of the tradition to remain present. Dr. Richard Rosengarten considered Christian understandings of resurrection, judgment and the restless heart’s return to God. Imam Hazim Fazlic described the Islamic account of death, resurrection and judgment, while emphasizing that even the Qur’an’s vivid images point toward a reality beyond human comprehension.

Across the three presentations, familiar emphases in FAI’s work on Triune Consciousness came into view: the well-being of creation, redemptive love and revelation. Rabbi Balinsky gave particular weight to the covenantal life of this world and the value of sacred study. Dr. Rosengarten centered the Christian presentation on redemptive love, resurrection and the soul’s return to God. Imam Fazlic foregrounded revelation, describing the Islamic account of the afterlife while also emphasizing that what is revealed points beyond itself toward what cannot be fully grasped.

Some of the evening’s clearest moments of agreement emerged in the exchanges that followed, especially around the limits of human understanding and the ways each tradition approaches judgment, messianic expectation and the life to come. Together, the discussion showed how distinct traditions can deepen one another’s questions without collapsing their differences.

Read the full reflections from the May 6 dialogue here.