Parliament of Worlds Religion 1993 Chicago IL

Author(s): Parliament of the World’s Religions
Publisher: USA Parliament of the Worlds Religions

Page 126

PARLIAMENT 1993
THE ACADEMY
A series of colloquia, panel discussions, and presentations by nearly 60 prominent representatives of the world academic community. Significant papers on a wide range of topics related to the major themes of the Parliament will be read and discussed. Selected from over 100 submissions, these presentations have been grouped thematically into twenty sessions, each offering up to three papers for discussion. Each presenter will have 20 minutes and each presentation will be followed by 10 minutes of discussion. The Program Committee and Staff thank Professor Daniel Ross Chandler for his tireless assistance in the coordination of the Academy project.
SESSIONS 1-6, TUESDAY, 8/31 SESSION 1 10:00 AM–10:30 AM Sandburg Wing #7 "Constructing the Spiritual Dimensions of the AIDS Crisis" Eric Gilder This lecture constitutes a survey of the AIDS crisis as a contemporary social phenomenon and discerns the spiritual dimension inherent in this epidemics that has developed to catastrophic proportions. Eric Gilder--Ph.D., Ohio State University; research and teaching inter
ests include communication ethics, social construction of meaning the "intuitive" construction of the AIDS crisis.
Francine E. Marrus This paper will focus on how we communicate the experience of silence: the meaning, the method, and the result. The discussion will include how people speak about meditation, what it is, how its done, and what happens during and after meditation. Language used to describe the meditation experience will be identified and discussed, as will guided meditation. Francine E. Marrus teaches speech and communication studies at
Clemson University in South Carolina; research interest, spirituality of communication in various contexts; has participated in the Speech Communication Association seminars on spirituality in 1991 & 1992.
SESSION 2 2:00 PM2:30 PM Sandburg Wing #7 "Postmodern Peace and World Civilization" Dr. George Nordgulen This workshop will discuss the possibility of a postmodern spiritual peace for a world civilization. The fundamental question of the last decade of our century is, are we willing to do the things that make for peace, to beat our nuclear weapons into instruments of food production, to shelter the shelterless, to care for the sick and dying, to build a peaceful world? The task of the spiritual ways of the world is to provide a soul or spirit to the growing world community conciousness of the neccesity of world peace. Dr. George Nordgulen-Professor of Religion, Eastern Kentucky University; leader for trip to India for the United States Educational Foundation in India; author, Perspectives in World Religion; and Faith and Creativity.
4:30 PM-5:00 PM Sandburg Wing #7 "Freedom in an Interdependent World" Anna Lemkow This workshop inquires into freedom from a nondualistic-more particularly, a theosophical perspective. The latter proposes: 1) illimitable, impartible, cosmic order; 2) inseparability of freedom from inner law or necessity; 3) that individuals can win freedom only by self-effort; 4) that all beings co-participate in an evolutionary process toward a higher life. The world religions, western psychology, and the newer evolutionary theory of science cohere in effect with these propositions. Societal freedom equally demands obeying inner order. Anna Lemkow-author, The Wholeness Principle: Dynamics of Unity Within Science, Religion and Society; worked for many years in the United Nations Secretariat in the field of economic and social development; special interest: integrative approaches to science, spirituality, and world affairs; degrees from the University of Alberta, Canada, and the New School for Social Research, New York.
2:30 PM–3:00 PM Sandburg Wing #7 "Interreligious Dialogue as Love: A Proposal Based on the Hidden God" Dr. Bruce T. Martin Interreligious dialogue is properly about God. Today, however, an overemphasis on "common faith" seriously misrepresents God's universality. The paper proposes a Christian theology for interreligious dialogue based on God's dreadful presence in suffering and death. The Christian who is engaged in dialogue will want to be present where God is. In this cruciform manner, there will be no hidden missiological agenda or triumphalistic attitude. Only where God cannot be believed as a God of love (i.e., in death) is faith able to believe in the "crucified and hidden God."
5:00 PM-5:30 PM Sandburg Wing #7 "The Kairos of Spiritual Unity" Susanne Schaup, Ph.D In the search for a common link between world religions, Divine Wisdom (Sophia) has proved a powerful symbol of integration. Almost entirely lost in the Christian churches of the West, Sophia is being rediscovered by various religions and secular movements of our time. Under different names, Divine Wisdom can be seen to operate in all religious traditions. This presentation explores the concept of Sophia: its impact on the image of God, human beings, the nature of relationship, and the concept of power. Susanne Schaup, Ph.D-studied English and German philology, psy
chology and philosophy in Austria and the US; former editor of religious books on the East; freelance writer, translator, editor and public lecturer with an emphasis on world religions, the Third World and feminist issues, working on a book, Sophia, The Divine Wisdom.
SESSION 3 4:00 PM–4:30 PM Sandburg Wing #7 "A Language of Silence: The Performance of Meditation"
SESSION 4 10:00 AM-10:30 AM Sandburg Wing #8 "The Visitation of the Stranger: Some Mystical Dimensions of the History of Religions" Jeffrey J. Kripal By briefly analyzing the mystical dimensions of the hermeneutical experiences of Louis Massignon, Gershom Scholem, and Mircea
THE PARLIAMENT OF THE WORLD'S RELIGIONS, CHICAGO, 1993 • 125
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