At the Central European University hosted a three day conference on “Conflict in the sphere of the sacred: the differences between religions and within them,” according to the website of the University, says the Week.
“Conflicts between different religious communities or within these communities occurred with varying intensity throughout the history of mankind,” – said in the press release forum. – The position of one of the parties to the conflict was estimated and is often seen to this day from the point of view of conformity or non-conformity of the opponent’s truth.” Almost always one of the sides of the conflict thought about themselves in the categories of Orthodoxy opposed to heterodoxy (or heresy), in the categories of the sacred, rejecting the profane or blasphemous.
Since disputes relating to the different religious beliefs and customs, it is difficult to overlap with other areas of human activity (such as politics, culture, or social relations), then they form, as the scientists call it, a complex conflict. Such conflicts encouraged the peoples and rulers to work out a compromise position.
The main goal of the conference organizers was to provide a discussion platform for researchers who would like to share best practices in the field explore the historical, social and ideological consequences of religious differences, especially in the context of the growing pluralism and religious diversity of modern countries and peoples coexisting in the same area. The main of the forum were the following questions: What motives serve as the basis of religious beliefs of individuals and communities? How can believers use the provisions of their religion in the face of impending conflict? What is the basis of religious institutions? What is the role and significance of Orthodox and heterodox perspectives into inter-religious and intra-religious differences? etc.
The conference was attended by several dozen theologians, religious scholars, sociologists and historians from universities and research centres in Hungary, Romania, Austria, Portugal, UK, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Malaysia, Iran.
Plenary a report on “Religious systems and forms of warfare before the beginning of a New era in Western Christianity, Japanese Buddhism and some branches of Islam” was made by the famous specialist in the field of religious conflicts, Professor of religious studies of the University of Vienna Philip Beech. The conference was composed of seven thematic sessions.
One of the sessions called “the Area of customized solutions – private practice vs publicity” was entirely devoted to sectarian violence and manifestations of religious diversity in Hungary: “Interfaith confilct in the XVIII century in the region of Nograd”, “the suffering of the soul or action of Satan? The Protestant practice of expulsion of demons in the early modern times in Upper Hungary and Transylvania”; the followers of the pagan religion of Wicca or Neo-Wicca? Issues of religious practices and devotions in the Hungarian communities of the followers of the cult of Wicca”
Most of the message forum was related to the issue of the conflicts within Islam and conflict of radical Islamists from representatives of other religions (session, “Otherness in the cultures of the Middle East” and “Acceptance and rejection in modern Islam”), in particular:
“Zendik” as an epithet for the image of the “other” in the faith in Zoroastrianism, and Islam.
– Treatise of al-Ghazali “the Signs of the differences of Islam and clandestine unbelief” and a moderate approach to Takfir in Islam.
– Different practices Salafist-more than jihadi Jane ideology among radical Islamists of Malaysia.
– Interreligious dialogue in Indonesia: Concepts and ideas about confrontation and reconciliation between religions;
– Categorization of violence and the “religions” in the middle East: a comparison of narratives of “cultural” violence in Upper Egypt and “religious” violence in other regions of the Middle East, etc.
Two reports were devoted to understanding the experience of Orthodox Christians debate with his religious opponents in a different era. The first report called “Christians, Jews and pagans in Antioch: on the treatise “Proof against the Jews and the Gentiles that Christ is God”, atributiruemye John Chrysostom, the second is the interpretation of the differences between Orthodoxy and Islam in Greek apologetic and polemical anti-Islamic treatises from XVI-XVIIвв.
At different sessions of the scientific forum made a number of posts on various subjects:
– The dual nature of the essence of religious in mimetic theory;
The horror history in the film world, Mircea Eliade: the relationship between religion and violence.
–A religion without conflict? That would be a religion without conflict?
– Progress or degradation? The Hussite view of the history of the medieval Church;
– The religious dimension of ethnic conflict: the value of the religious component in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, etc.