Panel dialogue: One earth, many verses

This interactive event is organised by members of the Cambridge Interfaith Research Forum Riya Kartha (Faculty of Education) and Geneva Blackmer (Faculty of Divinity). Supporting the group are Cambridge Peace and Education Research Group (CPERG) and volunteers from across the university.

The event is supported by a small grant from the Cambridge Interfaith Research Forum.

Panel discussion: envisioning engaged dialogue

In a world in rupture, where religious identity is frequently weaponized to deepen sociocultural and geopolitical fault lines, our hope is that this panel will provide an engaged dialogue for interfaith inquiry into how we might build bridges across these ruptures, both as individuals and as members of different faith traditions. Our vision is for this dialogue to move beyond the sharing of doctrine and canon, seeking resonance in both the convergences and divergences of these faith traditions so that we might elevate our minds and spirits to celebrate our common humanity. More importantly, we envision this dialogue to be a direct path to taking action towards peacebuilding in our everyday lives. 

The catalyst for inquiry lies in the “poetic spirit”—a term advocated by Japanese peacebuilder and philosopher Daisaku Ikeda (1928-2023) to describe the imaginative capacity to perceive the “other” as an extension of the self. By grounding interfaith inquiry in this construct, and by inviting the wisdom that inherently stems from each of the traditions that we invite, we bypass the rigid truth claims that often stall interfaith dialogue. Instead, the panel invites participants to explore the ‘verses’ of their respective traditions—not as static laws, but as living responses to the universal human condition where prejudice, intolerance and division might be met by constructive action, stronger interfaith ties, and peacebuilding within communities. 

In so doing, we invite fellow faculty and students in the interfaith space to continue to reach beyond the institutional scope of our work and actively reimagine the responsibility that each of us has to find ways to speak into the lines of rupture and create spaces for dialogue, healing, and action. 

Introducing the chair and panellists

Dr Jason Goulah (DePaul University) is a pioneering scholar in the fields of Ikeda/Soka studies in education and transformative and socioecological perspectives in culture and language education. 

Luke Wilkinson (Cambridge) is a postgraduate researcher in the Faculty of Divinity, studying Muslim–Christian relations in Malta during the early modern period. 

Dr Nasim Mavaddat (Cambridge) is Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Public Health and Primary Care.

Panel chair: Due to unforeseen circumstances, Professor Hilary Cremin is no longer able to chair this session. The organisers are pleased to announce that Professor Esra Özyürek, Sultan Qaboos Professor of Abrahamic Faiths & Shared Values and Academic Director of the Cambridge Interfaith Programme, has agreed to step in as chair. 

Workshop: interfaith dialogue in action

The Korean Buddhist Zen Master Seung Sahn once said that “How may I help you?” is one of the single greatest Bodhisattva vows. “How may I help you?” asks nothing more of us than to function in relation to the true nature of both ourselves and reality. It pushes us to vicariously accept the suffering of others as we would our own. 

In Buddhism, compassion is considered more altruistic than love, because it embodies the desire to liberate all beings from suffering. Great compassion has no bounds; and it is this compassion which brings us all together in this space. 

Compassion is in itself a courageous act, and yet it is impossible to not face hopelessness, confusion, and despair when constantly met with all forms of suffering—including systemic injustice, violence, racism, environmental degradation, and all mechanisms of oppression. Buddhism tells us not to ignore these emotions, but instead, it asks of us, what can you do with your hopelessness, confusion and despair? 

Seung Sahn continued to say, “If you can hear the sound of suffering then helping is both possible and necessary.” In this moment there is undeniably great suffering, so this means that in the next, helping will be both possible and necessary. This will look different for each one of us, but the important thing is to continue to ask how we may help in this moment. 

All that means is: What is being asked of you right now? What is right in front of you? What can you do with what is at your disposal? 

Our hope is that each one of us will consider, simply, what is being asked of us, what is right in front of us, to find our own answers to the question: how may we help this world? 

Interactive discussion

This event will include an invitation to small group discussion informed by the panel discussion and with the prompt questions: 

• How does your faith or belief tradition compel you to act with one another in this moment? 
• What is being asked of you right now? 
• What is right in front of you? 
• What can you do with what is at your disposal? 
• How may we help this world? 

Outline schedule

16:00 Panel discussion with guided questions, moderated by the Chair 

16:45 Q&A with audience 

17:00 Small-group activity led by volunteer facilitators 

17:40 Refreshments and networking for further action 

18:00 Close