This year’s Jesuit Chair Public Lecture featured Fr. John Donohue, S.J. Thursday evening at the Leavey Center. Donohue presented a lecture called “Translating God in the 21st Century: Are We All Fundamentalists?” to an audience of nearly 50 people. The lecture was followed by a question-and-answer session.

Donohue is the Director of the Center for Arab Studies at St. Joseph’s University, Beirut.

John J. Esposito, university professor and director of the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, said that Donohue chose to stay in Lebanon in spite of the civil war there. Donohue specializes in topics like Arab nationalism, Islam and uslim-Christian relations in Lebanon.

Donohue is the Jesuit Chair at Georgetown for the academic year and he co-authored a book called Islam in Transition with Esposito in 1982. They are currently working on the second edition of the book.

Donohue began his speech by listing examples of what fundamentalism brings to mind, commenting that it is often linked to violence. “[Fundamentalists] are always other people, not us . We should move beyond convenient stereotypes,” he said.

Donohue looked for the roots of fundamentalism in the “denominations and sub denominations” between different cultures and within the same culture. He explained how God divided the original Adamic language into different languages when people tried to build the Tower of Babble, and he said humankind has lacks unity since. “Why are we so prone of division?” he asked.

Donohue said there are various methods of meetings between cultures. The first is “conquest,” when one culture sees the other culture as “barbarians” and tries to civilize or destroy the other culture. He gave the example of European conquests in India and Africa as examples.

The second way, according to Donohue, is “pillage,” when one culture subjugates another politically, but still tries to understand the other culture. He gave the example of the formation of Hellenism as a result of the admiration of Greeks towards Egyptian culture.

Donohue described the third meeting as “cultural exchange,” and said it is built upon “reciprocal respect, understanding and dialog.” He gave the example of cultural exchange between Europe and China, and he said now nobody remembers who invented spaghetti. According to Donohue, fundamentalism is a reaction to the cultural exchange globalization brought about. He compared this movement to the Catholic reaction to scientific development and said fundamentalists are trying to “erase erosion of religious identity.”

Donohue described fundamentalism as being “preoccupied with identity and authenticity,” and said that fundamentalists are taking “refuge in what [they] always believed. [calling] to return to the authentic, old, original.”

He does not think, however, it is possible for religions to remain constant and explained the two ways religions change. One way is the “unnoticed changes” religions go through as society changes; the other way is the change that comes more explicitly through “outstanding interpreters of religion.”

The lecture was sponsored by the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding.