Transforming Compassion prosjektet til Melbourne
Fra 3.-9. desember arrangeres verdens største interreligiøse konferanse, Parliament of the World’s Religions i Melbourne, Australia. Stiftelsen Arkivet deltar med to representanter, LeRon Shults og Gro Anita Homme. Parlamentet ble første gang arrangert i Chicago i 1893.
Representanter fra mange av verdens religioner og religiøse bevegelser deltok, særlig oppmerksomhet vakte buddhisten Anagarika Dharmapala, en viktig person i kampen mot kolonimakten i India og Sri Lanka, og hinduen Swami Vivekananda. Årets tema - Make a World of Difference: Hearing each other, Healing the earth – reflekterer det pressende behovet for at mennesker på tvers av religiøse og kulturelle skillelinjer står sammen i arbeidet for miljøet, for fred og bekjempelse av fattigdom.
I 2009 har Transforming Compassion prosjektet spesielt fokusert på forståelse og medfølelse på tvers av religiøse skillelinjer. I den forbindelse har vi hatt en rekke arrangementer i samarbeid med Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions i Chicago, såkalte Pre-Parliament Events, som innledning til, og del av det offisielle parlamentet i Melbourne. Vi har blant annet hatt en forelesningsrekke som presenterte verdensreligionenes hellige skrifter. I tillegg til dette har vi hatt tre ulike seminar som har omhandlet medfølelse på tvers av religiøse skillelinjer og henholdsvis politikk, pedagogikk og hermeneutikk.
Vitenskapelig leder for Transforming Compassion prosjektet, LeRon Shults, skal i samarbeid med The International Society of Science and Religion holde et mini-symposium på parlamentet i Melbourne. Under følger programbeskrivelsen for de to sesjonene Transforming Compassion prosjektet er med på å arrangere. Fullstendig program for konferansen kan du laste ned her.
Transforming Compassion in Science and Religion
Compassion is a value that is central to many of the world’s religions and a phenomenon that can be studied from a variety of scientific perspectives. This first session of a mini-symposium sponsored by the International Society for Science and Religion contributes to the growing interest in integrating interreligious with interdisciplinary dialogue. It will provide a context within which different voices can come together around the shared concern to understand and facilitate empathy and altruism across religious and other significant boundaries. This symposium focuses on transforming the way we think about compassion through listening to one another and on facilitating compassion that has a meaningful impact on the human condition. It will also discuss facilitating a level of compassion that transforms the human condition.
Sunday 6. December
The first session will begin with a panel including a biologist, a psychologist and an economist, who will address the question, ‘How does your discipline help us understand and foster compassion?’ The panel will be followed by group exercises in which audience members discuss initial reactions and implications.
Monday 7. December
This second session features a panel of representatives from different religious backgrounds (Muslim, Hindu and Christian) offering reflections on how various spiritual traditions help us to understand and foster compassion. The panel will be followed by group exercises in which audience members discuss initial reactions and implications. The session will conclude with interaction among participants from the fields of both science and religion as we explore practical ways to further the conversation and promote compassion.
F LeRon Shults is professor of theology and philosophy at the University of Agder in Kristiansand, Norway. A leading authority on science and theology, he has published some ten books and dozens of articles in the field. Shults is the editor of the Brill book series ‘Philosophical Studies in Science and Religion’ and scientific director of the Transforming Compassion project at Stiftelsen Arkivet, a peace-building institute in Norway. His other current research interests include ethics, desire, differentiation and religious symbolism.
Dr Solomon Katz is director of the Krogman Center for Childhood Growth and Development at the University of Pennsylvania and is a professor of anthropology and a senior fellow at the Wharton School Leonard Davis Institute for Health Economics. He was founder and Chairman (1984 to 1986) of the Task Force on the African Famine for the American Anthropological Association (AAA) and is currently Chair of the AAA Task Force on World Food Problems.
Michael T H Wong is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Monash University, Australia.
Manuka Henare is the Associate Dean at the University of Auckland Business School, New Zealand.
Imam Afroz Ali is the Founder and President of the Sydney-based Al-Ghazzali Centre for Islamic Sciences & Human Development. He has received licences to teach in various Islamic Sciences, having learned from the most esteemed Islamic scholars of our time. He has initiated philanthropic as well as sustainable environmental projects in Australia and abroad and continues to advocate peace, acceptance, justice and interpersonal rights. Ali received the International Ambassador for Peace award.