'THE USES
AND ABUSES OF RELIGION'
Day Conference Saturday 23rd November 2013
Speakers:
Anthony Gimpel, Sushma Sahajpal and Mohammad Talib
Purpose
and aims:
Exploring the positive and negative
contributions the major religions have made in world history:
religion as
something which traps and enslaves,
religion as inspiration and empowerment,
religion as inspiration and empowerment,
religion as
community-building and life-enhancing.
What might be
the value of an approach
like that of
the Sea of Faith Network?
Speakers and
Abstracts:
From
Sacrifice to Forgiving
Anthony is a Jewish Quaker (or a
Quaker Jew), the descendant of a Priestly family, and therefore entitled to
perform the daily sacrifices in the Temple in Jerusalem. Delving into his
experience he will describe a change from an outward act performed to an
external deity to an inner process guided by an inward divine being, the
importance of forgiving.
'Clarifying Uses and
Abuses of Religious Faith:
Notes of a social anthropologist from the Muslim world'.
Mohammad Talib is Fellow in Anthropology of
Muslim Societies,
Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies.
‘ “Muslims live and express their faith in diverse contexts.
‘ “Muslims live and express their faith in diverse contexts.
Their religious
and ritual practices follow from custom,
tradition,
institution, politics (local national, and
international). The
multiple expressions of believers'
encounters and
experiences offer material to examine
how Islamic faith
in the real world bear prints of the
sacred word, the
secular world, and the blend of the two in
existential
encounters. I would draw upon observations and
recollections from
this background to develop a sense of use
and abuse or
something beyond the simple dichotomy.
Sanatan Dharma: The Potency of Religious Paradox:
Blocks & Boundaries to the Ever-flowing Way
Sushma Sahajpal is the Founder of Connectar
Creative
of
belonging, belief & community across School
Enrichment
Days, Teacher’s Conferences & Interfaith
Events.
She is a member of the RE:Online Expert Panel
and
serves on the NASACRE Executive.
Hindu philosophy & practice (Sanatan Dharma)
with its multiplicity of paths, practices & paradoxes on the personal,
communal & cosmological scales offers rich, accessible material for
exploring ‘religiosity’ in all its shades and levels. I hope to use this
material to examine the potency of religious paradox (such as the simultaneous
need for boundary & transcendence, exploration & faith, etc) and what a
powerful force for use and abuse it can be.
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