AN INVITATION

THE ANNUAL SEMINAR 

The Sacred and the Secular:

Complementary or Conflictual in Global Times?

        September 15-October 17, 2008                                                                Washington, D.C.

Meeting times: M/W/F 9:00 am ? 12:00 noon

Meeting place: CSCV seminar room, Gibbons Hall B12

Seminar Description:

Through a detailed analysis of selected texts, prepared presentations and discussion, we will attempt to analyze and better understand the relationship between the secular and the sacred throughout history, but particularly in our own global time. By the end of the course we will seek to express a new paradigm with respect to the relationship between the secular and the sacred, as a contribution to the development of their complementary potential for our times.

Seminar Objectives:

1.  To discover ways in which secular (rather than secularist) concerns may be integral to the religious project.

2.  To explore the emerging sense of Gadamer, Ricoeur, Habermas, Taylor and others that religious traditions bear key grounds for human comity, both domestic and global. 

3.   To develop a new paradigm suggested by this for the global unity of the diverse civilizations in our ?post-modern? world.

Seminar Structure:

Within the context of our single integrating theme: ?The Secular and the Sacred: Complementary or Conflictual in our Times??, the participants in the seminar will constitute an effective working team meeting regularly in order jointly and progressively fulfil the seminar objectives and to produce a volume of substantive studies to be published by The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy (RVP) in its 200 plus volume series ?Cultural Heritage and Contemporary Change?. 

Specifically, the seminar will meet from September 15 ? October 17, Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings, 9.00 am ? 12.00 noon in the CSCV seminar room, Gibbons Hall B12. 

Each participant will present at least one paper to the group. The paper should be rooted in one or more of the above texts and can/should include a relation to each presenter?s cultural situation and contribution to our topic. This paper would then be developed and submitted to Professor McLean for publication consideration. Additionally, participants will present summaries of the readings in order to introduce our discussions.

 Selected Bibliography:

Charles Taylor, A Secular Age (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard UP, 2007)

Juergen Habermas, ?Religion in the Public Sphere,? Lecture given as the recipient of the 2005 Holberg Prize in Norway. You can read this here.

Christopher Dawson, ?Religion and the Life of Civilization,? In Dynamics of World History (Wilmington Delaware: ISI Books, 2002), 119-36.

John Rawls, Political Liberalism, (New York: Columbia UP, 1994)

John Rawls, ?The Idea of Public Reason Revisited?, The University of Chicago Law Review (Summer 1997 64.3), 765 ? 807.

Mircea Eliade, The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion, (New York: Harcourt, 1987).

Hans Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method, 2^nd revised edition (New York: Continuum, 2003)

George F. McLean, Hermeneutics, Tradition and Contemporary Change, (Washington, DC: Council for Research in Values and Philosophy, 2003)

George F. McLean, ?Communication between Cultures and Convergence of Peoples: The Role of Hermeneutics and Analogy in a Global Age.? Communication across Cultures: the Hermeneutics of Cultures and Religions in a Global Age (Washington, DC: The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy, 2008), chapter 1.

Seminar Meetings and Themes:

Week I:

Monday, September 15:

Introduction: individual introductions and hopes for/contributions to the seminar.

Discussion of: Christopher Dawson, ?Religion and the Life of Civilization?

Wednesday, September 17:

Professors Hsien-Chung Lee (Taiwan) and Alois Agus Nugroho (Indonesia) present: Taylor, A Secular Age, pgs. 1-22

Professor Peter Collins (USA) presents: Taylor, A Secular Age, pgs. 505-13

Professor Debika Saha (India) presents, Taylor, A Secular Age, pgs. 720-26

Friday, September 19:

Professors Agustín Domingo Moratalla (Spain) and Hippolyte Ngimbi Nseka (Congo) present Taylor, A Secular Age, pgs. 22-54

Professor Arifa Farid (Pakistan) presents Taylor, A Secular Age pgs. 146-58

Week II:

Monday, September 22:

Professor Gadis Arivia (Indonesia) presents: Taylor, A Secular Age pgs. 159-71

Professor Agustín Domingo Moratalla presents: John Rawls, Political Liberalsm, selected sections.

Wednesday, September 24:

Professor Plamen Makariev (Bulgaria) presents: John Rawls, ?The Idea Public Reason Revisited?

Professor Debika Saha presents: Juergen Habermas, Religion in the Public Square, pgs.2-6.

Friday, September 26:

Visiting guest Professor Karim Crow: ?Materialism and the Muslim Reply Thereto?

Professor Peter Collins: ?Martin Buber on the Sacred and the Secular?

Week III:

Monday, September 29:

Professor Arifa Farid: Habermas, Religion in the Public Square, pgs. 6-9 ?Translation?

Professor Ngimbi Nseka Hippolyte: Gadamer, Truth and Method, pgs. 265-71 Prejudgment

Wednesday, October 1:

Professor Debika Saha: Gadamer, Truth and Method, pgs. 277-85 Authority and Tradition

Professor Plamen Makariev: Gadamer, Truth and Method, pgs. 362-379 Logic of Question and Answer

Friday, October 3:

Professor Hsien-Chung Lee: ?The Sacred and the Secular: Complementary or Conflicting in the Global Era: A Chinese Perspective.?

Professor Alois Agus Nugroho: ?Philosophy Expanding to a Global Horizon?

Week IV:

Monday, October 6:

Visiting guest Professor Holger Zaborowski: Discussion on Habermas?s religiocity

Professor Agustín Domingo Moratalla: ?The Hermeneutical Age of Morality: Translating religion into the public sphere without mentioning God? and On Paul Ricoeur

Wednesday, October 8:

Professor Hsien-Chung Lee: Habermas, Religion in the Public Square, pgs. 9-14 ?Roots of Religion?

Professor Alois Agus Nugroho: Eliade, The Sacred and the Profane, chpt. 1

Professor Plamen Makariev: Eliade, The Sacred and the Profane, chpt. 2

Friday, October 10:

AM

Professor Arifa Farid: ?The Sacred and the Secular: Iqbal?s Ideology of a Muslim State?

Visiting guest Professor Abdolkarim Soroush: "The Sacred and the Secular from Islamic Perspective" 

PM

Visiting guest Professor William McBride: The International Federation of Philosophical Societies

Week V:

Monday, October 13:

Visiting guest Professor Archpriest Alexander Abramov of the Russian Orthodox Church: "The Sacred and the Secular from Orthodox Perspective" 

Discussion of the New Paradigm: Professor George F. McLean:

Possible texts: McLean 2008a, ?A Philosophical Paradigm for Global Times? and McLean 2008b, ?Communication Between Cultures and Convergence of Peoples: The Role of Hermeneutics and Analogy in a Global Age?

Wednesday, October 15:

Professor Debika Saha: ?The Concept of the Sacred and the Secular ? An Indian Perspective?

Professor Plamen Makariev: ?Self-Consistent Liberalism and the Sacred?

Friday, October 17:

Professor Sjef Donders: ?God in a Globalized World?

Professor Ngimbi Nseka Hyppolyte: ?Which Form of the Sacred Can Save/Redeem Us??

Concluding Discussion