Eboo Patel: University of Chicago religious scholar believed pluralism brings out our best

Chicago Tribune

07-03-2025

In 2002, I found out University of Chicago professor Martin Marty was speaking at a fundraising event in Chicago. I was a graduate student at the time, finishing up my doctoral thesis on religion and modernity, and I also was starting my organization Interfaith America, then called Interfaith Youth Core.
Marty's scholarly writings had influenced me profoundly. He had detailed the ways that religious fundamentalism was more accurately understood as a response to modernity rather than an expression of core religious beliefs.
Marty was a clear-eyed scholar of the violent elements of the human condition. But he was also highly attuned to the better angels of our nature. He consistently conveyed an optimistic spirit.
Marty did not consider violent fundamentalism the only possibility for religion in the modern age. In books such as 'The One and the Many: America's Struggle for the Common Good,' he voiced his conviction that totalitarianism of all kinds could be avoided if we worked to build pluralism — respect for diverse identities, relationships between different communities and cooperation for the common good.
Moreover, he believed America should be a leader in this endeavor.
I was basing my fledgling nonprofit organization on Marty's inspiring ideas, and I wanted some time with the great scholar in person. So I spent $60 on a ticket to that fundraising event (pretty close to the last $60 I had!) and stationed myself outside the door of the banquet hall, hoping to ask Marty a question or two before his keynote address. When he approached, I nervously explained to him how I was attempting to build an organization based on his theories of the possibility of pluralism. 'I want to hear all about it,' he told me. 'Come for tea to my office.'
That subsequent conversation with Marty changed the course of my organization and, in many ways, the course of my life. He said that he had long been inspired by people from different religions who disagreed on doctrine and still 'risked hospitality' with one another.
At Interfaith America, we quickly made that idea a centerpiece, organizing interfaith service projects and encouraging young people to share how their faiths inspired them to practice, even 'risk,' hospitality across lines of difference.
Marty invited me to see him on a regular basis. I would sit with him in his book-lined office at the John Hancock building, and he would tell me stories of everything from being a Protestant observer at the Second Vatican Council, to the Saturday night to Sunday noon Sabbath practice his family implemented when his kids were young.
Marty would often say to me that he delighted in hosting interfaith conversations in his home. His practice of doing so was not to be less of a Lutheran Christian (his first career was actually as a Lutheran pastor), but rather to be overtly proud of his religious identity and encourage others to do the same.
'We are not going to take down the cross or put away the Bible when you come to dinner,' he said to me. 'Instead, I want to share with you how the cross and the Bible inspire me to be a better person, and I want you to share with me how the Quran and the example of the Prophet Muhammad inspire you to be a better person, Eboo.'
I was shocked that a scholar so erudite was also so approachable, and also so committed to concrete impact in the real world rather than simply adding another tome to the library. I was not formally a student of Marty's, nor was I enrolled at the University of Chicago, and Marty was mostly helping me with my nonprofit organization, not a scholarly book.
Marty represents everything that we need more of in America today.
Religion should be a source of inspiration and a bridge of cooperation, not a barrier of division.
Scholars and universities should be both learned and accessible. Scholars should serve the broader public, not lock themselves in the ivory tower, and they should never come across as disdainful of the general population.
American history should be told in a way that reckons with the sins and flaws of the past, but still inspires people to build on the ideals of the founding and the progress that has been made toward achieving those ideals.
America's diversity is a strength. We should engage that diversity by inviting people to proudly share their particular identities and build constructive relationships across differences.
Civility is everything. The quality of how we talk to each other, especially across lines of difference, is the foundation of our society.
One last story. Interfaith America was considering creating a curriculum on faith heroes. I liked the idea but was a bit afraid that elevating remarkable people such as Mahatma Gandhi from Hinduism, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. from Protestant Christianity and Dorothy Day from Catholicism could come across as more intimidating than inspiring.
I consulted Marty on this. He encouraged me to go ahead and develop the curriculum. He said faith heroes were archetypal figures, and we should take every chance to highlight their exemplary characteristics. An archetype, Marty told me, was like a clearing in the woods. It is the place where the light falls.
Marty shed so much light on so many subjects. That is why the one and only Faith Hero award Interfaith America ever gave was to him.