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IOP
representatives attended 2005 IAHR World Congress
The
19th World Congress of the International Association for the History of
Religions (IAHR) was held in Tokyo, Japan from March 24 to 30, 2005.
The IAHR was founded in 1950, and has grown to 42 national and 6
regional member association and societies as well as 4 affiliated
societies, reflecting the international and global character and scope
of the association. The IAHR, which holds world congresses every five
years, seeks to promote the activities of all scholars, members and
affiliate associations and societies contributing to the historical,
social and comparative study of religion. The IAHR Congress in the
year 2005 will coincide with the 100th anniversary of the scientific
congresses in the History of Religions discipline. It also marks the
75th anniversary of founding of Japan Association for Religious Studies
(JARS).
More than 700 from overseas and 800 researchers and scholars from Japan
participated in this event, and exchanged ideas from various field. The
theme of the 2005 Congress was “Religion: Conflict and Peace,” which
addresses one of the most urgent issues of our time which is widely
discussed in academic circle today. The Congress was divided into 5
sessions. The first session’s sub-theme was “The Religious Dimension of
War and Peace,” the second was “Technology, Life, and Death,” the third
was “Global Religions and Local Cultures,” the fourth was Boundaries
and Segregation,” and the fifth was “Method and Theory in the Study of
Religion.”
The Conference is basically concerned with religion and power. Religion
is also associated with political power in either an implicit or
explicit manner, which provides another important aspect of study.
Religion may serve as an identity marker in the maintenance of ethnic,
social or political stability. But it can also serve as an identity
marker in conflict of such nature. Religion does not have to be the
cause of, or a contributing factor to, violent conflict between social
groups. Religion and religious ideology can also serve to regulate
social violence. At the same time of cold war, religion was often
regarded as a constructive factor that could contribute to the
stability of peace. On the other hand, increasing expectations are
evident of resolving conflict through dialogue between civilizations.
The opening symposium on the afternoon of the same day focused on the
theme of “Religion and Dialogue among Civilizations.” Professor of the
University of Tokyo and Director of JARS Susumu Shimazono and other 4
panelists gave their presentations. One of the panelists, Tu
Weiming, director of Harvard-Yenching Institute, USA, gave a keynote
address titled “Toward a Dialogical Civilization: Religious Leaders as
Public Intellectuals.” In his address he said, “A lofty aspiration of
the public intellectual—politically concerned, socially engaged and
culturally sensitive—is world citizenship. In our globalizing age, the
cultivation of world citizenship is predicated on the emergence of a
dialogical civilization. Such a civilization is humanistic and
spiritual.”
Following his address, Karel Dobbelaere, professor at Catholic
University of Leuven, Belgium spoke on “The Dialogue among Civilization
through the Sociology of Religion.” His wife, Voyé Liliane, professor
at Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium gave a speech titled
“Nationalistic Aspects of Policies of Some European Governments
Concerning Religious Matters.” Moreover, as a study of SGI, Helen
Waterhouse from Open University, UK, presented a research paper on
“Second Generation of Soka Gakkai in the UK,” and Sybille Hoehe from
Philipps-University, Germany spoke on “Soka Gakkai and the Distillation
of “Value” in the Japanese Education system.”
8
IOP Research Fellows also attended the symposium and shared their
ideas from various fields such as studies on the Lotus Sutra, Chinese
Buddhism and the study of Daisaku Ikeda's works. Tamae Manzoku, the
overseas IOP
Research Fellow spoke on “Transforming the Concept ‘Laïcité’ in
Modern French Society: The Issue of Headscarves in Public Schools."
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