Religion Archives - Contemporary Humanism

INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE ORIENTED TO ENVIRONMENTAL CARE (Cecilia Sabato)

Dialogue is the way that mature humanity uses as a tool to solve its problems in almost all areas.

In order not to be misleading, dialogue must have its own rules; actually, it is necessary that the parties assume mutual respect for human dignity, freedom of expression, and respect for the environment as a fundamental criterion.

In this sense, interreligious dialogue is important because it is based on intentions of respect for the whole of creation.

Interreligious dialogue is part of the evangelizing mission of the Church and is intended as a method and means for mutual knowledge and enrichment. The real common element of religions is not the mystical experience but the salvific function. Hence the need for dialogue in order to know and welcome the salvific values that emerge in the various religious experiences.

However, Carlo Molari, theologist of interreligious dialogue, recommends to overcome the possible temptation to elaborate a theology of religions before engaging in dialogue within them. On the other hand, such a dialogue always requires a theology, which disposes to change and solicits conversion. The commitment to dialogue with other religions already implies in itself that the Church is exposed to challenges.

I remind the periodic interreligious meeting for peace which has been being held in Assisi since 1986, promoted by Pope John Paul II, as a clear manifestation of a trend in the Catholic Church of openness towards interreligious dialogue for peace and harmony among religions.

I shortly recall the Buddhist, Christian-Jewish and Islamic concepts of creation and environment and the relationship between human being and nature, being the care of the environment a common ground among those religions.

Buddhism is a didactic that deals with learning the way that leads to liberation from suffering. Buddhism represents the efforts of the whole of humanity to follow the original teaching regarding the path of liberation.

We can summarize that teaching in the following steps:

1) Do no harm;

2) Be benevolent, welcoming towards all beings;

3) Meditate deeply to get to know the depths of your heart;

4) Do not make your desire the yardstick of your choices, placing instead at the first place the adherence to the path of liberation from suffering, from human misery, which is a way of union with all human beings, with all creation.

In Buddhism, each component of the environment in which we live is called “the life I live”. Therefore, any behavior that is an aggression towards the environment, or towards my life understood in a broader sense, is an inconceivable behavior because it is equivalent to an action of self-harm from the point of view of the construction of the quality of life and, at the same time, an aggression against all other beings.

Responsibility towards creation is also fundamental within the Christian-Jewish vision of life; actually, at the second chapter of the book of Genesis we read: “The Lord God took man and put him in the garden of Eden to keep and cultivate it” (Gen 2:15). These two verbs are very significant, to solemnly codify the duty of safeguarding creation, providing a real biblical foundation of ecology and ecological culture and behavior. The story of creation continues with the breaking of harmony within man, woman and God relationship which also leads to disharmony between human beings and nature.

Christianity takes up and strengthens the messianic hope of either anthropological and ecological restoration, as a “new beginning” within human history via the incarnation of God in Jesus Christ, called the “new Adam”, precisely to indicate all the innovative power of His presence in history, capable of a re-foundation of the history on Earth, including a consequent ecological restoration.

Recently, Pope Francis has drawn two encyclicals that actualize the message of the incarnation of God in Jesus Christ in the sense just illustrated.

In the vision of Islam, God has given full trust to the human being by assigning the mission of taking care of humanity as well as of other creatures.

Islamic law includes the rules basing the relationship between human beings and the environment among the fundamental rights and duties. It obliges to save the environment and share it with others, as well as it guarantees everyone the right to stay in a clean and beautiful area where life might be possible in peace and dignity. This is a common feature with the biblical Old Testament and therefore with the Christian-Jewish vision.

In such a context, the Catholic Universities, as repositories of culture embedded in a religious background, may play a critical role in growing a more responsible attitude and ecological expertise for a healthier planet and more peaceful and fairer society. Interreligious dialogue should be a focus for its potential role in deepening, extending and strengthening the impact on the global society.

Bibliographic References

Molari C., Teologia del pluralismo religioso, Pazzini Editore, Ravenna 2013

Pope Francis, Laudato Si’(encyclical), 2015

Pope Francis, Fratelli Tutti (encyclical), 2020

Sacred text Buddism: Buddhist canon
Sacred text Judaism: Hebrew Bible

Sacred text Christianity: Christian Bible

Sacred text Islam: Quran

Cecilia Sabato is a PhD Student in Contemporary Humanism at Lumsa University (curriculum Education).

Paper presented at the Conference “Dialogo a tutto campo” organised by the Catholic Forum Roma.

Peter Howard – Flourishing and humanists in Renaissance Florence

Peter Howard, the Director of the Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry (IRCI) at the Australian Catholic University, gives a seminar on “Flourishing and Humanists in Renaissance Florence”. Click on the image to watch the video.

