Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, International Conference on Comparative Religions: Challenges of the Presentand Prospects for the Future, 21-22 October 2009
Preamble
The need for religious dialogue
Human civilizations must coexist in a context of communication and mutual respect and recognition. Nevertheless, such a coexistence has nowadays noticeably been characterized by tension, which some describe as the ‘clash of civilizations'. The causes of this tension are intrinsically related to the defective understanding of religions, on the one hand, and, on the other, to the lack of knowledge about religious thought, and other religions altogether. Hence, the crucial part religions play in the dialogue between civilizations.
Comparative Religions: towards a scientific approach to understanding religions
The need for an insightful scientific approach to the understanding of religions is imperative and an approach aiming at a diagnosis of the situational areas of cultural tension, and at a possible remedy for all cultural clash aspects, must be adopted. In this regard, it seems needless to recall the significance of the comparative perspective, given what it actually provides in helping understand various aspects of different religions. The introduction of this discipline into our universities proves to be a vital need, given its important part in promoting the sense of diversity and tolerance.
Comparative Religions, or history of religions as referred to by some scholars, is one of the fields of knowledge which profited very early from a particular audience among Muslim scholars. In Europe, however, this science was born only at the end of the 19th century. It is undeniable that the contribution of the comparison of religions, with a new conceptualization of its history, is of capital importance. This is especially true in view of the fact that one of the principal objectives of the constitution of this new science is to foreground the basis for general principles, as well as methodology of research in the area, through the answer to the fundamental question: how to explain the obvious correspondence between religious facts pertaining to different cultures? So, for this purpose, one must rely on critical edition, philology, archaeology, psychology anthropology, sociology, and the study of old languages. Thus, various approaches to religions appeared, related to ethnology, German historical ethnology, phenomenology, and psychology.
Comparative Religions: Actual State and future prospect
Whereas the largest European and American universities are hosting studies and research on comparative religions, this discipline is quasi-absent in the Arab and Muslim world where interest in this research and study area in very restricted. This international conference, organized by the Master's Program "Semitic Studies and Comparative Religions" aims mainly at the development of an awareness about the significance of such a discipline among both students and scholars within the framework of dialogue and exchange. It also intends to make the public sensitive to the importance of comparative religions, and attempts to give a new opportunity to this discipline which witnessed its golden age among Arab thinkers in the 9th century and whose writings and research became universally known.
Axes proposed