A season of discontent is upon us as we prosecute a war overseas and march at home into a rancorous presidential campaign. Between the noble ideas of a compassionate demo-cratic order that we espouse and the harsher political realities that we implement falls the shadow.

Whether our gaze lands on the streets of Baghdad or fixes on the political maneuvering in Boston and New York, the demo-cratic process turns out to be messier than we like to imagine and, if flagging voter participation is any indication, far less appealing. We proclaim the virtues of democracy with an enthusiasm that inspires global military intervention, but neither we nor our "client states" demonstrate the discipline to construct a cooperative civic infrastructure, to learn the com-plexities of our traditions, or to enter into the gritty ambiguities of governance by conflict and consent. We face a challenge that has beset every new generation of Americans, but which has grown ever more daunting with the ascendance of a youth culture that assesses critical information by plug-ging into the television and the Internet: Can we build brick by brick the habits of mind and heart that sustain a civil society, when, as Robert Putnam observed, we are increasingly a nation of individuals who prefer to bowl alone and who do their surfing without getting wet in cyberspace?

The ICJS has long maintained that religion and politics are interwoven and that the consequences of this entanglement are double-edged. The health and vitality of the one are inseparable from the other because political agendas and religious values crisscross the boundaries of church and state. In his pioneering collection of essays Under God: Religion and American Politics, Garry Wills argues that the quest for public office entails a battle to win control over religious rhetoric and to attain the epic elevation of a knight of faith. According to Wills, candidates who can frame their own campaign in the symbols and stories of the religiously heroic authenticate their message and invest their vision with sacred import. Candidates who fail to establish their "spiritual" credibility don't have a prayer of winning a national election, as the last secular con-tender, Michael Dukakis, can testify.

The task of ICJS scholarship is not to drive a wedge between the political and the religious domains -- a mission that would prove a hopeless enterprise in American society. We choose, rather, to be informed critics who know enough to distinguish the uses from the abuses of religious mobilization and who are willing and able to analyze the deployment of religious discourse.

Lamentably, most Americans are schooled in educational set-tings that direct little serious attention to the cultural and political dynamics of religion. The consequence of this neglect is that even the most highly educated segments of the public do not know how to interpret the cultural, social, political, and economic agendas that religion is enlisted to serve. Religion stirs up and sustains passionate commitments, and a public that overlooks or denies this power is far more susceptible to manipulation and distortion. Furthermore, a public that is un-able to access the wisdom that is embedded within its diverse religious traditions is deprived of the experience of its ances-tors and will lose touch with foundational insights that have emerged from centuries of intensive debate and discussion.

One of the most important benefits that emerges through the sustained engagement of Christians and Jews is the develop-ment of an aptitude for critical analysis of religion in the larger society. An ability to navigate beyond familiar boundaries equips people with the sensitivites to become bold and astute observers of the role that religion plays in diverse settings. During the past year, the ICJS has configured a variety of educational programs to cultivate this talent. The extensive treatment of Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ demon-strated the imperative to scrutinize the popular culture from the vantage points of different disciplines as well as divergent religious perspectives.

Our new academic year begins with our continuing examination of popular culture and religion. We have joined forces with Goucher College and the Walters Art Museum to explore Dan Brown's blockbuster novel The Da Vinci Code within a broader historical, theological, and literary context. This program in-tends to cast some light on the novel's confounding blend of fact and fiction and, more importantly, to equip readers with a better understanding of the book's significance as a cultural phenomenon that has stormed our literary beaches from coast to coast.

We are also in the process of developing a pioneering con-ference on medicine, mortality, and morality that will bring together Jewish, Christian, and Muslim clergy with doctors and other health care professionals. Once again we are convinced that the capacity to examine contrasting, if not conflicting, assumptions about our struggles with suffering, the meaning of death, and the work of grief within the context of family and community will open up a range of challenges that remain sorely neglected when we are locked in our separate profes-sional enclaves.

Last spring's greatest surprise holds this year's greatest promise. It began inauspiciously in April with a telephone call. A young Jewish woman from Boston in the first stages of study at the Harvard Divinity School had an idea that she wanted to explore. She was distressed that the controversies surrounding the Gibson film were polarizing Christians and Jews and creating factions incapable of "reaching common ground." She intended to do something about the deterioration of our national religious climate and wanted to meet face-to-face to discuss a strategy. When I asked Liz when she wanted to rendezvous, I assumed that we could settle on a date in the hazy days of summer when school was out of session and when we would have time to brood. She informed me that she would schedule a flight that very afternoon.

Within a month we had configured a remarkable team of con-sultants and had organized one of the most ambitious national essay contests for college and high school students ever undertaken. Our grand hope was that the ICJS would receive 1,000 entries. When the July 30th due date arrived, we found ourselves with the exhilarating task of working our way through 3,577 essays!

The Reaching Common Ground essay winners will be an-nounced by the end of December and we will initiate the first class of ICJS Fellows in the spring. The Fellows program will identify and work with ten to twelve talented students from among the essayists and, over the course of several years, will build a nuclueus of young leaders from across the country who can decipher the complex role of religion in the world today.

Elizabeth Goldhirsh and Reaching Common Ground have an uncommonly noble vision. Overflowing with ideas and brimming with high-voltage energy, Liz's commitment to healing danger-ous religious divides is global in scope. She has endured the personal tragedy of losing both of her parents to cancer, and she is determined to honor their memory by using a significant portion of her inheritance to engage the next generation in the challenges besetting a religiously plural world.

Reaching Common Ground embodies a governing commitment for ICJS, namely to examine in detail various models of leader-ship within the Jewish and Christian traditions and to juxtapose these portraits with the profiles of leadership within the domi-nant culture. This expansive new initiative has coalesced at the same time that the ICJS is entering into a creative part-nership with Goucher College. In the coming months, we anticipate exciting developments and we look forward to shar-ing groundbreaking news with you.

While the United States and the world seem to be drifting to-ward the edge of apocalyptic times, we are audacious enough to believe that the ICJS can counter the downward spiral and provide ballast to the hard winds of cynicism and despair.