"A Dialogue of Civilizations" Book Signing Day with Dr. Jill Carroll
This book shows how perspectives from different times, locations and worldviews can still find deep resonance and yield points on which to engage dialog. This will be a time to dialogue and a time to learn… a platform to open minds to a rich discussion…
Lawrence, KS - infoZine - IIDSA is organizing a book signing event with Dr. Jill Carroll, Professor at Rice University in Houston,TX for her book "A Dialogue of Civilizations".
Dr. Carroll compares the the ideas of Turkish Islamic Scholar Fethullah Gülen with Western thinkers and philosophers such as Plato, Immanuel Kant, John Stuart Mill, Confucius and Jean Paul Satre on issues of inherent human value and moral dignity, freedom, human ideal, education and responsibility. This book shows there is still a place for dialog even in the case of such scholars that come from various backgrounds.
In A Dialogue of Civilizations, Dr. Jill Carroll provides a forum for interfaith dialogue through the progressive Islamic ideals of Turkish scholar Fethullah Gülen. Gülen, who is renowned worldwide for his work promoting education, cross-cultural dialogue and the reconciliation of science and faith, has spent his life thriving to solve societal and spiritual ills.
Gülen's theories are presented alongside those of well-known philosophers-Kant, Confucius, Plato, Sartre and John Stuart Mill-creating a discussion on basic humanistic subjects, such as inherent human value and moral dignity, freedom, human ideal, education and responsibility. Through this open conversation across time and culture, Dr. Carroll reveals the essential principles and deeply-held convictions that bind us all together, no matter what our religious beliefs are.
Dr. Jill Carroll is the associate director for the Boniuk Center for the Study and Advancement of Religious Tolerance at Rice University, as well as an associate adjunct professor in religious studies. She currently resides in Houston, Texas.
Quotes from the book…
Date: September 24th, 2009 Thursday
2:30 – 3:00 pm – Reception / Refreshments (Complementary)
3:00 – 3:45 pm – Dr. Carroll Presentation / Question & Answer Session
3:45 – 4:30 pm – Book Signing
4:30 – 5:00 pm – Social Time
Place: Alderson Auditorium, Kansas Union
Note: The book is NOW ON SALE at Book Store in Kansas Union and will be available for sale at the event.
"In today's world of global connectedness, we must develop the capacity to dialogue and create relatedness with people vastly different from us. Part of that project involves finding ideas, beliefs, purposes, projects, and so forth, on which we can achieve resonance with each other. That is we do not need to be the same, but we should find just enough similarity between us that, for a certain distance down the road, we can hold hands as fellow travelers in this life, all the while mindful of our differences in myriad ways."
"How could any resonance or dialogue exist between an atheist, on the one hand, a Muslim scholar, on the other? Why should we want there to be any dialogue between them? Atheists and theists, especially monotheists, commonly denounce each other and, thus, are not interested in dialogue. This however, is the very reason why such a dialogue must occur, even if in this case it occurs only in the pages of a book. The inherently free nature of human conscience virtually guarantees that atheists and monotheists, and all shades of belief or unbelief in between, will continue to exist in the world as they do now and probably always have. Mutual denunciations of atheists and believers do nothing but undermine peaceful co-existence in today's globalized and staggeringly diverse world. We can not afford to allow mutual denunciations to become or remain the norm among people who disagree on matters of belief. We must encourage dialogue even among those who have, or seem to have, nothing to say to each other."
"I am inspired by the engagement of ideas I have enacted here. I am not inspired because I agree totally with any one perspective presented here. Rather, I am inspired by the conversation itself and the possibilities that such conversations offer when conducted not only in the pages of a book but in real life with living participants."
This event is organized by Intercultural & Interfaith Dialog Student Association,
Co-sponsored by Institute of Interfaith Dialog and Raindrop Turkish House…
groups.ku.edu/~iidsa
www.interfaithdialog.org
raindropturkevi.org/kansascity/
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