Negotiating the Sacred: International Conference Series
- Most recent conference: Negotiating the Sacred V: Governing the Family
Rationale
The sacred is often understood as absolute, and inviolate, hence, it may be represented as discourses that are fundamentalist and intolerant, and as contributing to discord within society. This is a mistaken view of the sacred as there are levels of sacredness that require different standards of observance. A conception of the sacred identifies a metaphysical boundary that relates to the relationship between ‘the spiritual’ or God, and the mundane. In some traditions of Catholicism, ‘sacrilege’ is understood as a juridical term, and only those things that have been determined to be sacred by the Church are properly called sacred. In some traditions of Christian mysticism, the sacred may be found in everything. A conception of the sacred therefore affects the normative force of a claim that something is sacred. By ‘normative force’, I mean what counts as permissible or impermissible in relation to something that is classified as sacred. If everything is sacred, or the sacred can be found in everything, then there is nothing that is impermissible. The sacred also operates according to degrees. In a sacred waterhole swimming may be permissible, but water-skiing and speedboats unacceptable, just as it is acceptable to have a picnic, sleep or sit on graves in a Christian graveyard, but not to play football, or to damage the graves.
The series has aimed to focus on the ways in which the sacred is negotiated. It is negotiated:
- between the secular state and religious groups, (eg. What uses may be made of Aboriginal sacred land
- how religious practices may be accommodated in hospital or educational settings)
- between religious groups, (eg, when the last Pope visited a synagogue in Jerusalem)
- and over time, within religious groups (for example, about the role of women, and the acceptability of different practices or new medical techniques).
Previous Conferences
- Blasphemy and Sacrilege in a Multicultural Society, Centre for Cross Cultural Research, ANU, 2004 (conveners Kevin White and Elizabeth Burns Coleman)
- Blasphemy and Sacrilege in the Arts, Centre for Cross Cultural Research, ANU, 2005 (conveners Maria Suzette Fernandes-Dias and Elizabeth Burns Coleman)
- Religion, Medicine and the Body, Centre for Cross Cultural Research, ANU, 2006 (conveners Kevin White, Maria Suzette Fernandes-Dias and Elizabeth Burns Coleman)
- Tolerance, Education and the Curriculum, Centre for Cross Cultural Research, ANU, 2007 (conveners Kevin White and Elizabeth Burns Coleman)
These themes have been chosen as they are areas that involve clearly identified policy issues, as well as being fundamental to a person’s sense of being respected. The conferences have covered issues from a variety of different religious perspectives:
- Aboriginal
- Muslim
- Buddhist
- Christian
- Sikh and Hindu
- Jewish
They have included:
- artists
- curators
- sociologists
- lawyers and judges
- anthropologists
- philosophers
- historians
- theologians
- film and literary theorists
- political theorists, doctors and health professionals
- community advocates and practitioners
- critical and post colonial theorists
Publications
To date, one edited collection has been produced (Blasphemy and Sacrilege in a Multicultural Society, ANU E-press, 2006). Blasphemy and Sacrilege in the Arts will be published in late 2008 or early 2009.
Negotiating the Sacred: Blasphemy and Sacrilege in a Multicultural Society
Elizabeth Burns Coleman and Kevin White (Editors)
ISBN 1 920942 47 5 (Print version) $24.95 (GST inclusive)
ISBN 1 920942 48 3 (Online)
Published June 2006
Available from ANU E-press