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ABSTRACTS
Les mathématiques et Dieu
Michel Cazenave
France
Ce n'est qu'à partir du moment où Pythagore a relié les mathématiques
avec le plan divin que ces dernières ont réellement commencé à exister,
en dépassant les simples mathématiques empiriques de l'Egypte et de la
Mésopotamie anciennes.
Dès lors, tous les grands mathématiciens ont conduit leur travail dans
un cadre mystique, depuis l'invention du calcul infinitésimal par
Leibniz jusqu'à la théorie des ensembles de Cantor et la "preuve"
logico-mathématique par Gödel de l'existence de Dieu.
C'est cette constante qui traverse les siècles qu'il s'agira
d'interroger, à moins de tomber dans l'incapacité à comprendre comment
les mathématiques peuvent rendre compte du réel (Cf. l'article de Wigner
sur "La déraisonnable efficacité des mathématiques")."
Repentance, Knowledge and Spirit. An answer to the idolatry of logic
Ioan Chirilă
Romania
In the unity of creation, the human being is the subject generating an
actual act of knowledge. Through this idea, we do not wish to eliminate
or annul the capacity of communication that other hypostasis also have.
We only wish to state that man accomplishes the act of knowledge in a
conscious and assumed way. But, with all that, his wisdom cannot embrace
everything in creation. And this is only one of the reasons for which
the Oriental spirituality poses as a first element in the restoration of
the human being, the repentance. We are speaking of repentance from its
understanding as metanoia to its understanding as a mystery of the
Church, as a work of the Holy Spirit: “And with that he breathed on them
and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they
are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven."” (Jn
20:22-23).
The general state of metanoia is, in the life of the human being, only a
continuation or an actualization of the kenosis of Christ (Phil 2:6 a.f.).
The act of knowledge takes a paradoxical form of accomplishment: it is,
on the one side, depletion, but, on the other side, it is filling, but
filling in the sense of incarnating and not in the sense of informal
deposit. This is why, in the Christian understanding, it is not enough
to make the psychoanalysis of our existence, of the behavioral science,
but a self willing and conscious participation to this continuation of
the kenosis of Christ is actually necessary. The act of knowledge which
results from such a spiritual experience will then be a unifying act,
restoring the action and reaction unity of the creation.
This process of restoration comprises two distinct levels: a first
historical level (immanent), and a second eternal level (transcendent).
On the historical level, the directing element is the development. On
the transcendent level, the epistemological structures of the immanent
are not disappearing, but they are finding their accomplishment in the
paradox of eternity.
From this perspective, the act of knowledge is not limited to reason, to
the spirit, but, as the Spiritual Fathers say, it is an act which brings
joy to the soul. In this manner, the psyche becomes the dwelling of
veritable, eternal knowledge, the knowledge in the Holy Spirit. This is
why the Oriental Christianity, through its spiritual models, through its
actual experiences, rightly states that the idolatry of the rational
human discourse and its imposition as a structure of expressing eternity
is an actual act of idolatry, an unacceptable apriorism, from both the
perspective of religion and science.
This is why we will conclude by saying that, from our perspective,
transdisciplinarity is not synonym to an escape from the limits of one
discipline or another, or an escape from the limits of disciplines in
general, but it is rather a way of transcending, through the Trinity, to
the paradox of eternity.
Reverence for Life and Spirituality
Predrag Cicovacki
USA
My presentation will rely on the work of Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965),
a philosopher, theologian, musician, and physician. In 1913 Schweitzer
left his academic and artistic career in Europe to open a hospital for
the natives in the heart of Africa. To the end of his life, Schweitzer
tried to develop in theory and enact in practice reverence for all life
(human, animal, and plant life). He argued that his reverence for life
is a response – and perhaps the only viable response – to the deep
spiritual crisis of our civilization. According to Schweitzer, every
civilization consists essentially of two components - the material and
the spiritual. Since the middle of the 19th century our civilization has
taken a decisive turn toward developing its material side, while
simultaneously neglecting its spiritual aspect. Schweitzer was convinced
that, coupled with the development of nuclear weapons and the increasing
environmental crisis, this development will be suicidal. Reverence for
all life is an attempt to deepen our appreciation for the spiritual
aspect of the existence and bring back to balance to composing aspects
of civilization. In my presentation I will examine in detail this
conception of reverence for life. I will affirm that, coupled with the
central ideals of the transdisciplinary movement, it indeed presents a
promising way of coping with our crisis.
