Symposium:
The Anatomy of Evil
College
of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Massachusetts
April
11-13, 2002
Rationale
Program
Contact
Downloadable
Registration Form
Accomodations
Directions
Rationale
"Where
does evil come from, if God made all things and, because
he is good, made them good too? It is true that he is the
supreme Good, that he is himself a greater Good than these
lesser goods which he created. But the Creator and all his
creation are both good. Where then does evil come from?”
Augustine,
Confessions
The
twentieth century has put a dark shadow of doubt over
the residual hope in the moral progress of the human species.
The World Wars, the Nazi concentration camps, the Soviet
Gulag, the Chinese “Great Leap Forward,” and
many other less spectacular but no less horrific examples
of ideological, ethnic, and religious slaughter force
us to come to terms with the problem of evil. The killing
of millions of innocent people, the literal dehumanization
that occurred in the camps, and the possibility of omnicide,
i.e., the complete destruction of all life on this planet,
demand our reflective self-examination. Where does evil
come from? What is the source of the impulses that lead
human beings to commit such deeds? How do we respond to
evil? What is the role of religion in opposing, or perhaps
sometimes inspiring, evil? We must ask the question one
so often hears: “Is belief in God still possible
after Auschwitz?” How must God be conceived if God’s
existence is compatible with Auschwitz? Perhaps even more
fundamentally, we have to ask: How must reality itself
be conceived if evil is not only a threatening possibility,
but an omnipresent reality?
Program
Thursday,
April 11, 2002
7:00
PM Lecture: “Lamentations and Losses: From
New York to Kabul.” Daniel Berrigan, S.J.,
poet, peace activist, and author of The Trial of the
Catonsville Nine, No Bars to Manhood, Night Flight to
Hanoi, Job: And Death No Dominion, To Dwell in Peace:
An Autobiography. Saint Joseph Memorial Chapel
Co-sponsored by the Holy Cross First Year Program.
Friday,
April 12, 2002
Introduction,
lectures and panels will all take place in Rehm Library
in Smith Hall. Locations for other events otherwise
noted. Meals listed here are open to speakers, commentators,
registered participants, and invited guests. Others
attending the conference will find meals available at
Crossroads in the lower level of the Hogan Campus Center.
9:00
AM Welcome and Introduction
Rev.
Michael C. McFarland, S.J., President
Predrag Cicovacki, Conference Organizer.
Rescheduled
to 3:15PM on Friday: 9:10-10:30 AM Lecture:
“Can the World Be Healed and Transformed?: The Challenge
of Evil
in the Post-Taliban World”
Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of Tikkun, author
of Jewish Renewal: a Path to Healing and Transformation;
The Politics of Meaning: Restoring Hope and Possibility
in an Age of Cynicism; Spirit Matters; co-author
of Jews and Blacks: A Dialogue on Race, Religion and Culture
in America etc.
10:30-10:40
AM Coffee Break
Smith
Hall mezzanine
Rescheduled
to 9:15 AM: 10:40-12:00 PM Lecture: "Why
Should We Be Upset About Evil?"
Nicholas Wolterstorff, Yale University, philosopher-theologian
and author of Lament for a Son; Divine Discourse: Philosophical
Reflections on the Claim That God Speaks; Reason Within
the Bounds of Religion; Natural and Divine Law: Reclaiming
the Tradition for Christian Ethics.
Commentator:
Jeffrey Bloechl, philosopher, College of the Holy Cross
12:00-1:30
PM Lunch Break
Speakers
and Holy Cross students: Hogan Campus Center, assigned
rooms; Other
participants:
Hogan Suites B and C.
Cancelled:
1:30-2:50 PM Lecture: "A Reflection
on Evil"
Slavoj Žižek, University of Ljubljana,
philosopher and author of Did Somebody Say Totalitarianism?;
The Fragile Absolute, or, Why Is the Christian Legacy
Worth Fighting For?; The Plague of Fantasies.
Commentator:
Lawrence Cahoone, philosopher, College of the Holy Cross
2:50-3:00
PM Break
Smith
Hall mezzanine.
Rescheduled
to 1:30PM Friday: 3:00-4:30 PM Panel: The
Sources and Nature of Evil
Sharon
Anderson-Gold, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, philosopher
and
author of Unnecessary Evil : History and Moral Progress
in the Philosophy of Immanuel Kant.
Svetozar
Stojanovic, Institute for Philosophy and Social Research,
Belgrade, and Center for Inquiry International, Buffalo,
philosopher and author of The Fall of Yugoslavia: Why
Communism Failed; Between Ideals and Reality; Perestroika:
From Marxism and Bolshevism to Gorbachev.
Michael
True, Assumption College, peace activist and author
of An Energy Field More Intense Than War: the Nonviolent
Tradition and American Literature; To Construct Peace;
Justice Seekers, Peace Makers; Ordinary People: Family
Life and Global Values.
4:30-4:40
PM Coffee Break - Smith Hall mezzanine.
4:40-6:10
PM Panel: Shakespeare’s The Tempest
Edward
Isser, College of the Holy Cross, Director of
tonight’s performance of Shakespeare’s The
Tempest and author of Stages of Annihilation: Theatrical
Representations of the Holocaust.
Alden
Vaughan, Columbia University
emeritus,
author of Roots of American Racism: Essays on the Colonial
Experience, New England Frontier: Puritans and Indians
1620-1675, co-author of Shakespeare’s Caliban: A
Cultural History, co-editor of Critical Essays on Shakespeare’s
The Tempest.
Helen
Whall, College of the Holy Cross, author of To Instruct
and Delight: Didactic Method in Five Tudor Dramas.
6:15-8:00
PM Reception, Hogan Campus Center, Suite A; Dinner,
Suites B and C.
8:00
PM Performance: William Shakespeare’s The
Tempest,
Directed by Edward Isser.
Fenwick
Theater
Saturday,
April 13, 2002
9:00-10:20
AM Lecture: "René
Girard on Violence and Evil."
Gil Bailie, President, The Florilegium Institute,
and author of Violence
Unveiled: Humanity at the Crossroads.
Rehm Library
10:20-10:30
AM Coffee Break
Smith
Hall mezzanine
10:30-12:00
AM Panel: Thomas Merton on Evil
John
Collins, College of the Holy Cross
Thomas
Del Prete, Clark University, author of Thomas Merton
and the Education of the Whole Person.
Jonathan
Montaldo, President, The International Thomas Merton
Society and editor of several volumes of Merton’s
writings: The Intimate Merton: His Life from His Journals;
Dialogues with Silence: Prayers and Drawings; Entering
the Silence: Becoming a Monk & Writer.
12:00-1:30
PM Lunch Break
Hogan
Campus Center, Suites B and C
1:30-2:50
PM Lecture: "Roads to Hell"
Susan Neiman, Director, Einstein Forum, Berlin,
and author of the forthcoming Evil in Modern Thought:
An Alternative History of Philosophy, The Unity of
Reason: Rereading Kant and Slow Fire: Jewish Notes from
Berlin.
Commentator:
Jeffrey Bernstein, College of the Holy Cross.
2:50-3:00
PM Coffee Break
Smith
Hall mezzanine.
3:00-4:45
PM Roundtable Discussion on the Sources and Nature
of Evil
Moderator:
Robert Cording, College of the Holy Cross.
5:00
PM Common Prayer
5:30
PM Reception and Dinner
Hogan
Campus Center, Suite
Contact
Information:
Mrs.
Pat Hinchliffe
508-793-3869
pcicovac@holycross.edu
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