Over four days, our 20 plus speakers – philosophers and theologians, historians and writers, believers and non-believers – will consider what it means to be religious, and what role the voice of faith may legitimately have in the conversations of citizens in a multicultural, democratic state and the community of nations. On Sunday, two keynote lectures from distinguished international guests each consider challenges posed by – and to – faith in the building of modern communities. Their lectures will be followed by panel discussions with local and international guests. In a panel discussion following Dipesh Chakrabarty’s address, the conversation will open up to include Sundhya Pahuja, a professor from Melbourne Law School (concerned with the relationship between international law and institutions and the question of global inequality), writer and poet Barry Hill. Justice Susan Crennan, a former Commonwealth Commissioner for Human Rights, will be participating chair. For the full text of this lecture plus transcripts and recordings of the series, visit our Faith and Culture archive.

Faith and Culture: The Politics of Belief

The Voice of Faith in National Identity: Speaking From India: Dipesh Chakrabarty: Panel Discussion

Over four days, our 20 plus speakers – philosophers and theologians, historians and writers, believers and non-believers – will consider what it means to be religious, and what role the voice of faith may legitimately have in the conversations of citizens in a multicultural, democratic state and the community of nations. Following his keynote lecture on ‘The Voice of Faith in the Conversation of Citizens’, Stanley Hauerwas will be joined by Anglican Archbishop Philip Freier, Kristina Keneally, to challenge and examine his conclusions and assumptions, with Morag Fraser as participating chair. For the full text of this lecture plus transcripts and recordings of the series, visit our Faith and Culture archive.

The Voice of Faith in the Conversation of Citizens: Stanley Hauerwas: Panel Discussion

Over four days, our 20 plus speakers – philosophers and theologians, historians and writers, believers and non-believers – will consider what it means to be religious, and what role the voice of faith may legitimately have in the conversations of citizens in a multicultural, democratic state and the community of nations. On Sunday, two keynote lectures from international guests each consider challenges posed by – and to – faith in the building of modern communities. Their lectures will be followed by panel discussions that open up the conversation. Bernard Avishai is the final keynote speaker of the Faith and Culture series, talking about Jewish identity in the Hebrew republic of Israel. He is one of the world’s most respected commentators about Israel and the Middle East conflict and has published on the subject in the New York Review of Books, the New Yorker, the Nation, Harpers and New York Times magazine. Following his keynote address, Avishai will be joined by a panel of local writers and thinkers. The panel will include Geoffrey Brahm Levey, foundation director of the UNSW Program in Jewish Studies and Arnold Zable, president of the Melbourne Centre of International PEN. John Baker, a graduate of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and president of Ameinu Australia, a roof body for moderate Zionism, will be participatory chair. For the full text of this lecture plus transcripts and recordings of the series, visit our Faith and Culture archive.

Jewish Identity in the Hebrew Republic: A Voice from Israel: Bernard Avishai: Panel Discussion

Over four days, our 20 plus speakers – philosophers and theologians, historians and writers, believers and non-believers – will consider what it means to be religious, and what role the voice of faith may legitimately have in the conversations of citizens in a multicultural, democratic state and the community of nations. Across Saturday, three keynote lectures from distinguished international guests each consider the challenges posed by – and to – faith in the building of modern communities. Following the three lectures, all three keynote speakers will be in discussion with each other, exchanging and challenging one another’s views. To launch the day’s talks, one of Britain’s most eloquent advocates of multiculturalism, Tariq Modood, will explore the links between religious belief and a multicultural society. Appealing to the idea of a ‘multiculturalism of hope’, Modood brings his expertise in ethnic minorities, and UK Muslim communities in particular, to bear. In the Guardian he wrote, ‘Respect for religion and moderate secularism are kindred spirits and are sources of hope for a multiculturalism that gives status to religious, as to other, communities’. For the full text of this lecture plus transcripts and recordings of the series, visit our Faith and Culture archive.