Transforming the Human: Orthodox Theology and the Emerging
Technologies of Human Enhancement
Ronald Cole-Turner
USA
New and emerging technologies offer to modify human traits in a way that
"improves" or "enhances" human lives. Among the modifications might be
increases in cognitive abilities or in the length of the human lifespan.
The first section of this talk reviews some of these developments,
briefly summarizing the secular bioethics debate surrounding them.
Section two compares and contrasts the technologies of human enhancement
with the concept of theosis as developed by theologians from Irenaeus to
Staniloae. While there are striking similarities between such
theological and technological expectations, the fundamental differences
are also profound. On the basis of these differences, a theological
critique of the technologies of enhancement is offered in section three,
along with a few suggestions about how to live as a person of religious
faith in a culture of technology.
The Other Path in Science, Theology and Spirituality: Pondering a
Fourteenth Century Byzantine Model
Doru Costache
Australia
Representing an alternative to the modern split between science,
theology and spirituality, the Palamite legacy bears a cultural
significance that can be no longer avoided.
The paper will endeavour first to explore St Gregory Palamas’
understanding of the competences pertaining to, and rapports between,
theology and science. It will illustrate the balanced approach of
Palamas, who was both aware of the respective autonomies of the two
fields and capable to acknowledge their complementarity. For this
complex approach, the author considers Palamas a precursor of the
transdisciplinary epistemology. Second, the paper will point out the
spiritual consequences of the creative interaction between the
scientific and theological perspectives, as represented within the
Palamite demarche.
Along with reviewing the relevant passages in St Gregory, the paper will
finally undertake to evaluate the significance of the major turn
recorded in recent Palamite scholarship with reference to St Gregory’s
attitude toward science.
Problems of Calendar Reform and Easter Determination and One
Proposition of Serbian Orthodox Church, Elaborated by Djordje Stanojević
Milan S. Dimitrijević,
Serbia
From the second half of XIX century, a number of serbian scholars and
astronomers were dealing with the question of the reform of Julian
calendar. Different propositions for reform of the calendar of the
Orthodox Church gave for example 1865. Tatomir Milovuk, 1866. Mojsije
Pajić, 1898. Ljubomir Uzun-Mirković, starting from 1892. On several
occasions astronomer and physicist Djordje Stanojević, founder of
Belgrade Astronomical observatory Milan Nedeljković, and in the same
year professor of secondary school Maksim Trpković, аnd 1905 Petar Tipa.
On the Congress of Orthodox Churches in Constantinopolis in 1923, the
proposition for the reform of serbian astronomer Milutin Milanković was
adopted.
The first serbian astrophysicist, the second director of Belgrade
Astronomical Observatory, astronomer who was crucial person for the
electrification of Serbia, the author of the first color photography in
Serbia Djordje Stanojević addressed to Serbian Orthodox Church in 1892,
a proposition for the reform of Julian calendar. In the year 1908, he
published in several parts in the journal of Serbian Church (Vesnik
Srpske Crkve) the larger study „The uncorrect Easter celebration in
Orthodox Church and the calendar reform“, which published also as a book
in the same year. He offered in the same time to the french journal
L'Illustration his article with the proposition for the calendar reform.
The journal published only a short extract from the text. Unsatisfied
with this, Stanojević published in Paris the article offered to the
journal as a small book “Le calendrier normal”.
In this article we will discuss the disputes in the Church on the
question which date Easter should be celebrated, known as Paschal/Easter
controversies, activities of Djordje Stanojević concerning calendar
reform and the determination of Easter date, as well as the similar
activities in Russia in XIX century. We will discuss in particular the
divisions about Easter date determination in early Church history, the
views of so called "quartodecimans", "protopaschites" and others who
contributed to Paschal controversies as well as the decisions of the
First Council in Nicaea.
Works on calendar question of Djordje Stanojević, will be reviewed as
well. We will also discuss Stanojević’s criticism of Gregorian calendar
and its proposition to Serbian Orthodox Church in 1892, for the reform
of Julian calendar which will put in correct form all rules of Orthodox
Church for the paschal calculations.
The question of Julian calendar reform in Russia in XIX century will be
also considered. Namely Imperial Academy of Sciences proposed to adopt
Gregorian calendar in 1830 what was refused by emperor Nikolaj I.
Proposition from 1864 of professor Medler, director of Astronomical
observatory in Dorpat (today Tartu in Estonia) similar to that of
Stanojević, and various attempts in Russia for the Julian calendar
reform will be discussed.
At the end, the attempt of Stanojević to propose in France a universal
calendar based on the reformed Julian calendar will be exposed.