The Pandemic – an Intellectual Challenge

At least at our latitudes, the Covid-19 pandemic represented an absolute and radical novelty. Not even the most elderly among us, who have witnessed immense tragedies such as war, have ever experienced anything like this. In a short period of time everything changed under the threat of a terrible and invisible enemy: lifestyles, educational systems, the labor market, public policies, and international relations. Nothing seems to be the same as before: a new normal, still characterized by many uncertainties, has imposed itself on a global level. The whole world has been touched by it. In this sense, the pandemic represents a testing ground for intellectuals, who have posited novel interpretations of a radically new phenomenon based on pre-existing paradigms which have not always proven adequate. The round table – resulting from the collaboration between the University of Notre Dame Rome Global Gateway and the international PhD program “Contemporary Humanism” at LUMSA University – aims at drawing an early assessment of those intellectual attempts. In the awareness that the pandemic represents, in all respects, a challenge also for thought.

Time: Fri Sep 11, 2020, 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Location: Webinar and In-Person Event – Notre Dame University Rome Global Gateway

PANELISTS:

Vittorio G. Hosle – University of Notre Dame

Ferdinando Menga – Università degli Studi della Campania Luigi Vanvitelli

Francesco Valerio Tommasi – La Sapienza Università di Roma

MODERATOR:

Stefano Biancu – LUMSA Università di Roma – Doctoral Program in Contemporary Humanism

REGISTRATION REQUIRED

Le potenze dell’anima (Sebastian Schwibach)

Lo scorso febbraio, poco prima che scoppiasse la pandemia, usciva per l’editore Marsilio di Venezia la nuova edizione di Le potenze dell’anima. Vie alla riforma interiore. Dal disincanto al risveglio, saggio di Elémire Zolla pubblicato per la prima volta nel 1968.

La nuova edizione, curata dalla moglie e orientalista Grazia Marchianò nell’ambito dell’Opera omnia, consente al lettore di attingere ad un testo che, pur da molti anni fuori commercio, mantiene intatto il suo interesse per la contemporanea riflessione filosofico-religiosa. A prima vista non si direbbe certo un saggio di attualità, ma scorrendo le pagine ci si accorge che i problemi trattati dall’autore sono, proprio per il fatto di essere inattuali, di estremo interesse per il presente.

La prima parte si concentra sulla struttura della soggettività, analizzata da Zolla nelle sue parti costituenti, ovvero il corpo, la ragione, l’anima e lo spirito. Se l’essere umano medio si trova imprigionato tra le maglie della triangolazione corpo-ragione-anima, ovvero materialismo-razionalismo-sentimentalismo, è possibile individuare nello spirito o intelletto la possibilità di una liberazione dalle catene e di un’apertura ad una dimensione dell’umano extrasoggettiva ovvero impersonale. La seconda parte analizza tale possibilità passando in rassegna i modi in cui l’essere umano è stato suddiviso nelle varie culture. L’autore individua cioè le diverse modalità in cui nel corso della storia si è declinato il tentativo di riforma interiore, che trova il suo culmine nella vita intellettuale, ovvero in quella esperienza di trascendimento delle opposizioni binarie e di raggiungimento dell’Unità.

Chi era dunque Zolla e perché l’edizione dell’Opera omnia risulta di estremo interesse tanto nell’ambito accademico quanto per il lettore appassionato di filosofia e storia delle religioni?

Elémire Zolla (Torino 1926-Montepulciano 2002) è stato un intellettuale di spicco del secondo Novecento italiano. Oltre all’opera saggistica e all’impegno in iniziative culturali quali le attività presso l’Istituto Accademico di Roma o l’Istituto Ticinese di Alti Studi, si è dedicato a portare la cultura fuori dallo stretto circolo del mondo accademico attraverso la collaborazione con riviste e giornali quali ad esempio il “Corriere della Sera” o “Il Sole 24 ore”. L’interesse per la filosofia critica proposta dalla Scuola di Francoforte e l’esigenza di trovare una via di fuga dalla crisi della moderna società industriale lo hanno portato ad avventurarsi nello studio della mistica, con un movimento che da Occidente ha sempre più portato verso Oriente.

Ebbene, proprio l’intreccio tra critica della modernità e tentativo di trovare una via di uscita da tale impasse è uno dei punti di forza del pensiero zolliano, che al rigore metodologico affianca una inesausta passione per la verità. Mentre fioriscono gli studi contro il mondo della tecnica o a suo favore, mentre l’ambientalismo viene di volta in volta osteggiato o applaudito dalla società, mentre si cerca di individuare dispositivi economici atti a mitigare la dilagante crisi sociale, ambientale, finanziaria, Zolla dal recente passato indica una strada diversa, una via in interiore homine, una possibilità di riforma dell’interiorità prima ancora che della società. Solo a patto di non essere più automi e di seguire il motto delfico “conosci te stesso” fin nelle più desolate contrade della propria anima, solo a condizione di scendere nell’Ade della nostra interiorità per emergerne ricchi di esperienza e conoscenza, sarà possibile individuare i nodi che impediscono di vivere una vita degna di essere vissuta, una vita libera tanto dalle coazioni sociali quanto da quelle personali.

Questa è la strada che nella sua opera di poligrafo Zolla ci indica, una strada che continua ad arrivarci come un sussurro nel caos metropolitano.

Per ulteriori approfondimenti su Zolla clicca qui.

Sebastian Schwibach è dottorando in “Contemporary Humanism” (curriculum “Philosophy and Religion”).