Exploring the sacred in human relations

Across five years, the Fetzer Institute commissioned teams of scholars who are also practitioners of their faith tradition to retell sacred stories. The challenge was to do this in a way faithful to their tradition, but also accessible to outsiders. The hope was to generate and strengthen a shared sense of the sacred, sufficient to bring people together in pursuit of a better future for all—people and planet.

The resulting book, Retelling Sacred Stories (Orbis Books 2025), has ten chapters, each using the art of storytelling to convey the values of a given tradition. To maximise inclusiveness, the opening story is offered as a shared narrative, one that may resonate with people of any faith or none. Space is also given to indigenous and interspiritual perspectives alongside major world religions. 

At this event, we invite a local panel of scholar–practitioners to reflect on this approach and the potential of storytelling and the arts to connect us with a shared sense of the sacred. Can sacred connections help us toward a better shared future? In the face of seemingly intractable problems, what might tending to the sacred achieve?

The panellists

Dr Ankur Barua is University Lecturer in Hindu Studies. Before coming to Cambridge, he completed a BSc in Physics at St Stephen’s College, University of Delhi. He researches the conceptual constellations and the social structures of Hindu traditions, in premodern contexts in South Asia, and in colonial milieus where multiple ideas of Hindu identity were configured along transnational circuits between India, Britain, Europe, and USA. Some of these narratives are re-imagined in his work of historical fiction, The Harvest of Time (2023).

Dr Giles Waller is a Senior Teaching Associate and Research Associate in Christian Theology and Theology & Literature at the University of Cambridge. His work explores the intersections of Christian doctrine, philosophy, and literary tragedy, rooted in doctoral research at Peterhouse on theological receptions of Greek tragedy. Waller teaches across theology and English, contributes to the Cambridge Interfaith Programme, and supervises doctoral research on theology and the arts. His recent publications include work on suffering, creation, and tragic theory.

Rabbi Dr Lindsey Taylor‑Guthartz is a scholar of contemporary Jewish life, specialising in the religious practices of the British Jewish community. She completed her PhD in Anthropology and Jewish Studies at University College London in 2016 and previously studied at Cambridge and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She received Orthodox rabbinic ordination from Yeshivat Maharat in 2021, one of the first women to do so. Her work includes teaching at Cambridge (Jewish Studies), Oxford, King’s College London, SOAS, and LSJS. Her book Challenge and Conformity explores the lives of Orthodox Jewish women.

Riya Kartha is a poet, educator, and arts facilitator pursuing a PhD in Education at the University of Cambridge, where her research explores the inner lives and spirituality of value‑creating educators informed by Ikeda/Soka studies. A TESOL graduate of Soka University, Japan, she has worked extensively on arts‑based learning, safe spaces, and self‑expression in English language education. She co‑chairs the Cambridge Peace and Education Research Group and engages globally in conversations on peace and nuclear disarmament. A published poet, she continues to write and teach with a commitment to reimagining education as a transformative, deeply human practice.

Dr William (Bill) Vendley is Secretary General Emeritus of Religions for Peace, the world’s largest multi‑religious peacebuilding coalition. From 1994 to 2019, he coordinated inter‑religious councils across more than 90 countries, pioneering multi‑faith cooperation in conflict zones including Bosnia‑Herzegovina, Sierra Leone, Iraq, Sri Lanka, and Liberia. His leadership helped launch the Hope for African Children Initiative, which raised over $50 million to support communities affected by HIV/AIDS. An advisor to governments and international bodies, Vendley also serves as Senior Advisor for Religion at the Fetzer Institute. He holds degrees from Purdue, Maryknoll School of Theology, and Fordham University.

Partners

This event is organised in collaboration with the Fetzer Institute and the Faraday Institute. It is one in a series of UK events inspired by Retelling Sacred Stories and coordinated by Mark Vernon in association with Theos.

Practicalities

Refreshments will be available from 5:00pm. 

The panel discussion will begin at 5:30pm.

To assist with logistics, please register in advance where possible (using the Sign up button above). Some spaces may be available on the day.