Scriptural Literalism and Science-related Issues in Contemporary
Islam
Nidhal Guessoum
United Arab Emirates
The issues arising from the encounter of Islam with Modern Science have
so far been examined by thinkers mostly at the conceptual level. Yet the
area where such interactions more largely and practically take places is
that of the continuous discourse and exchange between religious scholars
and the general public, and this area, though in plain sight, has not
been investigated almost at all. When one looks at it, one immediately
finds the discourse largely characterized by a literalistic approach.
In this talk, I wish to present a preliminary overview of the subject. I
will first need to examine “literalism” as a religious approach,
conceptually, historically, etc. Then I will focus on science-related
issues currently being addressed in very literalistic ways by many
Muslim religious scholars and preachers in their general-public
discourse. I will look closely at two topics as examples of that
approach: (a) the question of the determination of Islamic months and
holy occasions; (b) the issue of evolution (biological and human).
In the last part of this effort, I will present an alternative to the
literalistic modus operandi, the “Maqasidi” (objectives-based) approach,
which was introduced by Islamic jurists many centuries ago and has seen
some revival lately, especially by Muslim scholars living in the west
who find themselves forced to go beyond literalism in attempting to
solve the novel problems and issues that they have to face. I will show
how the principles and methods of the Maqasidi school greatly help
resolve the frictional issues confronting today’s Islam in light of
modern scientific developments.
Science and Theology: What Does it Mean to Speak About a Dialogue?
Christopher C. Knight
UK
It has been customary to speak about a "dialogue" between science and
theology, but this phrase is open to a number of misconceptions. This
talk will focus on why a dialogue is possible, why the hierarchy of
levels of complexity in the cosmos necessarily makes it asymmetric, and
why the concept of "integration" – usually seen as an alternative to
dialogue – is not so much an alternative to dialogue as a proper goal,
albeit one that can never be completely attained. It will be argued that
the essentially apologetic approach of many of the leading figures in
the dialogue over the last half century has restricted the dialogue
unnecessarily, and that the concept of "transdisciplinarity" – as
developed within the Romanian dialogue in recent years – represents a
useful way of breaking out of the restricted agenda that has been
dominant. My own view of divine action will be used as an example of the
broader approach to dialogue that now seems possible.
Transcendence, Divinity, Infinity, Nothingness
Solomon Marcus
Romania
Our aim is to reach a better understanding of the representations of
Divinity in various cultural and spiritual traditions. These
representations display a large variety of semiotic procedures, covering
the whole typology of signs, as it was described and analyzed by Ch. S.
Peirce and his followers. A common feature of all representations of
Divinity is the presence of infinity. On the other hand, infinity
displays, in its turn, a rich typology, mainly revealed in the last 150
years. In the old times, the only distinction made by researchers was
that between actual and potential infinity, but only the latter was
used; the former was usually rejected. A natural question arises: How
looks infinity, as it was considered in various religious traditions,
when we try to look at these traditions through the glasses of
contemporary mathematics? In a further step, we ask how this
contemporary view on infinity influences our way to understand
transcendence. Our last issue is to focus attention on the correlation
between infinity (mainly under the form of totality) and nothingness,
another concept unavoidable when referring to Divinity.
The Evolution of Religion: Adaptationist Explanations
Michael Murray
USA
Some recent scientific accounts of the origin of religion have argued
that religion is an adaptation. On one major account, religion is
adaptive because the prospect of supernatural punishment deters members
of the group from cheating or failing to cooperate with other group
members. This paper explores this view and raises crucial difficulties
for it.
Hidden Theological Commitment in Modern Cosmology or the Universe as
Saturated Phenomenon
Alexei V. Nesteruk
UK and Russia
The research applies methods of phenomenological philosophical theology
to the subject matter of modern cosmology (the universe as a whole) in
order to explicate hidden theological commitment laying in its
foundation. In this approach the dialogue between theology and science
follows a route of a so called “radical orthodoxy” movement which
asserts faith-like commitments in all aspects of human activity. However
we accentuate those aspects of knowledge of the universe which have
strong connotations with the Eastern Orthodox stance on the universe in
conjunction with its teaching on humanity as image of God and
soteriology. These aspects include: 1] apophaticism in knowledge of the
universe as linked to the identity of the divine humanity (following
from the radical incommensurability of humanity and the universe in
spite of their consubstantiality); 2] a soteriological connotation
between the search for the identity of the universe (for example its
beginning) and the restoration of the archetypical prelapserian memory
of “all in all”; 3] an anthropological shift (transfiguration) implied
in knowledge of the of the universe as a whole (as related to its
other-worldly origin) through metanoia and eucharistic experience. In
contrast to knowledge of the universe in physical cosmology which is
based in the discursive mode of the human subjectivity, the hidden
theological commitment in cosmology reveals the universe as a saturated
phenomenon which constitutes human subjectivity to the extent that this
subjectivity is incapable to embrace the universe in rubrics of sheer
reason. Cosmology thus represents not only a structural presentation of
the universe but the explication of forms of subjectivity embodied in
the world, as a mode of communion with God through the universe.
