Public Lecture on Secularity: Good or Bad; Religious Perspectives, by Lord Rowan Williams

26 Jan Public Lecture on Secularity: Good or Bad; Religious Perspectives, by Lord Rowan Williams

As part of the Memorandum of Understanding between DICID and Woolf Institute (Cambridge, UK) we bring to you an annual lecture hosted jointly in both Doha and Cambridge. The purpose of the annual DICID-Woolf lecture is to promote interfaith dialogue and to further inter-religious understanding and tolerance, in the face of an increasingly unsettled and violent world. It is the hope of Prof Ibrahim Al-Naimi, Chairman DICID, and Dr Edward Kessler, Executive Director Woolf Institute, that the lectures will help British and Qatari citizens understand how to treat the religious ‘other’ as an equal dialogue partner and yet remain truthful to your own faith. They also symbolize a fruitful partnership between two institutions of national and international signi-cance which are devoted to education and the pursuit of knowledge.

It is hoped that through these lectures decision makers and community leaders, students and scholars, in UK, Qatar and beyond become better informed about one of the biggest challenges of our time: the need for tolerance and understanding between the Abrahamic faiths.
Furthermore, the two organizations are also involved in a joint research project to assess the effectiveness of interfaith initiatives in UK, Qatar and India in partnership with Georgetown University in Qatar.

This year, DICID hosted Lord Rowan Williams from U.K.. with lecture titled ‘Secularism, Good or Bad; Religious Perspective’.

Abstract:
Half a century ago, many contently said that we lived in an increasingly secular world. In the last two decades, such a view has been revealed as both short-sighted and parochial: religious commitment is more visible – and more controversial – than ever. But are there positive aspects to the ‘secular’, in reminding religious believers of necessary constraints and complexities in the actual world of cultural diversity and instant communication? Building on earlier work to rede¬ne ‘secularism’, I hope to spell out more of what this might mean, while suggesting also the grounds for resisting a comprehensive secular worldview.

Dr. Williams was educated at Dynevor Secondary Grammar School in Swansea, he came up to Christ’s College in 1968. He studied for his doctorate at Christ Church and Wadham College Oxford, working on the Russian Orthodox theologian Vladimir Lossky. His career began as a lecturer at Mir¬eld (1975-1977). He returned to Cambridge as Tutor and Director of Studies at Westcott House. After ordination in Ely Cathedral, and serving as Honorary Assistant Priest at St George’s Chesterton, he was appointed to a University lectureship in Divinity. In 1984 he was elected a Fellow and Dean of Clare College. During his time at Clare he was arrested and ¬need for singing psalms as part of the CND protest at Lakenheath air-base. Then, still only 36, it was back to Oxford as Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity for six years, before becoming Bishop of Monmouth, and, from 2000, Archbishop of Wales. He was awarded the Oxford higher degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1989, and an honorary DCL degree in 2005; Cambridge followed in 2006 with an honorary DD. He holds honorary doctorates from considerably more than a dozen other universities, from Durham to K U Leuven, Toronto to Bonn. In 1990 he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy. Dr Williams is a noted poet and translator of poetry, and, apart from Welsh, speaks or reads nine other languages. He learnt Russian in-order to read the works of Dostoevsky in the original. This led to a book; he has also published studies of Arius, Teresa of Avila, and Sergii Bulgakov, together with writings on a wide range of the ological, historical and political hemes. His recent book entitled “Faith in the Public Square” was published in 2012.