Parliament of Worlds Religion 2009 Melbourne Australia

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

Page 284

PROGRAM D
Monday, December 7, 2009
will offer two unique solutions to this problem. Dr Babie will draw on both monotheistic and polytheistic traditions in arguing for a private property model which places community obligation in the hands of individuals who enjoy the protection of private property over goods and resources. Obligation thus becomes an individual matter of choice and decision. Mr Burdon will argue that private property is fundamentally anthropocentric, and drawing on the work of geologian Fr Thomas Berry, will present ideas from an emerging field of law termed Earth Jurisprudence.
Paul Babie is Associate Dean of Law (Research) at the Adelaide Law School. He is also Founder and Director of the University of Adelaide Research Unit for the Study of Society, Law and Religion, and a Ukrainian Catholic Priest. He holds a BA (Calgary). BThSt [Flinders), LLB (Alberta). LLM (Melbournel, and a DPhil in law (Oxford). Paul's research focuses on law and religion, the nature of religious law, and property theory.
Peter Burdon is completing his PhD in Law at the University of Adelaide School of Law. He holds a BA (Adelaide) and LLB hons (Adelaide). Peter's research focuses on an emerging theory of law called Earth Jurisprudence which seeks to develop legal theory to recognise that humans exist as integral, interdependent members of a single, comprehensive Earth community. Peter lives on Kaurna land in the Adelaide Plains with his wife and baby girl.
Judaism, Vegetarianism and Tikun Olam [Healing the World)
Thomas Kramer Room 215
Seminar
Modern agribusiness has degraded vast areas of the earth's ecosystems and contributed to climate change. A meat-based diet is a major factor in these potentially catastrophic developments. This session will establish a non-sectarian protocol for a harmonious, sustainable, well-fed world, based on the traditional Jewish philosophy of Tikun Olam or Healing the World. As an ancient religion, many of Judaism's rituals were integrated into the annual cycle of the seasons. This integration was reinforced by Genesis 2:15, where Jews were enjoined to be Shomrei Ha'adamah, Guardians of the Earth. Subsequently, through the millennia, Judaism developed a practical, ethical philosophy of healing the world and its peoples. This program will provide an exposition of the crises the earth faces and an analysis of the most efficient and economical means of restoring sustainability to the planet's degraded ecosystems while also facilitating the regeneration of impoverished communities throughout the world. Importantly, the program will be structured to ensure that activists/participants take the recipient community's culture and mores into full consideration. In particular, appropriate guidelines will be devised and implemented to respect Indigenous people who maintain their traditional way of life and have an abiding history of living in harmony with their environment.
Tom Kramer is a Chartered Engineer and an Honorary Associate of the University of Sydney, where he received his PhD in 1994 for research into Antisemitism and the Holocaust. He authored the book 'From Emancipation to Catastrophe: The Rise and Holocaust of Hungarian
280 PWR- Parliament of the World's Religions
11:30am-1:00pm
INTERRELIGIOUS SESSION
Jewry' and contributed ten articles to the publication 'Antisemitism: A Historical Encyclopedia of Prejudice and Persecution. A vegetarian for over 25 years, Dr Kramer was one of the three Foundation Convenors of the Sydney Jewish Vegetarian Society.
The New Archaic: Neuroscience, Spiritual Practice and Healing
Anne Benvenuti Elizabeth Davenport Glenys Livingstone Room 216 Interactive Workshop
This workshop will focus on the intersection of religious practice and neuroscience research. Participants will learn how neuro-networks in the brain relate to spiritual practice. The presenters will use experiential exercises and structured responses to illustrate the types of neurointegration related to spiritual practice. They will also present an overview of related neuroscience research and its implications for religious practice and will apply it to specific examples of religious practice from Indigenous, Eastern, and Western traditions. The global panel of presenters, from Pagan, Buddhist and Christian traditions, will also discuss the importance of listening to one another, especially as it relates to the healing of the earth. The workshop will emphasise spiritual practise as something that awakens us to the idea that we are all 'co-beings' with others, with the natural world, and with the transcendent.
Anne Benvenuti, PhD, is Professor of Philosophy and Psychology at Cerro Coso College, California, and Visiting Scholar at University of Chicago Divinity School and Georgetown University Medical School, Systems Medicine. A licensed psychologist trained in mind/body medicine, she has published on science and religion and is working on models of religious accountability. Benvenuti has personal experience over many years in three traditions: Buddhism, Christianity and Shamanism. She is also a naturalist and published poet.
Elizabeth Davenport is Dean of Rockefeller Chapel at the University of Chicago. She oversees religious life at the university, working with students, faculty and community leaders of all traditions. A native of England, she has a strong connection to Indigenous Celtic traditions and is ordained in the Anglican/Episcopal tradition. She holds BA and MA degrees in theology from Oxford University and a PhD in Religion and Social Ethics from the University of Southern California.
Glenys Livingstone holds a PhD in Social Ecology and an MA in Theology and Philosophy. She has Australian country roots and has trained as a teacher. Dr Livingstone has been academically and culturally involved in the resurgence of female sacred imagery for over thirty years. She is a celebrant of the annual seasonal rituals and author of PaGaian Cosmology. She lives in the Blue Mountains with her partner Taffy Seaborne.