Where We Go from Here?
Basarab Nicolescu
France and Romania
Closing talk
Spirituality in Transdisciplinarity Experience for Sustainability
María Cristina Núñez
Mexic
The conference addresses some issues that describe the place of
Spirituality in our Transdisciplinarity Re-Learning Experience for
Sustainability at the University of Veracruz.
(1) How do we understand spirituality within the aim for sustainability?
As a dimension of human beings -and not only humans but also all natural
systems-, that connects us with wholeness without mediation of other
dimensions or levels (physical, mental, emotional). Spirituality means
profound connection with creation and life.
(2) Sustainability through the consciousness of a general ecology, that
is the recognition that we are part of a larger whole, that means the
evolution of a spiritual dimension that reinforces our commitment to
life and its preservation, to health, harmony, balance, wholeness, and
diversity. A commitment that rests on a deep sense of the sacredness of
life expressed as love, nurture, creativity, wonder, faith and justice.
(3) Transdisciplinarity Re-Learning Process as a transformative
experience (healing process and self-transformation) where the
individual opens to the permanent questions and the reflexive dialogues
within different levels of Reality to approach the paradox of
complexity. This process implies a permanent awareness that allows us to
incorporate the sacred and spiritual dimension in the main process of
knowledge and praxis and to break the static disciplinary meanings and
the multiple dualities, subject/object, reason/intuitive, mind/body.
This process allows us to transcend the rationalistic attitude that
leads us to shelter in the certainties and in the authoritarian
structures of control and domination.
(4) The dialogue with the cosmology and rituality of Ancient Mexican
Philosophy, alive in many of the cultural practices today in our
country, is a core in this relationship between spirituality and
transdisciplinarity re-learning experience for sustainability.
Petre Tutea: Science as Doxology – A Romanian Master of the Socratic
Dialogue between Science and Spirituality in the Contemporary World
Alexandru Popescu
UK
Dr Petre Tutea (1902-1991) was an outstanding Romanian economist and
diplomat who spent almost half of his life as a political prisoner of
conscience under the Communist rule. During the process of Soviet
re-education in the Romanian gulag (1948-1964), his experience of
torture led him paradoxically to re-affirm the Judeo-Christian vision of
humanity as created in the image and likeness of God. However, his
testimony was not that of conceptual apologetics, but of informed and
joyous affirmation.
He had the highest respect for all human disciplines. Yet he viewed
methodological intelligence and techniques as being incomplete. He
believed that all human activity is informed by a higher discernment,
one that is ultimately sustained and penetrated by the divine mystery.
According to Tutea, there are two generic and to some extent
complementary levels at which human reason may function: (1) that of
inquiring reason, in which a search for scientific knowledge is
initiated by the human mind (when its limitations are not recognized,
this form of reason may be susceptible to a phenomenology of the
diabolic); and (2) that of acquiring reason, in which theological
knowledge is communicated by grace to the inspired seeker.
Tutea’s doxological vision of the dialogue between science and religion
- which he unfolded to younger friends in Socratic fashion in the parks
and cafes of Ceausescu’s Bucharest (1964-1989), and later in his
interviews after 1989 – resembles John Templeton’s pursuit of
open-minded inquiry and his approach to the bio-psycho-social-spiritual
aspects of human existence. This paper seeks to articulate Tutea’s
understanding of the whole person through inter- and trans-disciplinary
dialogue, political enquiry, aesthetic sensitivity, personal creativity,
and spiritual awareness.
Socially Robust and Personally Relevant Knowledge Creation
Antonio Carlos de Azevedo Ritto
Brazil
The scientific model of assessing the truth is the most successful model
of production and formalization of knowledge. It includes cooperation,
complementarity and synergy. However, this model's success allows the
illusion of a unique vision of the world. It fortifies and is fortified
by the globalization process, and suffocates the cultural diversity
making the life poor, mainly away of the big cities, where the
globalization eliminates many characteristics, leaving nothing that
sustains a common life. From the same science, it emerged the quantum
physics that questions many of the axioms and concepts of the classical
physics, especially the objectivity, the continuity, the determinism and
the locality that, more than supporting the scientific model, it touched
the political and the social thought.
