FUTURE WORK STREAMS IN DEVELOPMENT

It is planned to hold a colloquium on the changing demographics of religion worldwide and in North America. This will also look at the role and influence of ideas and early thinkers in North Africa on the subsequent course of history from the late Roman period through to Byzantium and the emergence of Islam from Arabia all the way to Spain, (as a case study of, and the interplay of religious change in shaping cultures and societies through times of transition).

This event will also serve to  open a planned new work stream with two tracks respectively on 

1)  Religion Social Development and Well-Being  and 

2)  Education, Culture, Social Cohesion and wholeness

This first of these tracks

 on Religion Social Development and Well-being will explore 

a)  the importance for overall societal development of religion and spirituality and how this engages with culture

b)  the background of changing demographics for religions both worldwide and within the context of America and its mainline denominations. This will seek to understand what the drivers of the key shifts may be. (For example, why have recent decades been the time of fastest ever growth of Christianity but mainly outside the developed West, on the one hand, while at the same time many of the historic mainstream churches in America and Europe have experienced a sharp fall in their numbers of members and adherents, why is this?) 

c)  just what is needed, in terms of religion and spirituality, in order to promote and sustain human flourishing and happiness (looking at the growing data gathered on this and the interest being taken by governments in this work in order to build sustainable and cohesive future societies.

The background to this work is the growing body of evidence indicating that overall economic and societal development is enhanced where express and holistic provision is made for the non-material, spiritual and cultural dimensions of life. 

This can be understood through many lenses from sustainable human development through to social cohesion (especially where there is significant cultural and religious diversity within given populations and communities).

·  Eudaimonia/human flourishing and happiness, all of which are the subject of growing research and now quantitative appraisal, as a number of international organisations ranging from the UN to the OECD have established. While such bodies have had a history of caution about engaging with specific religions (that reflects a perhaps under-examined set of secularist presumptions) they have come to recognise that goals, purposes and meaning are all central to the human well-being and flourishing which all seek to promote. 

Many large and multi-national companies have also come to appreciate the importance for their workers of these dimensions to life and have even come to embrace such specific practices as mindfulness and mediation much as they would previously have promoted the value of exercise and fitness.  This represents an important opening for the wider discussion of the values and roots in religion and spirituality of what is now being explored in these new ways by companies and governments

·  Social and community development is thus seen as an area of growing importance that needs to be more adequately resourced, at a time when many countries seek to plan new cities and need to explore and plan for the place of religion, and spirituality within them. A clear case in point would be the Kingdom’s Saudi Vision 2030 and the Neom City project to take by one example though there are many more as new cities are being designed worldwide.

The second track on Education, Culture, Social Cohesion and wholeness will be mainly practical in emphasis seeking to promote new thinking and positive intellectual change among students and young professionals. Thus, it will at a practical level

a)  explore and promote the possibilities for student exchanges (notably including that proposed between students in Boston and the Azhar, though this might also include other possible locations from Istanbul to Morocco (the Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane, Morocco which is an international University which has both Muslim and Christian students who are able to worship in their own traditions there).

b)  Look at the possibilities for Hadara/Thaqafa (arabic for Culture)  Study tours

The concept here, would be to bring together students for a tour in a place of historic interest in terms of the interplay of culture and religion. Such tours have taken place before in Turkey and we plan to explore how such a tour could happen in Cairo or Jordan (the actual tour would be mainly funded separately from Accordia but we are looking to provide support and groundwork bearing in mind that such a tour could offer an excellent first step towards the actual student exchange concept being developed in a) above.

Then in addition, it is intended to explore the educational content needed in such exchanges and thus

c)  work to establish what could be taught in specific course for students both in in Western and Islamic contexts, regarding the past times of positive interaction between the Abrahamic faiths (such as that from 8th-13th C in Baghdad (focused on the House of Wisdom, Bayt al-Ḥikmah)  and perhaps of the Convivencia in Spain, focused in Toledo, Cordoba and Grenada, though it also engaged figures in Morocco and Egypt such as Maimonides).  

In each case it will be important to bring out that

·  such discussion happened,

·  they were understood to be entirely legitimate by each tradition,

·  they covered important and substantive issues beyond mere mutual tolerance.

An important consideration in all this work will be attention to what has positive real-world impact and a hard look at practical ways of assessing this, given that attention to demonstrable impact is a critical if under-developed aspect of what is needed if dialogue is to enjoy the support it requires.