|
 From
July 27th through August 2nd, 2002, the Institute for the Study
of Religion and Culture (ISRC), Payap University hosted a major
international conference on the theme, "Religion and Globalization."
Over two hundred participants from some 31 nations took part in
what is generally agreed to have been a major event in international
religious studies. The list of plenary speakers and panels is
an impressive one, and some of the individual papers presented
are of real value and interest. The plenary addresses and a selection
of individual papers are (or are expected to be) available on
the ISRC website at www.religionandculture.org
.
This issue
of HeRB will focus on the
conference. In place of the usual two articles by yours truly,
readers will find the four papers presented at the plenary panel
discussion on "Globalization & Vocation: Four Persons,
Four Directions," which I had the honor to chair. There follows
my own personal response to the conference, which includes a critical
look at various presentations and themes. As is always the case
with HeRB, this essay is
very much a personal one, and it has to be kept in mind that in
a conference of this magnitude no one person could take in more
than a small fraction of what went on. Finally, some of the "Short
Items" in this issue also come from the conference.
As is the
nature of the beast, the Payap conference on religion and globalization
was at once exciting and tedious, insightful and banal, too much
and not enough. On the whole, however, the conference certainly
provided a great deal of food for thought. The ISRC Director,
John Butt, his staff, and the conference organizing committees
are to be commended and thanked for their efforts. I would also
like to add a personal note of thanks to Drs. Don Swearer, Parichart
Suwanbubbha, Philip Hughes, and to Thra'mu Esther Danpongpee for
their participation in the panel on personal responses to globalization
and for allowing me to share their papers with the readers of
HeRB. Don is the Charles
& Harriet Cox McDowell Professor of Religion at Swarthmore
College; Ach. Parichart is a Lecturer in the Comparative Religion
and Ethical Studies Program, Faculty of Social Sciences, Mahidol
University; Philip is the founding Director of the Christian Research
Association, Australia; and Thra'mu Esther is a Staff Researcher
with the Office of
3
History, Church of Christ in Thailand. Their
papers are presented here in the order in which they spoke at
the conference.
Herb Swanson
Ban Dok Daeng
September 2003
4
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