James Earl presents at the International Religion and Spirituality Conference, Chicago, February 2011

26/02/2011

James Earl of the Department of Humanities, Social Sciences & Communications attended the International Religion and Spirituality Conference, held at the University Centre in Chicago Illinois, from Tuesday 15th February to Thursday 17th February 2011.

James presented a paper proposing a model for teaching comparative religion, based on his experience teaching RLG 300 (Comparative World Religion) at Richmond. A student who enrolls on a mathematics course is unlikely to say they ‘have their own math’, whereas the student of comparative religion has almost certainly either a religious belief, or attitude toward religion such as agnosticism or atheism. James’ paper looked at the question of our own beliefs and how they ‘sit’ with the study of belief itself. He proposed an existential approach which allows the expression of personal belief.

The paper was very well received, and debate with faculty at other universities around the world was fascinating, discussing both theory and practice in a wide range of different settings, and diverse cultures.

Other presentations included papers examining Islamic schools or madrasas; discussing empathy as a concept within different religions; analysing the Buddhist practice of mindfulness meditation from a Foucault perspective; using MacIntyre’s concept of rationality to understand inter-faith dialogue; critiquing Christian libertarianism; exploring a Christian abstinence group’s attitudes to gender; proposing a typology of spiritual experience; and many, many others.

The three days were extremely stimulating, and it was fitting that Richmond, with its 100 nationalities and students from all the world’s major faiths, contributed to the dialogue,

The snow was still 2 feet deep but the ‘Windy City’ was as beautiful, and cultured, as ever.

Link to this page: http://www.richmond.ac.uk/n/1064.aspx