The Voice of Faith and the Challenge of Democratic Multiculturalism: Tariq Modood

Over four days, our 20 plus speakers – philosophers and theologians, historians and writers, believers and non-believers – will consider what it means to be religious, and what role the voice of faith may legitimately have in the conversations of citizens in a multicultural, democratic state and the community of nations. On Sunday, two keynote lectures from distinguished international guests each consider challenges posed by – and to – faith in the building of modern communities. Their lectures will be followed by panel discussions with local and international guests. First, ground-breaking social historian Dipesh Chakrabarty will explore the voice of faith in national identity, speaking from the perspective of India. Chakrabarty’s book Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference investigates how and in what sense European ideas labelled ‘universal’ are in fact drawn from very specific intellectual traditions. He is one of the founders of subaltern studies, a field that draws on the idea that peasants may play a positive role in effecting social change in ex-colonial countries. In a panel discussion following Chakrabarty’s address, the conversation will open up to include Sundhya Pahuja, a professor from Melbourne Law School (concerned with the relationship between international law and institutions and the question of global inequality), writer and poet Barry Hill. Justice Susan Crennan, a former Commonwealth Commissioner for Human Rights, will be participating chair. For the full text of this lecture plus transcripts and recordings of the series, visit our Faith and Culture archive.

The Voice of Faith in National Identity: Speaking From India: Dipesh Chakrabarty: Keynote

Over four days, our 20 plus speakers – philosophers and theologians, historians and writers, believers and non-believers – will consider what it means to be religious, and what role the voice of faith may legitimately have in the conversations of citizens in a multicultural, democratic state and the community of nations. Across Saturday, three keynote lectures from distinguished international guests each consider the challenges posed by – and to – faith in the building of modern communities. Following the three lectures, all three keynote speakers will be in discussion with each other, exchanging and challenging one another’s views. In ‘Faith, Multiculturalism and the Community of Nations’, UK multiculturalism advocate Tariq Modood, Pakistan-raised Quar’anic scholar Asma Barlas and US moral philosopher Susan Neiman will discuss their keynote addresses, in a fascinating meeting of minds, with Shakira Hussein as participating chair. They’ll talk about the links between religious belief and a multicultural society, the relationship between Islam and contemporary Europe, and the importance of reason in public life. For a recording of this lecture plus transcripts and recordings of the series, visit our Faith and Culture archive.

Faith, Multiculturalism and the Community of Nations: Panel Discussion

Over four days, our 20 plus speakers – philosophers and theologians, historians and writers, believers and non-believers – will consider what it means to be religious, and what role the voice of faith may legitimately have in the conversations of citizens in a multicultural, democratic state and the community of nations. Launching our four-day weekend, series curator and acclaimed philosopher Raimond Gaita will deliver the opening keynote address. Throughout the series, after each keynote, we will be offering an opportunity for discussion and exchange, with many sessions accompanied by panels and rebuttals from other thinkers and speakers. Following his agenda-setting lecture ‘The Voice of Faith and Public Reason’, Gaita will be joined on the stage by Scott Stephens, Asma Barlas, Susan Neiman, and Bernadette Tobin to tease out his ideas, opening up the debate more widely. For the full text of this lecture plus transcripts and recordings of the series, visit our Faith and Culture archive.

The Voice of Faith and Public Reason: Raimond Gaita

Over four days, our 20 plus speakers – philosophers and theologians, historians and writers, believers and non-believers – will consider what it means to be religious, and what role the voice of faith may legitimately have in the conversations of citizens in a multicultural, democratic state and the community of nations. Across Saturday, three keynote lectures from distinguished international guests each consider the challenges posed by – and to – faith in the building of modern communities. Following the three lectures, all three keynote speakers will be in discussion with each other, exchanging and challenging one another’s views. Too often in the public debate around religion, reason and rationality are lumped in together as a singular concept, one opposing force to faith. The third of our Saturday lectures will, in some way, redress this balance. Susan Neiman is a moral philosopher and long-time champion of the importance of reason in public life. Director of the Einstein Forum in Potsdam – one of Europe’s most important centres of intellectual and cultural innovation outside the university framework – Neiman studied philosophy at Harvard and the Free University of Berlin, and taught philosophy at Yale and Tel Aviv Universities. She will present a lecture on the ‘Challenge of Reason in National and International Politics’. For the full text of this lecture plus transcripts and recordings of the series, visit our Faith and Culture archive.

