Summit on Religion, Conflict, and Peacebuilding

Emory Summit on Religion, Conflict, and Peacebuilding

Sunday, October 21, 2007 | 2:00 p.m. | Woodruff Physical Education Center

The first Emory Summit on Religion, Conflict, and Peacebuilding examined whether the religions of the world can work together to reduce violent conflict and build peaceful, pluralistic societies. As we witness an escalation of global violence invoking religion, this question is more challenging than ever.

This conference featured one religious leader, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, in conversation with religious leaders from the Hindu, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim faith traditions.

How are these communities making peace differently, and how are they developing new models from their own peacemaking experiences—whether it be in Khartoum, Jerusalem, London, or Delhi? And how are people addressing this issue “on the ground” in cities and in neighborhoods? What are the best local peacemaking practices in places affected by religious violence? Can religion also be a source of community renewal and a force to promote the common good in such areas?

Participants (bios current in October 2007)

Rabbi David Rosen

Rabbi David Rosen is president of IJCIC, the International Jewish Committee that represents world Jewry in its relations with other world religions. He is director of the Department for Interreligious Affairs and director of the Heilbrunn Institute for International Interreligious Understanding of the American Jewish Committee. He is an honorary president of the International Council of Christians and Jews and an international president of the World Conference of Religions for Peace. In November 2005 Rosen was named a papal Knight Commander of the Order of St. Gregory the Great for his outstanding contributions to promoting Catholic-Jewish reconciliation.

Sister Joan Chittister

Sister Joan Chittister, OSB, is an author of thirty books, an international lecturer, and writer of “From Where I Stand,” a weekly column for the National Catholic Reporter. In addition, she is the executive director of Benetvision: Research and Resource Center for Contemporary Spirituality. A member of the International Committee for the Peace Council, she is a well-known activist in the areas of women in church and society, human rights, peace and justice, and contemporary religious life and spirituality. She is co-chair of the Women’s Global Peace Initiative. A member and past prioress of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie, she is past president of the Conference of American Benedictine Prioresses and the Leadership Conference of Women Religious.

Rajmohan Gandhi

Rajmohan Gandhi, the grandson of Mohandas Gandhi, is visiting professor in the Program in South Asin and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and faculty director of Global Crossroads, a learning and living community there. A former member of the the upper house of the Indian Parliament, he led the Indian delegation to the U.N. Human Rights Commission in 1990. He is a commentator in the Indian media and the author of several books. In 2002 he received India’s National Academy of Letters Award, the Sahitya Akademi, for Rajaji: A Life, a biography of Chakravarti Rajagopalachari (1878–1972), leading figure in India’s freedom movement and Governor General of India, 1948–1950.

Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na’im

Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na’im is Charles Howard Candler Professor of Law at Emory School of Law. An internationally recognized scholar of Islam and human rights and human rights in cross-cultural perspectives, An-Na’im teaches courses in international law, human rights, and Islamic law. His research interests include constitutionalism in Islamic and African countries and Islam and politics. He is currently writing a book tentatively titled The Future of Shari’ah: Secularism from an Islamic Perspective. His previ-ous research projects include women and land in Africa, Islamic family law, and Islam and human rights.

Laurie L. Patton, Moderator

Laurie Patton is past chair of the Department of Religion at Emory. She is co-founder of the Emory Initiative in Religion, Conflict, and Peacebuilding. She is at work on a book women and the study of Sanskrit in India, and another on the public role of the scholar of religion in the twenty-first century.