Laurel Kearns: Our Only Planet: Interreligious Ecological Concerns
Workshop description: The vision of the fragile planet earth floating in space provided new ground for interreligious cooperation and dialogue on the connections between religious beliefs and practices and human relationships to the earth community. Additionally, scientists and politicians have called on religious leaders to add their moral authority in urging action on environmental issues, and religious thinkers are called upon to help engage the immense issues of justice and inequality that accompany environmental degradation and pollution. The result is one of the most active interfaith movements whose movement organizations strive creatively to encourage action at the individual to the societal level and change the dominant economic and religious worldviews to seeing the intrinsic worth of all creation.
Hyo-Dong Lee: Comparative Theology: An Interreligious Hermeneutics of the Christian Tradition in the Multi-Religious World
This workshop introduces the practice of comparative theology, which is the practice of reading the authoritative texts of the Christian tradition within a context shaped by the authoritative texts of other religious traditions. The workshop explores this practice as a work of theological contextualization in the religiously pluralistic world of today. A particular focus will be on the context of Asia.
John Thatamanil: Theology of Religious Pluralism and Hindu-Christian Dialogue After “Religion”
Theology of religious pluralism (TRP) is plagued by an untheorized problem: the field has failed to think critically about the category “religion” and so employs term without attention to its genealogy and applicability. Does Hinduism exist? Is it a religion? How does deploying the term “religion” in Hindu-Christian dialogue structure, constrain, and impede dialogue? Thatamanil will survey the best in recent scholarship critical of the category (Richard King, S. N. Balagangadhara, and others). He will argue that uncritical uses of the category have contributed to depicting Hinduism as essentially otherworldly, mystical, ethically disengaged and so radically incommensurable with a this-worldly and ethical Christianity. The category “religion” has also served to harden singular religious identities whereas religiosity on the Indian scene has historically been far more fluid. In this workshop we will imagine the future of TRP and Hindu-Christian Dialogue after religion.
Jay Mc Daniel: On Being a Christian and a Buddhist, Too
Process theology offers a bridge between Buddhist and Abrahamic ways of thinking. It invites participants in Abrahamic traditions – Jewish, Christian, and Muslim — to explore hybrid forms of religious experience and practice which combine an organic understanding of the universe, characteristic of many forms of Buddhism, with a relational understanding God. This workshop will explore reasons why some travelers in Abrahamic traditions are drawn to Buddhism and discuss ways in which Buddhist themes can be internalized in ways that simultaneously enrich trust in God. Themes to be explored include breathing meditation, the ideal of mindfulness in the present moment, Buddhist notions of interconnectedness, the idea that all Buddha-Nature in all things, the Bodhisattva vow, the notion of no substantial self, hopes for a continuing journey after death, and prospects for beloved community, human and ecological. Special attention will be paid to practice (meditation and social action) as well as theory. A book by Dr. Paul Knitter, Without Buddha I Could Not be a Christian (Oneworld Publications (2011). Participants are encouraged to have perused the book in advance. McDaniel tells his story of becoming a Buddhist-influenced Christian on his website: www.jesusjazzbuddhism.org.
Rev. Dr. Youngsook Charlene Kang and Bishop Hee-Soo Jung: Imagining an Alternative Future for Interfaith Community
This workshop will discuss and explore how we imagine an alternative future for building and sustaining interfaith community from the grassroots. While interfaith dialogue has contributed to overcoming some human suffering and helped combat fundamentalism, more community and action-oriented dialogue through grass-roots participation is needed, and concrete cooperation should be its main goal. So, it is important to create interfaith community from the grassroots- i.e., individuals and churches, synagogues and local communities and organizations, as well as building inter-religious community at the national and international levels. The workshop will be participatory and experiential, and concrete examples of interfaith community will be illustrated.
September Conference - Dr. Pyun, Sun Hwan - Make A Gift - Schedule of Events & Registration - Speakers