The Voice of Faith and the Challenge of Reason in National and International Politics: Susan Neiman

Over four days, our 20 plus speakers – philosophers and theologians, historians and writers, believers and non-believers – will consider what it means to be religious, and what role the voice of faith may legitimately have in the conversations of citizens in a multicultural, democratic state and the community of nations. Our Friday night keynote address presents the man Time magazine nominated as ‘America’s Best Theologian’. Stanley Hauerwas has been described as ‘contemporary theology’s foremost intellectual provocateur. His depth charges are just as frequently aimed within that world as outside it.’ Whether he is writing about war and peace, medical ethics or the care of the mentally ill, Hauerwas combines unnerving intensity and plain speaking with intellectual subtlety and moral and religious depth. Following his keynote lecture on ‘The Voice of Faith in the Conversation of Citizens’, Hauerwas will be joined by Anglican Archbishop Philip Freier, Kristina Keneally, to challenge and examine his conclusions and assumptions, with Morag Fraser as participating chair. For the full text of this lecture plus transcripts and recordings of the series, visit our Faith and Culture archive.

The Voice of Faith in the Conversation of Citizens: Stanley Hauerwas: Keynote

Over four days, our 20 plus speakers – philosophers and theologians, historians and writers, believers and non-believers – will consider what it means to be religious, and what role the voice of faith may legitimately have in the conversations of citizens in a multicultural, democratic state and the community of nations. Across Saturday, three keynote lectures from distinguished international guests each consider the challenges posed by – and to – faith in the building of modern communities. Following the three lectures, all three keynote speakers will be in discussion with each other, exchanging and challenging one another’s views. Following on from Modood’s exploration of the challenges of democratic multiculturalism, distinguished scholar and outspoken public intellectual Asma Barlas delves further into the relationship between Islam and contemporary Europe. Born and raised in Pakistan, Barlas was one of the first women to join the foreign service. However, she was dismissed on the orders of the country’s military ruler for her criticism of him, and eventually received political asylum in the US. Barlas has written and spoken eloquently against Western misreadings of the Qur’an, and passionately against Islamic misreadings that would appear to justify the oppression of women. For the full text of this lecture plus transcripts and recordings of the series, visit our Faith and Culture archive.

The Voice of Faith in Islam's Challenge to Europe: Asma Barlas

Over four days, our 20 plus speakers – philosophers and theologians, historians and writers, believers and non-believers – will consider what it means to be religious, and what role the voice of faith may legitimately have in the conversations of citizens in a multicultural, democratic state and the community of nations. On Sunday, two keynote lectures from international guests each consider challenges posed by – and to – faith in the building of modern communities. Their lectures will be followed by panel discussions that open up the conversation. Bernard Avishai is the final keynote speaker of the Faith and Culture series, talking about Jewish identity in the Hebrew republic of Israel. He is one of the world’s most respected commentators about Israel and the Middle East conflict and has published on the subject in the New York Review of Books, the New Yorker, the Nation, Harpers and New York Times magazine. Following his keynote address, Avishai will be joined by a panel of local writers and thinkers. The panel will include Geoffrey Brahm Levey, foundation director of the UNSW Program in Jewish Studies and Arnold Zable, president of the Melbourne Centre of International PEN. John Baker, a graduate of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and president of Ameinu Australia, a roof body for moderate Zionism, will be participatory chair. For the full text of this lecture plus transcripts and recordings of the series, visit our Faith and Culture archive.

Jewish Identity in the Hebrew Republic: A Voice from Israel: Bernard Avishai: Keynote

Over four days in June 2012, our speakers – philosophers and theologians, historians and writers, believers and non-believers – will consider what it can mean to be religious, and what role the voice of faith may legitimately have in the conversations of citizens in a multicultural, democratic state and in the community of nations.

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Faith and Culture: The Politics of Belief

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