Parliament of Worlds Religion 2009 Melbourne Australia

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

Page 240

PROGRAM DES
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Designated in Newsweek's 2009 list as the most influential rabbi in the United States and described in a Washington Post profile as 'the quintessential religious lobbyist on Capitol Hill, Rabbi David Saperstein represents the national Reform Jewish Movement to Congress and the Administration as the Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.
Joseph Prabhu is a Professor of Philosophy at the California State University at Los Angeles and the President of the Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy. He is also the author of 'Human Rights in CrossCultural Perspective' and 'Liberating Gandhi: Community, Empire and a Culture of Peace' [forthcoming). He is a Program Task Force Chair and Trustee of the Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions.
Dr Chandra Muzaffar is a political scientist and founding president of the Malaysian-based NGO International Movement for a Just World (www. just-international.org), which seeks to raise public consciousness on the moral and intellectual basis of global justice. He also served as the first director of the Centre for Civilisational Dialogue at the University of Malaya. In addition to writings on civilisational dialogue, he has published. extensively on religion, human rights, Malaysian politics and international relations.
Mihir Meghani is the co-founder and President of the Hindu American Foundation, an American Hindu human rights group advocating on behalf of the Hindu community in the United States.
Christopher Key Chapple is Doshi Professor of Indic and Comparative Theology at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angetes. He received his PhD in the History of Religions from Fordham University. A founding member of the Forum on Religion and Ecology (Yale University), Chris has published more than a dozen books on the religions of India, many with a focus on Hinduism and Ecology. He edits the journal 'Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology' (Brill).
A member of the Mescalero Apache tribe, Ines M Talamantez is a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Professor Talamantez is the author of 'Teaching Religion and Healing and has contributed articles to Native Religions and Cultures of North America: Anthropology of the Sacred', and 'Unspoken Worlds: Women's Religious Lives. The past president of the Indigenous Studies Group at the American Academy of Religion, she is a pioneering figure among American Indian scholars.
Brian D Lepard is Law Alumni Professor of Law at the University of Nebraska College of Law, where he has taught International Human Rights Law, among other courses. A member of the Baha'i Faith, he is the author of numerous books and articles on human rights, ethics, international law, and world religions, including the book "Hope for a Global Ethic: Shared Principles in Religious Scriptures'.
The Dhamma Brothers
(Premier Film Series Selection)
Room 107
Film
The Dhamma Brothers' is a moving story of transformation. Men held in an overcrowded maximum security prison in Bessemer, Alabama, are forever changed by a meditation program. 'The Dhamma Brothers' has been described as a film where 'East meets West in the Deep South, an apt portrait of what happens to a number of hardened criminals who volunteer for a ten-day Vipassana retreat. The film was directed by Jenny Phillips, Anne Marie Stein, and Andrew Kukura. Q & A to follow.
236 PWR- Parliament of the World's Religions
INTERRELIGIOUS SESSION
Who is My Neighbour? Religious Identity and the Limits of Love
Michael Fagenblat
Ruwan Palapathwala
Room 108
Panel Discussion
11:30am-1:00pm
During this panel discussion, we will explore how Jews, Christians and others relate to people who are different from them, particularly in terms of religious identity. The Bible commands us to 'love thy neighbour, but as a Jewish lawyer once asked Jesus, who is my neighbour? Is the neighbour someone like us? Or is he or she a stranger to us? How far does our love have to go? The panel, consisting of a Jew and two Christians, will reflect on how we have practised, and still do practise, the commandment to 'love thy neighbour', and on what the idea demands of us in today's world. This will be an interactive program and audience members will be invited to share their perspective on the merits and problems involved in loving our neighbours.
Michael Fagenblat is Lecturer in the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation, Monash University, and convener of the Masters in Interreligious Studies, Monash University. His first book, 'A Covenant of Creatures: Levinas' Philosophy of Judaism, is forthcoming from Stanford University Press. He is interested in the interaction between Judaism and other cultures.
Dr Ruwan Palapathwala lectures in Asian Religions and Religion and Culture in the United Faculty of Theology, the Melbourne College of Divinity, and at Trinity College, the University of Melbourne. He is also the part-time Parish Priest of St Alban's Anglican Parish, North Melbourne, Australia. He is interested in globalisation, religious traditions of South and Southeast Asia, and religion and culture.
Global Ethics and Religion Forum - Religion and the Future of Humanitarian Intervention in a Sustainable and Just World
Joseph Runzo Brian Lepard Gerard Powers Dan-Erik Andersson Seamus Miller Antje Jackelén Room 110 Symposium
This is Panel #3 in the 'War and the Role of Religion in a Just and Sustainable World' Symposium.
Dr Joseph Runzo is Executive Director and President of the Board of Directors of the Global Ethics and Religion Forum, an educational nonprofit dedicated to global ethical responsibility. He has written and lectured extensively around the world on comparative religion, religious ethics, human rights and the ethics of war and peace. He is Professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Chapman University, USA, and a Life Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge University, UK.