>> ernethy: coming up: with a swing banand a borrowed cow, his friends te note of the retirement of harrd theologian harvey cox. and, it is cled the yizkor requiem, mus that bridges christiannd jewish traditions in coming to termsith death. plu jews observe yom kippur, their liest day, with fasting and self examination. captioning sponred by the lilly endowment

>> abnethy: welcome. 'm bob abernethy. it's good to havyou with us. ere was a flurry of diplomat actity for the obama administration this we, and faitheaders were watching and commting on all of it. the psident was in new york, where the united natio general assembly began tackling iues of conce to many in the religious community, including nuclear proliferation an climate change. in his speech to the assely, the president said thu.s. was

ready for a new era global engagement. >> the interts of nations are shared. >> while in new york, obamaet with israeli pme minister benjan netanyahu and paltinian president mahmoud abbas to y to revive peace talks. prior to the meeting, a coalition of 30 chrisan, muim and jewish leaders releas a statement urging the president to make this sue a priority. they pledged toupport the administation on several specifisteps, which they said coulhelp advce the peace process. one controversial peaker at the general assembly was iranian present mahmoud ahmadinejad, ho attacked u.s. policies an indirect criticized jew ahamadinad's appearance spaed several protests,

incding some rallies organized by jewish groupsho urged a quote uclear-free" iran. separately, a groupf prominent conservativevangelical and catholic leaders call for a toal arms embargo and other tougsanctions to stop iran om developing nuclear weapon also this weekleaders of the world's most werful countries gathed in pittsburgh for the g-20 summi in connecti with the meeting, religious leads held their own summit to dr attention to issues facing the world's por. in their meeting-and in a processn through the streets of pittsburgh-- leaders from different fait said the most important indicator oflobal economic recery should be what happens to the hungry and e poor. meanwhile, aording to a new study by the unid nation's world food program, fo aid is now at a 20 year lo and the numb of hungry people around the world is sn

expected to pass one billiofor the first time. in washingn, a striking sce on theawn of the u.s. capitol, as thousan of muslims gathered for what th called a day of islamiunity. muslims from arou the country came tether to pray, hear religious lectur and read from the koran. the event's chairman sd parcipants wanted to express thanks th allah put them in americ a place where they can frly exercise their religion. anto show that the emphasis was on prayer, no signor political speeches we allowed. some conservative chrtians were alarmed the muslim gathering. and held a nationalonference call to offer their o prayers for ameria. now, a profile of wter, liberal activist and harvar univeity theologian harvey cox, on the casion of his remarkable retirement cerony after 44 years of holahip

d teaching. the celebration had everying: good weather, o friends, short speecs, laughter and music, all starring the honoree that's cox, the hols research professor of diviniton the tenor saxwith his big swing ba, the soft touch. the chair cox has hd was endowed in coloni times, when some professors goto graze cows in harvard yard. >> pasturincows in those days wasquivalent to parking privileges tod. >> abernethy: for th occasion, coxorrowed a cow whose name turned out to be pre. cox pretend that he had been orried that a cow so named might benappropria for an event at the divinity scho. but then other professor reassured him. >> he saidharvey, at harvard

we do not consir pride to be a sin. >> abnethy: there was a tuba ensemble, a spee in latin and many tributes to c's lifetime ofombining the stu and teaching of religion with commitment to liberalctivism. and, of cose, the more or less contend cow and signed copies of c's latest book, the future of faith. wtalked with cox about what sees as region's surprising rength. >> the resurgence of relion around the wld, and the rious religious institutions whi is unexpected, global. there were pple who were predicting the mginalization and even disappearancef religion in my ely years as a teacher. that dippearance, marginalizatn did not happen.

it's a basic change in the nature of our civization. it will continue >> arnethy: except f funmentalisms, cox says, all rigions. >> fdamentalisms. i use the worin the plural. i dnot think they're going to last out much loer. >> abnethy: for cox, that includes the religious rit. >> the last couplof elections ve really exposed the religious right as really beg a kind of paper tiger. they just didn't prduce the votes. i think they are in conserable disarray. and, frankly, i'm not urning ov that. >> abernethy: meanwhile, especially in christianity,ox sees a shift ay from beliefs and hierarchies to an emasis on individual faith. >> i call it the age othe spirit. the yearning for some kind o rsonal experience, even the yeaing for some kind of an ecstatic, under..encounter

with god, with the divine. early in pentecostalism, whch he calls the fastest-growg brah of christianity. he also says pentecoalism is ow balancing its well-known exuberance wi more and more sociaservice. >> the combinion of social ministry and experienti worship is a dynami combination. >> abernethy: within protestantism, coxakes some of the blame for the decle of many of t old mainline churches. >> the clerg and i take some responsibili for this, having en involved in it for ove40 ars, was trained in christi ought, christian philosophy, christian theology and not eugh in how to nurture thexperience of god, the experience of e spirit and encounter with chris >> abernethy: as coxooks at

the u.s., he seea huge socl oblem. >> a mpant culture of market consumeralues really has a gr on many people in america. evebody seems to be driven by, especially, thlure of advertising, which says y ought toave this, you really need that you owit to yourself to have this and that. i ink the role of religion at this point is to make very car tht this structure of values, of consumer values is not coherent with christianity, th th gospel, with the life and example of jesus at's not what he was talking about at al >> abernethy: cox cdemns the -called prosperity gospel, preaching that saysf people are faithfu god will make them rich. >> canou imagine that kind of sermon coming fromhe mouth of jesus himsel no. it's rank contradiction.

