R. Ethan Tucker: Do We Really Think Monotheists Believe in the Same God?

Questions of theology pervade efforts to facilitate cooperation and dialogue across religions.  We often search for what is common in order to build a sense of shared purpose across religious spaces that can look very different in practice.  In this lecture, R, Ethan Tucker looks at some of the laws surrounding Avodah Zarah - the rabbinic term for foreign or forbidden worship - and explores whether a claim of shared monotheism is sufficient to ground a sense of overlapping religious purpose. How far we might stretch the definition of monotheism in order to facilitate sharing social and religious space? This lecture was originally delivered at Hadar's Summer Learning Retreat in June 2022.