Mar 27-29, 2009
Are wars caused by religion or by believers? Is Marxism a belief system or a religion? Why did Jesus sweat blood before his execution while Socrates joked with his executioner? Is pure science closer to religion or to belief? What do knowers believe—as knowers; what do believers know—as believers? Kierkegaard called for a “leap of faith,” but why did he imply there might be nothing there? Such questions reveal what most historians of religion know but is commonly overlooked: there is a sharp distinction between religion and belief and that to confuse the two is to misunderstand the nature of both. This program will take an inside look at the multifaceted act of belief and weigh the multiple definitions of religion. Aristotle said that knowledge begins with wonder. The goal of this weekend is to discover whether it also ends in wonder.
Click if you would like to read an article we published in our newspaper The Center Post.
James Carse is Professor Emeritus of Religion at New York University, where he taught for 30 years and consistently received the university’s Distinguished Teaching Award. His most recent book is The Religious Case against Belief. He also wrote Death and Existence, The Silence of God, Breakfast at the Victory: the Mysticism of Ordinary Experience, and The Gospel of the Beloved Disciple. He rarely does workshops, but sometimes he can’t contain his excitement with ideas and agrees to come. He lives in Rowe and New York City and is brilliant, kind, funny, and respectful of all living beings.