it's real... let's call it by its nam it's a heresy. >> abernet: cox has been a polar teacher. one year, a thousanstudents signed up for one of his courses. it ithe students now who give him a lot of hope >> the change tt i've seen is he enormous growth in th hger and interest in religion and spirituali among students at this univerty. it's phenomen. when i fit came here we didn't even have a religis studies program aharvard college. i notice increasingly amonmy students, both undergduate and studts in the divinity school, a deepuspicion of this life of accumulating, consumi to the soul. the daer to the soul o consumist values. let me tell you that t urge to graduate from coege, like this one, d immediately go down to a wall street investment firis greatly shrunk this year om what it was last.

>> abernethy: nina was side him. she, o, is a scholar and profess. she is also jesh. ox is an american baptist. they have a college-ageon. >>e did not want our marriage to bone of those religious- free zones. >> abernethy: soout of respect for jewislaw and custom, when the mother is jewish, tir son was raised wish. cox became his judaism teher. we have shared in each others' iritual traditions, and it can be ne. it's ao very exciting. i mean, i ally believe that i understand christianity beer havi participated in jewish life-- and remember, jesus s a rabbi-- than i would havef i hadn't done that. >> ernethy: cox also told a book sre audience this week about religions borrowi from each other. >> i've been to three or fr synagoguesecently where they

have quite obviouslyntroduced formof buddhist meditation within the synague service. when whave the opening chant here let's ho it for a very long timethe way you might hold "om." but they say "shalom." >> abeethy: as cox studies the variety of relions in the world, he says hhas made a big adjustmen i have learned to think abo christianity as one of the possible religious and symbic ways to approach realy, among others. thelurality of the religions in the world is a eck on any one of them, including oursnot to get too preteious, and think thate have the whole truth. one of the most dangous things in anyeligion is to identify my understanding of the tth, my own take on , with the truth itsf. the truth is someing out there. is absolute.

but my take it is relative. god is larger than is. god is much larger than y particular understandg of god. >> abernethy: the coon ideas among major reliions inired composer thomas beverie to blend jewish and ristian thememusically. the result is called the zkor requiem. izkor being hebrew for "may remember," and requie a mass for the repe of the dead. bob faw spoke witthe composer. >> reporter: for people o faith, services whi acknowledge, indeed coemorate, death cabring comfort or anguih. thas beveridge's yizkor requierecognizes both.

perrmed here by the orchestra and chorus of london's st. martinn-the-fields, the music is emotion and cerebral- suggestiveeven, at times, haunting. ♪ nducted by sir neville marriner and recoed for the milkenrchive of erican jewishusic, the "yizkor requiem" was composed by beveridge not jt to remind listeners of what beverie says "really matters," but ao to combine, musically, two iths. >> i realized at i could put together a piece that ki of stands on the idge between the tw religions, the christian

religion andhe jewish religion, d takes a look at, multaneously, at the ritu for the ad. >> reporter: beveridge says was inspired compose this piece after the 91 death of his father, aepiscopal priest and scholar who iersed himself in both faiths. it was, says beverie, "a quest for spirituaroots." >>y quest and my father's quest. father inspired me to lo at therigins of christian liturgy in the synagogue. i mean, that's bacally what we're talking about he. >> porter: was it an attempt to co to terms with his death, or to memorialize him, or th? >> i think both. i fd it a very cathartic experience make this effort in his mory, and in the

procesi learned a lot. >> reporter: what bevidge, a chch organist, choir director, ancomposer of more than 600 works, learneover the two years he spent wting the "yizkor requiemis that despite profound differencesin theoly, the two faiths share enormous cmon ground. >> i went thugh the requiem mass and found passas that were almost extly the same as passages in t yizkor service or in similar synague ritual, and that's ere the mass came from. it came direcy out of the synagogue. >> reporter: izkor," hebrew for ay he remember," is a memorial serce for the deceased. e requiem is the music for catholic funel service, seekg eternal rest for the departed. while a requiem emphasiz comfort, andhe yizkor can be sad, muically they reinforce e another.

here, for example,s the cantor sings the kaish in hebrew, the chorus undeeath sings the lord's prayer ienglish. each of them a doxology, hymn praising god. >> the kaddish is doxology. the lord's prayer is a doxology, though the zkor requiem begins with thkaddish prayer, which iswhat every jew says at the yahrzeit, the annual rembrance of anyone in his family whhas died. > reporter: another similari whicheveridge accents musically: theord "holy," repeated here three tes in hebrew-- kadosh, en three times in tin-sanctus.

