AR’s International Director Sheikh Ghassan Manasra to deliver closing keynote speech at “Sacred Texts & Human Contexts”, Nazareth College, Rochester NY

Sacred Texts and Human Contexts

These conferences bring together scholars from the United States, Canada, and around the globe to share research on contemporary issues in religion and social sciences.

To register: See the Conference Information section below.

Sacred Texts and Human Contexts: Religions and the (De)Legitimization of Violence

When: July 29 – 31, 2018

Where: Otto A. Shults Community Center, Nazareth College, Rochester, New York, 4245 East Ave., Rochester, NY 14618

In today’s world, it seems that religious violence has become unfortunately common. But is religion actually the major cause of violence? What is the relationship between religion and other factors such as political, ethnic, racial, economic, or other social disparities and injustices?

This international symposium will elaborate on how religions have viewed and interpreted their sacred texts throughout their histories with reference to (de)legitimization of violence. The symposium is multidisciplinary and we encourage submissions from social scientists, historians, as well as scholars in theology and religious studies. We are particularly focused on the subject of religion, violence and peacemaking in its historical and contemporary contexts. As always in our conferences, we encourage presentations that are both scholarly and broadly accessible to general audiences.

Some of the broader areas that presenters will explore are:

• Religions, violence, and peacemaking (examining religious motivation in social violence)
• Investigating the roots of different types of violence in their historical and religious contexts
• Multidisciplinary interpretations of the causes of war and the role of religion among these causes
• Patterns, examples, and methods of peacemaking and conflict resolution from religious and secular sources
• Empirical, anthropological, or scientific approaches to religion and violence
• Religious and non-religious approaches to pacifism, non-violent resistance, and peace-building
• Images of the divine and (de)legitimization of violence

Full Schedule Of Presentations Click Here

TUESDAY, JULY 31, 2018

Lunch and Keynote Speaker 12:30

Moderator: Karen Keenan, Sufi Order of Rochester

Sheik Ghassan Manasra, “The Abrahamic Reunions Multifaith Peacebuilding: Religion as a Force for Peace”

Brief Bio

Ghassan Manasra is an International Executive Director, Abrahamic Reunion Peacebuilder, scholar, and intercultural dialogue expert. He offers lectures at Cornell University, Yale, University of Cambridge, North American Imam Federation Annual Conference, and Parliament of The World’s Religions. In 2014, he was awarded “Outstanding Leader in Interreligious Dialogue” from the Dialogue Institute of Temple University.