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Complementarity of the Secular and the Sacred,
Suggestions in the Encyclical of Pope John Paul II: Laborem Exercens
June 11-12, 2007 Warsaw, Poland
Theme:
Today we are challenged to build a new and richer life. As we enter a global age we need to draw upon the cultural resources of both our intensively religious heritage and the progressively secular strains of a modernity that seems now to be passing away. To do so conjointly we need to find ways to substitute dialogue for debate in order to elaborate a new solidarity in which each can not only have a place, but engage and promote each other.
One of the great Polish examples of such an effort was that of John Paul II in his Encyclical on work: Laborem Exercens. Marxists heard in it the deeply humane concerns of Marx, philosophers considered it an effort to bridge the Cartesian split between body and Spirit, religious people thought it the every day reality of Incarnation and Redemption.
The present workshop will explore its indications and implications for a secularity that is open to the full dimensions of the human and for an engaged religion that adds meaning, purpose and commitment. The search is for a new sense of unity and collaboration, and this not only for a rapidly changing Poland with its stalwart past, but for cohesion in the newly global age upon which we enter.
For this the workshop will continue the joint effort begun in the mid 1970s by Dialectics and Humanism (now Dialogue and Universalism) and The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy (www.crvp.org) with the encouragement of then Cardinal Karol Wojtya. It will seek to apply this to the present national challenge of uniting all persons—good and wise, religious and secular—in a cooperative effort for the common good.
Structure:
June 11
AM: Statement of the Contemporary Challenge
a. 9.00 – 10.30 Challenges for Religion
b. 1100--12.30 Challenges for Humanism
PM: Response of Laborem Exercens
a. 2.00—3.30 From a Secular Viewpoint
b. 4.00—5.30 From a religious Viewpoint
June 12
AM Poland: Solidarity of the Secular and the Religious for the Common Good
a. 9.00—10.30
b. 11.00--12.30
PM IV Relation of the Religious and the Secular for Peace and Progress in Global Times.
a. 2.00—3.30
b. b. 4.00--5.30
Contact:
Janusz Kuczynski and George F. McLean
jkuczynski@uw.edu.pl; mclean@cua.edu
Photos
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