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AN INVITATION
Faith and Reason: Living Faithfully in Our Changing Times (II)
August 24-September 18, 2009 Washington, D.C.
Context
The recent letter entitled “A Common Word” by 138 leading Islamic religious leaders and scholars and addressed to Christian leaders was a most creative initiative which all should heartily endorse. It brought forward in detail our shared beliefs, based in the Holy Qur’an and the Bible, regarding the one God, and implication for the brotherhood of humankind. It concluded with a call for cooperation in working toward justice for all. This echoed the words of the Second Vatican Council: “Oh behalf of all humankind, let them make common cause of safeguarding and fostering social justice, moral values, peace and freedom.”
The letter noted that “polite ecumenical dialogue between selected religious leaders” was not enough: “the very survival of the world is perhaps at stake.” This is a most urgent call for open, rigorous and creative work to bring the insights and inspirations of faith cooperatively to bear upon the dynamic of our world as we enter the new reality of intense global interchange.
The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy (RVP) has been intensively engaged in just such interchange, as witnessed by the following four initiatives in the last nine months:
(1) One month Seminar: “Faith and Reason in Islam: Living Faithfully in Our Day” March 1-31, 2008 in Washington. 10 Islamic scholars representing as many countries -- from Indonesia, across South and Central Asia, to the Middle East and Africa -- joined with local scholars for extended and intensive exploration. Their work will constitute a set of studies now in preparation for publication and distribution across the world in the RVP series “Cultural Heritage and Contemporary Change”. The participants also founded the International Society for Islamic Philosophy (ISIP) to continue this work and extend its globally.
(2) Conference: “Philosophy Emerging from Culture” July 27-29, 2008, co-sponsored by the ISIP and the RVP in Seoul, Korea.
(3) Panel: “Reason and Wisdom in Islam” in the World Congress of Philosophy sponsored by the ISIP and RVP, August 4, 2008, Seoul, Korea.
(4) Five week Seminar: “The Sacred and the Secular: Complementary and/or Conflictual in Global Times?”, September 15-October 17, 2008, which brought together scholars from many countries.
Challenges
This search for the proper role of faith in our times faces serious difficulties. On the one hand, modern times began with a strong effort to separate thought from its earlier philosophical and religious foundations as typified by Descartes’ universal doubt and Locke’s blank tablet. This has been reinforced by John Rawls’ early relegation of all religious and comprehensive vision behind a “veil of ignorance” as a condition for entering political discourse. As a result, on the one hand, the West has become so secular that it fears the religious inspiration it needs.
Response
On the other hand, Islam has stood strongly against the secular rationalism of the Enlightenment. But in the most recent times the need for religious voices has begun to be publicly acknowledged in such previously unexpected quarters as Jürgen Habermas and Nicolas Sarkozy. This new interest calls the religions to a renewed exploration of the relation between faith and reason, especially with regard to the role of religion in modern life. There is need to share experiences and insights and to think through how in the present context religious commitments by being lived more fully and deeply can contribute to cooperation between persons and peoples.
Building on the pattern of work cited above, the RVP plans to host another seminar on August August 24-September 18, 2009 on “Faith and Reason: Living Islam Faithfully in Changing Times (II).”
This will concern the renewal of attention to religion in these days. Especially it will focus on the application of the cultural and religious heritages of the Islamic peoples to their (and other’s) present efforts in these economically and culturally challenged times. Ten Muslim scholars will be invited from across the world to join with local scholars to discuss living faithfully in changing times, with implications for living together in the global context.
The seminar is projected to have the following characteristics:
Size: restricted to under 20 scholars in order to facilitate intensive interchange around a single table;
Interdisciplinary: in order to draw upon the contemporary capabilities of the various humanities and sciences and to penetrate deeply into the philosophical roots and religious meaning of cultures, and in particular of Islam;
Intercultural: to benefit from the experiences and commitments of the various Islamic communities from all parts of the world;
Focused: a single integrating theme in order to encourage a convergence of insights;
Duration: 4 weeks, in order to allow the issues to mature, the participants to establish a growing degree of mutual comprehension, and new insight to emerge;
Intensive: analyzing in detail a set of related readings and the papers written by the participants for the seminar.
Publication: the resulting volume -- consisting of substantive studies written by the individual seminar, participants, intensively discussed in the seminar, and then redrafted – will share this joint research with those working in the various cultural communities on similar topics around the world.
Application for Participation
Applications for participation in this seminar should be sent by email by Feb. 30, 2009, to cua-rvp@cua.edu and include:
(1) a vita describing one’s education, professional positions and activities,
(2) a list of the applicants’ publications,
(3) a letter stating your interest and involvement in this theme and the relation of participation in this seminar to your past and future work in philosophy and related studies, and
(4) an abstract of a study(s) you envisage presenting as an integral part of the seminar.
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