Opening Symposium: Religions and Dialogue among
Civilizations
[24 March, Thu., 13:30-17:30]
Religions and the Dialogue among Civilizations
The Brazilian Challenge
Maria Clara BINGEMER
(Professor, Pontificia Universidade Catolica do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
| Outline The aim of my lecture is to consider what it means in the concrete for religions to live together in mutual respect and to grow together in dialogue. I will draw my example from the religious situation in Brazil. Given the rich plurality of religious practices, the variety of institutional and non-institutional forms, the liberal degree of syncretism, it is difficult to say anything meaningful on the topic without narrowing the focus somewhat. I will therefore concentrate on Roman Catholicism and its rapprochement with Afro-Brazilian religious traditions. The religious cults of African origin that have been preserved in Brazil represent the clearest, if not the only, remaining link of the Afro-Brazilians to African culture. This has been possible because of the flexibility of these religions in adapting to the Brazilian situation—simplifying the rituals, minimizing the role of the sacred caste, and even outfitting the Gods in new dress. More important, these cults were able to adjust their distinctively African content and synchretize it to the very different sociohistorical conditions of Brazil. The result was a new black identity with a more or less African quality ("africanidade"). Despite the adaptation of the Afro-Brazilians to Brazilian culture and their obvious influence on it, color remains a barrier: a reminder not only of different racial origins but of the slave trade that first brought them to the country. This is the background against which Brazil's Christian (predominantly Catholic) culture encounters the Afro-Brazilian religions. It is not just a question of finding a way to live amicably side by side, but a challenge to inaugurate dialogue between what are, in fact, different civilizations. I will attempt to focus on a number of positive attempts to meet this challenge and at the same time to highlight the suffering caused by exclusivism and violence. In conclusion, I will indicate some of the paths for dialogue open to religions with different civilizations: listening, interchange, and spirituality. |
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Prof. Bingemer's many publications, mainly in Brazilian and English, include some fifty books and hundreds of articles and academic essay, including Em Tudo Amar e Servir [In All Things to Love and to Serve] (Saõ Paolo, Loyola, 1990), O Segredo Feminino do Mistério [The Feminine Secret of the Mystery ] (Petrololis, Vozes, 1991), Alteridade e Vulnerabilidade. Experiencia de Deus e Pluralismo Religioso no Moderno Em Crise [Alterity and Vulnerability: The Crisis in the Experience of God and Religious Pluralism Today] (Saõ Paolo, Loyola, 1993), Deus-amor: graça que habita em nós [The God of Love: Indwelling Grace] (Saõ Paulo/Valencia, Paulinas / Siquem, 2003), and A argila e o espírito: Ensaios sobre ética, mística e gênero [Clay and Spirit: Essays on mystical ethics and gender] (Rio de Janeiro, Garamond, 2004). |
Maria
Clara Lucchetti Bingemer is Director of the Centre of Theology
and Human Sciences, and Associate Professor in the Department of
Theology at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil. She completed her doctoral studies in systematic theology
at the Pontifical Gregorian University of Rome in 1989. Her expertise
in Catholic theology, combined with a longstanding interest in Ignatian
spirituality and the writings of contemporary spiritual figures
such as Edith Stein and Simone Weil, has formed the foundation of
her reflections on the contemporary spiritual situation in Brazil
and the world at large. In addition to lecturing widely throughout
Brazil and Latin America, she has published extensively on mysticism,
feminism, and religious pluralism.| Prof. Susumu Shimazono, President of the JARS Congress
Secretariat of the 19th World Congress of IAHR Department of Religious Studies, Faculty of Letters, University of Tokyo 7-3-1, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan 113-0033 TEL: (81)3-5841-3765@ FAX: (81)3-5841-3888 E-mail address: iahr@l.u-tokyo.ac.jp Congress website: http://www.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/iahr2005/ |