Religious faith and spirituality in their many manifestations constitute an important basis of our society. Spiritual experiences pick up several traits of religions while transforming them in a critical way. A mainstream variant considers nature to be the crucial agent, an initiative and self-acting energy bringing forth everything according to the potentials essentially inherent in the cosmos and in creatures. In contrast to science, nature is attributed a power which conveys salvation and acts for the benefit of individuals, their self-unfolding and self-actualisation, also with respect to moral development, while refusing extrinsic norms and values. This kind of spirituality draws on Aristotle, other Western philosophies of nature as well as Asian traditions. Spirituality is part of many disciplines like educational theory, philosophy, psychology (of religion), art theory, but also of the natural sciences; it has manifold variations and affects the understanding of ethics and values. In addition, polarising positions such as those held by New Atheists, Fundamentalists and modern Satanists can be observed. In many, especially European, countries all this triggers public debates.
The seminar aims at examining this kind of spirituality on the basis of significant examples, putting them forward for discussion and identifying common roots. It will also critically evaluate the best ways of coping with the diversity of religious and spiritual views while avoiding radical tendencies. Finally, we will ask under which circumstances these tendencies and widening views could and actually do contribute to a more tolerant society with experience-based values.
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Clemens SEDMAK
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FD Maurice Professor of Moral and Social Theology, Department of Theology and Religious Studies, School of Humanities, King's College London | |
Chair | |
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Michael VON BRÜCK
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Professor of Religion, Faculty of Protestant Theology, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich | |
Chair | |
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FD Maurice Professor of Moral and Social Theology, Department of Theology and Religious Studies, School of Humanities, King's College London
| | Studies in philosophy, Theology, Social Theory and Development Theory at the University of Innsbruck, the ETH Zurich, at Maryknoll, NY and the University of Linz |
| 2001-2005 | Chair for Epistemology and Philosophy of Religion, University of Salzburg |
| since 2005 | FD Maurice Professor for Moral Theology and Social Theology, Department of Theology and Religious Studies, School of Humanities, King's College London |
| | He has been visiting professor at the Jomo Kenyatta University in Nairobi, at the Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines, at the University of Notre Dame (Indiana) and at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City |
Professor of Religion, Faculty of Protestant Theology, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
| 1975 | Dr. theol. at the University of Rostock in Systematic Theology, Topic: Possibilities and Limits of a Theology of Religions (Karl Barth und Rudolf Otto) |
| | Research Paper in Philosophy of Religion: "New Tendencies in the Philosophy of Religion of USSR" |
| 1980-1982 | Habilitation: Advaita and Trinity. Indian and Christian Experience of God in Dialogue of Religions |
| 1981-1985 | Visiting Professor at Gurukul Lutheran Theological College, Madras |
| | Research Fellow at Dept. of Philosophy of the University of Madras Organizer and Director of a Program for Interreligious Studies and Dialogue |
| 1983-1985 | Study of Philosophy of Mahayana-Buddhism at Gaden Mahayana Monastic University (Karnataka) and in Dharamsala, India Study of Tibetan Buddhism in Ladakh, Zanskar and Sikkim |
| 1988-1991 | Professor of Comparative Religion, Philosophical Faculty, University of Regensburg |
| 1990-1998 | General Editor of the Journal Dialog der Religionen, (Chr. Kaiser/Gütersloher Verlagshaus), Gütersloh |
| since 1991 | Chair of the Interdisciplinary Religious Studies Program at Ludwig Maximilians University Munich |
