With the participation of the Academic Associate of the Volos Academy for Theological Studies, Dr. Nikolaos Asproulis
On August, 7-9, 2016, an international workshop, organized by the Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict of Arizona State University was successfully held in London on the general theme: “Religion and Global Citizenship”. According to the rationale of the workshop, we live in a time when forces of globalization are in tension with various nationalistic movements and sentiments around the world. The tension is reflected in domestic contexts and debates on a host of issues—trade, immigration, terrorism, and war. Recent political rhetoric and elections, in North America and Europe especially, epitomize the conflict between global and nationalist outlooks. In such a moment, it is urgent to raise questions about moral responsibilities beyond national borders as well as within them. Religion—as a force that can challenge or reinforce the nation-state and that can underscore or undercut moral duties—remains an often under-studied phenomenon within the landscape of “global citizenship” and related issues. This workshop will explore how globalization is changing the nature, scope and moral responsibilities of citizenship, with attention to the role religion plays facilitating or impeding moral aspirations and civic actions on a global scale.
Among the speakers were Dr. Linell Cady, Professor of Religious Studies of Arizona State University (USA), and Director of Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict at the same University ( “Global Citizenship and Religion: Setting the Stage”), Lord Bhikhu Parekh, Professor Emeritus of the Universities of Hull and Westminster (UK), (“Ethics and Religion in an Interdependent World: Dilemmas of Global Citizenship”), Dr. Maleiha Malik, King’s College London, (“Regulating Religious Diversity in an Age of Migration: The UK Experience”), Dr. Anthony Lang, University of St Andrews, (“Religion, Responsibility and Global Citizenship”), Dr. John Carlson, Professor of Religious Studies, Arizona State University, (“The Case against the Case against Humanitarian Military Intervention”), Dr. Aidan Hehir, University of Westminster, (“What ‘Responsibility’ Do States Have to Protect Human Rights Abroad? The Case for Utopian Realism”), Dr. Erin Wilson, University of Groningen (Netherlands), (“Secularism, Global Justice and the Politics of Global Citizenship”) etc.
Dr. Nikolaos Asproulis presented the topic “Personhood as ‘Glocal Citizenship’: Its Christian Roots and the Challenge of the Immigrant Crisis”.
To read the abstract of Dr. Asproulis talk please click here.
