Topic: Building the Beloved Community

Presenters: Richard Rose

Cobb Institute board member, Dr. Richard Rose, is Professor of Religion and Philosophy at the University of La Verne, where he is also Coordinator of the Ecumenical Center for Black Church Studies.  He has developed a course on “Building the Beloved Community” that engages ULV students in practical experiences of community building, enriched by readings from Robin Wall Kimmerer, Mahatma Gandhi, Howard Thurman, and Martin Luther King, Jr.  His current research examines global issues related to Interfaith dialogue and Religious Pluralism.  His teaching was recognized by a recent Life Worth Living Grant from the Yale Center of Faith and Culture.  This provided an opportunity for him to share that course with an International Ubuntu Festival in South Africa, where he was able to bring Beloved Community in dialogue with the concept of Ubuntu.  This article in his hometown Claremont Courier celebrates that experience.  Dr. Rose says, “I think we’re in a time right now where people need hope. People need to see something that allows them to say ‘Maybe there’s a chance that we can get out of the mess that we are in.’  Rose’s course offers “concrete examples of where things are actually working, where people are actually getting along. . . . It doesn’t have to be so doomsday about the future. I think providing that kind of hope is good.”

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