Traditional knowledge on the spiritual, religious and philosophical
levels, which are part of the multi-logic paradigms of the organization
of feeling and thinking, has been marginalized as non-true. In the same
way, non-formal cultural principles that govern our vision of the world
and command the selection of significant data and refuse non-
significant data are ignored too.
Can we think about a new social deal between society and science that
could consider the subject and represent the openness of science to the
contexts of application of knowledge, both on the research aims and on
their results, with great participation in the real world for the
production of socially robust and personally relevant knowledge?
Contextualization is the process that, with no loss to the current
practices of production of safe and reliable knowledge (knowledge valid
in certain and controlled laboratory conditions) includes the production
of socially robust knowledge (knowledge valid outside the laboratory
because it is tested in cases of real social contexts). To be personally
relevant, the knowledge needs to conspire to the widening of a person’s
perception in his cultural context and allow the understanding and the
multicultural exchange as the result of the interaction of many systems
principles, many cultural values, heterogeneous conceptions of the
world, of life, of the reality.
We search a production of knowledge that, respecting the scientific
practices, considers the singularity, the common sense, and searches the
evolution of the person from the simple to the complex, from the
material and concrete towards the abstract and the spiritual, that
considers the problems of the natural world, but that includes questions
related to the integration of the subject with the universe.
Evolution et Foi chrétienne
Jean Staune
France
Le darwinisme envisage les êtres vivants comme le résultat d'un
bricolage, comme des assemblages de structures qui se sont agrégés les
unes aux autres au cours de l'évolution en fonction des besoins
rencontrés par les ancêtres des organismes actuels et qui ont permis de
sélectionner chacun de ces différents organes en fonction de leur
utilité à une période donnée. Mais une autre vision de l'évolution
existe selon laquelle les organismes ont leur cohérence et leur logique
interne.
Pour cette vision, dite structuraliste, les organismes sont comme des
cristaux de neige (qui, quelque soit leur forme, ont une structure sous
jacente identique: elle a toujours 6 branches). Le structuralisme a
débuté avec Goethe et Geoffroy Saint Hilaire. Pendant longtemps, il fut
éclipsé par les succès du darwinisme.
Mais depuis une dizaine d'années des résultats de pointe issus des
dernières découvertes de la génétique et de la biochimie ont redonné une
profonde crédibilité à cette approche.
Nous présenterons ici l'effet sur lequel peut se baser une nouvelle
théorie structuraliste de l'évolution. Si elle ne prouve rien par elle
même, elle est, comme nous le montrerons, bien plus compatible avec une
conception non matérialiste du monde que le darwinisme.
Romania as Laboratory for the Dialogue between Science and Religion
Magda Stavinschi
Romania
Eight years have passed since Romania has initiated for the first time
the dialogue between science and religion in an Orthodox and
post-Communist country. We are about to bring to and end the third
project under the aegis of John Templeton Foundation, namely “Science
and Orthodoxy. Research and Education”. I will try in this exposition to
present the fact that the experience earned in all this time, starting
with extensive research programs or courses and continuing with a vast
number of books and the first review of studies and research of
“Transdisciplinarity in Science and Religion”, proves that Romania can
be considered with good reason a laboratory for South-East Europe and
that we are able to extend this dialogue between science and
spirituality on a much larger scale.
La finalité du Réel
Mihail Şora
Romania
Deux types de relations (connaissables) avec le réel : le « pourquoi
(a-t-il lieu) » et le « à quoi (sert-il) », auxquelles s’ajoute une
autre, concernant le sens dernier du réel, sa finalité globale. La
question liée à la finalité ultime du réel et à sa Cause première ne
relève ni du domaine de la théorie, ni de celui de la pragmatique ; elle
a sa propre autonomie (interne, pour ainsi dire), de même qu’elle a ses
propres formulations (mises en discours) et réponses. Celui qui est (naturellement)
immergé dans une communauté épistémologique ne pense pas (spontanément)
devoir aller explorer la philosophie ou le religieux pour rendre compte
de ce qu’il découvre. Comment donc – aujourd’hui – mobiliser le
religieux dans le domaine épistémologique ? Comment se déploie une
textualité scientifique qui n’est pas de type interprétatif ? Et si l’on
envisageait le savoir exact autrement que comme résolution de problème ?
C’est la relance de la question qui nous intéressera ici : régression
dans le fondement, exploration d’une signification plus proche du cœur
de ce qui fait énigme depuis les débuts de l’humanité.
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