Parliament of Worlds Religion 1993 Chicago IL

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

Page 129

The Academy-Wednesday, September 1
Analysis, and Reconstruction of Buddhism; Professor, University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire.
2:30 PM-3:00 PM Sandburg Wing #7 "Discerning the Universal Foundation of Religions: The Universal Word
and the Unity of Religions" Professor Ashok K. Gangadean
This paper is a distillation of relevant themes from Professor Gangadean's recently published book, Meditative Reason: Toward Universal Grammar, which is the fruition of twenty-five years of research on the foundations of religious worlds in a global context. The paper suggests that the essence of Divine Form, of the Infinite Word, implies a presiding Universal Grammar or Law that is the ground and origin of diverse religious worlds. The paper attempts to articulate this Universal Grammar of the Universal Word as the common ground of religions. A central theme of the book and of this paper is the clarification of the Universal Law at the heart of diverse cultures and world religions and the demonstration of the way in which this Universal Word or Grammar has been pragmatically operative in the formation of evolution of cultures and diverse religious forms of life.
Professor Ashok K. Gangadean-Professor and Chairman at
Haverford College; has taught courses and published essays in comparative (east-west) philosophy, inter-religious theology, philosophy of language and rationality, Hindu, Buddhist, and Zen philosophy, etc.; first Director of Gest Center for Cross-Cultural Study of Religions which focuses on inter-religious dialogue; author, Meditative Reason: Toward Universal Grammar; two other volumes, Time, Truth and Logic and Between Worlds will appear soon.
3:00 PM-3:30 PM Sandburg Wing #7 "The 1893 Parliament and the Continuing Dialogue of World Religions" Dr. James A. Kirk
This paper deals with the 1893 Parliament and the opening of religious dialogue. The lecture will explore how the dialogue began at a local level, the ground rules of dialogue, and the courage, audacity, and imagination of the founders. We will also discuss participation and controversies in the 1893 Parliamentincluding the anti-dialogical forces and their arguments, motivation by hope and commitment, and the leadership of women. The presentation will be concluded with a discussion of the movement of dialogue since 1893.
Dr. James A. Kirk-Professor of Religious Studies, University of Denver, specializing in comparative Studies; author, Stories of the Hindus; co-author, Religion and the Human Image; has published papers on the 1893 Parliament in the USA and Europe.
SESSION 10
10:00 AM-10:30 AM Sandburg Wing #8
"The Context for Developing a Spiritual Rhetoric"
Allan L. Ward, Ph.D.
There is a body of information relevant to the development of a spiritual rhetoric from which a theory or cluster of theories can evolve. The exploration of these areas can develop a "spiritual literacy" among the investigators, essential for having shared reference points. This paper looks at various studies, their interrelationships, and the context they provide for the development of a theory of spiritual rhetoric.
Allan L. Ward, Ph.D.-Professor of Speech Communication at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock; application of study has included business, education, government, religious, international, and social organizations.
128. THE PARLIAMENT OF THE WORLD'S RELIGIONS, CHICAGO, 1993
10:30 AM-11:00 AM Sandburg Wing #8 "Rhetoric and The Christian Order: A Historical Perspective" Omar Swartz
This paper explores the relationship between the classical study of rhetoric in Plato and Cicero and its Christianization by Saint Augustine in his De doctrina Christiana. The presentation will review the early Christian debate of what to do with Greek and Roman pagan culture. It will also review how proponents of a neo-Platonic and Christian rhetoric appropriated the Pagan Arts of Persuasion to serve in the apology of the Church, to aid in the interpretation of sacred texts, and to help in the proselytization of new converts. Omar Swartz-Doctoral student in Rhetorical Studies at Purdue
University; has contributed articles to the Encyclopedia of Rhetoric, Rhetoric Review, and The Pennsylvania Speech Communication Annual.
11:00 AM-11:45 AM Sandburg Wing #8 "Spiritual Topoi for Rhetorical Invention" Dr. James W. Crocker-Lakness
In Western rhetorical theory topoi are places to find material and forms for argument. Western rhetorical theory has viewed human communication from psychological, social, biological and other perspectives but has not seriously considered the spiritual dimensions of being human. This workshop proposes a definition of spiritual from Huxley's perenniel philopsophy, applies that definition to existing rhetorical topoi, and suggests new topoi more conductive to spiritual communication. Dr. James W. Crocker-Lakness-Professor of Communication, University of Cincinnati; member, Theosophical Society, Unitarian Universalist Church, and Religious Society of Friends; student of A Course in Miracles.
SESSION 11
2:00 PM-3:30 PM Sandburg Wing #8 "Moses, Muhammad, and Malcolm: African Americans in Judaism & Islam" Robert M. Dannin; Rabbi Hailu Moshe Paris; Jolie Stahl Over the past two centuries, many elements of black religious his tory have been ignored, suppressed, or destroyed. However, there is increasingly strong evidence of non-Christian traditions among African-Americans dating back to the colonial period. For example, approximately 15% of the slaves brought to North America came from Islamicized tribes and villages in West Africa. There were also converts to Judaism among plantation slaves in the West Indies. This presentation will explore how these religious traditions were perpetuated and transmitted to subsquent generations. We will also examine theological aspects of Judaism and Islam through the role played by Malcolm X in rekindling the themes of exodus and hijra in the African-American experience. The slide presentation will illustrate the contemporary culture of these communities. Robert M. Dannin- ethnologist and independent researcher; doctoral degrees in ethnolinguistics and socio-cultural anthropology from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris; specialist in ethnohistory of immigration and culture-contact; since 1989, he and Jolie Stahl have devoted themselves exclusively to Black Pilgrimage to Islam, an ethno-historical study of African-American Muslims." Rabbi Hailu Moshe Paris-born in Ethiopia and came to the US in
1936 and received a western Jewish education in Rabbi Wentworth Matthew's congregation in Harlem; M.A. in education, Yeshiva University; has taught in the New York public school system; mem ber of the Board of the American Association for Ethiopian Jews; presiding rabbi, Mt. Horeb Synagogue, the Bronx. Jolie Stahl-photojournalist and independent researcher; degree from Boston's Museum School of fine Arts; founder and co-director of a fine art print facility at Lexington, NY; photographs featured in an exhibition entitled, "The Interrupted Life" at the New Museum for Contemporary Art in New York City; since 1985, has concentrated on documentary photography of Muslims in the U.S. and around the world.