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On
April 11-13, the College’s Center
for Religion, Ethics and Culture sponsored
a symposium, “The Anatomy of Evil.” Posing
bold questions about the nature of
evil and the spectrum of human responses
to evil, the symposium brought together
a group of distinguished panelists
who addressed these questions in papers,
panel discussions and roundtable dialogues.
In addition to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, the symposium
focused on other horrific events of the 20th century, such
as the World Wars, the Nazi concentration camps, the Soviet
Gulag and the Chinese “Great Leap Forward.” Participants
discussed how such dehumanizing events have forced society
to come to terms with the reality of evil, and how we are
to cope with this realization.
The symposium opened with a lecture, “Lamentations
and Losses: From New York to Kabul,” by Rev. Daniel
Berrigan, S.J., scholar and peace activist known for his
stance against militarism. The keynote speech was given by
Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of the magazine, Tikkun,
and author of The Politics of Meaning and Spirit Matters:
Global Healing and the Wisdom of the Soul. Lerner is
considered to be one of contemporary America’s most
important political and spiritual thinkers.
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