♪ t make no mistake: while muc of this compition is solemn, parts aralso light-hearted, or what bevedge calls "lickety- split." ♪ wanted," says beveridge, "t gi the impression of a train that gets going and keeps ing, goinalong." >> it's not all vy ponderous stuff. there's a lot of y in it. the j of recognizing that a departed soul m be resting in en, in the garden of eden. >> reporter: perhapthe most dramatic moment of alin the zkor requiem comes at the en when a single flute pla a plaintive theme. ♪

finally, with the soft refin of "amen" the chorus, the flute sloy fades away. ♪ >> the flute player tur around and walks out of the buildi nd disappears, and the last rase is played over and or and or again until the player can hardly beeard any more. i wanted to depi the departing soul somehow, and the flute playg the melody of the ninth movement, the wor of which are "the souls of t righteous are in the hands of god." >> reporter: what beveridge s do, says one reviewer, is "bring us back to our and our endings" in aork which

beveridgeays is meant to be reassurg, a peaceful work about the experience ofeath. >> i mean we are the ones who are let. we're the ones who have toeal with this evenin our lives and totry to understand it, try to find way, through ritual or rough musical experience, of coming to terms wh it. > reporter: a spiritual less in music, bridging tradions which differ, but which al experience thsame thing and which here come togetheas one. for "religion & ethics newswkly," this is bob faw in washington. >> abernethy: oour calendar this week, yom kipr, the

jewish daof atonement, begins sunday evening. 's the holiest time of the jeish year, with fasting and prayers all dain synagogues and emples. we talked aut yom kippur bservances with rabbi irwin kula of the national jesh cenr for learning and leadership. >> the centl ritual on yom kippur, besidesrayer itself, that's st well-known, is fasting. what sting does is it says i'm not ging to concentrate on my physical dy right now. i'm going to concentraton a different nd of food. ratherhan nutrients for my bod i'm going to concentrate on the nutrientsor my spirit, my heart, and my eical way. so when you feel hungry at wo o'clock in thafternoon, the feing of hunger is not so that you'll be in pain. the fling of hunger is to stimulate two things: whatm i

really hgry for, because it's more han just food. hat am i really hungry for i mypiritual and ethical life? and who really is huny that i need to feed? and if you take tho two insights fr the practice seriously, it's workg. that's whaatonement... that is what "aone-ment" means. kol nidris the first prayer of theom kippur service. what wdo on kol nidre is the confrontation and thchallenge of having to look at every promise and obligaon and commient that i have in my life and starting by sang okay, fine. you have none of th. yohave no obligations, no promises. kol dre, all the promises are nullnd void. okay, now wha it's ry frightening to imagine that we have no ligations, because it is ouobligations, our promis that defe who we

are. the rest of yom kpur, in a sense, is takg back the obligationsreassessing them. kay, i am married, do i nt to be married? what does it mean to have th oigation? he i am a father, what are the obligationthat come with being a father that may have goen distorted ibetween last yom kippur and this yom kipr? whaare my obligations to my work and my aft and my calli? what are mobligations, what are the promises at i've made to myself so k nidre is a very profound method an technology for stripping us all promises and obligations that madistort us, so that we stad there naked, just u with the ability to take back promes, take back obligations er the next 25 hours. the focus of the high liday periois not on death. the focus is on life. it turns out th one of the

great ways to cus ourselves on life is to think aut death. that just turnsut to be the radox. sof on yom kippur we fast, if oyom kippur we deny ourselves certain bodily pleares and engagen a kind of deep introspection on t moral, psychological,nd spiritual lel, well, it turns out we will become tter people. i mean, that's just what happen but, again, there are no guarantees. you can go through everytng on yom kippur d go through the motionsand on the other hand you can sit in yom kippur a never use a prayer bk but just really thi about who you are and it can make difference in yr life. >> abnethy: also on our calendarfive days after yom kippur the joyous celration of sukkot. many jws build temporary shelters, called sukkahs, t commemorate t 40 years the children ofsrael wandered in thdesert. and hindus are celeating the

nine-day naatri festival. it's dicated to female ities, including the godds durga who is celebted for triumphing er evil. the stival is marked by prayers, pressions and music. finally, reverend forrt church, perhapshis country's best known unitarian- univsalist minister, died this week after a three-year bale with cancer. church washe longtime pastor of the unitarian church of a souls on the upp east side of w york. heas also author of 24 books. his latest, calle"love and death," reflected on ving each day with joy and gratude. >> t only way to reconcile yourself, make peaceith yourself, make peace wi your neighbor, make peace th god, findalvation is to break rough and love, to forgivand to love. >> abernhy: that's our program for now. i'm bob arnethy. we have muchore on our

website, including link to more audio of the yizkor quiem as well as more of our intview with hvey cox and an excerpt from hisost recent book. you can comment on oustories and share them. audio and video podcastare also availabl join us pbs.org. captiong sponsored by the lilly endowment captioneby mediaccess group at wgbh access.wgbh.org