The Words of the Kiburtz Family
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The Words of the Kiburtz Family |
M.
Darrol Bryant, moderating a panel discussion with panelists.
June Orland Kiburz, a 1981 graduate of the Unification Theological Seminary, is presently working with the International Religious Foundation, Inc., helping to organize conferences.
Over 130 professors and their spouses from 23 nations converged on Athens, Greece this June to attend two separate conferences sponsored by the New Ecumenical Research Association (New ERA), a project of the International Religious Foundation, Inc. (IRF). The sixth annual New ERA Introductory Summer Seminar entitled, "Exploring Unification Theology and Lifestyle," was held for six days, June 10-17, 1984. The New ERA Advanced Seminar entitled, "Unification Thought," convened on June 12 and ran concurrently with the introductory seminar.
Participants in the two seminars came from the Far East, the Pacific, Southeast Asia, the Indian Subcontinent, Africa, the Middle East, Eastern and Western Europe, and North and South America.
Previous introductory and advanced summer seminars sponsored by New ERA have been held annually, beginning in the Virgin Islands, July 1979; Kauai, Hawaii, August 1980; the Canary Islands, August 1981; Cascais, Portugal, July 1982; and Madeira, Portugal, July 1983.
The structure of this introductory seminar was a balance of three aspects: 1) the small group experience -- a little community which is the primary context for discussion; 2) presentations by Unificationists of the main elements of the Principle: "Principle of Creation," "Fall of Humankind," "Critique and Counterproposal to Marxism," "Mission of Jesus and Christology," "Providence and History," and "Eschatology and Second Coming"; and 3) the prepared theological responses by selected participants who had agreed beforehand to critique some aspect of Principle. Plenary sessions gave a chance for questions, criticism and comments to be directed to the respondents or to a panel of Unificationists. The small groups, lectures, and responses in general were scheduled in the mornings with recreational time in the afternoons. Talks on the Unification movement, including a session on religious liberties issues, selected video tapes on the movement and interpretive sessions given by Dr. Richard Quebedeaux and Dr. M. Darrol Bryant were presented during the evenings.
For most of the professors at the introductory seminar, this was the first experience of hearing the Principle and of learning firsthand about Unification lifestyle. Professors are often invited after attending an introductory seminar to participate in other introductory seminars as group moderators and/or to participate in advanced and regional seminars on special themes, such as the advanced seminar on "Unification Thought," in which each participant presents a paper. Some have expressed interest in being directly involved in other IRF projects, such as the Youth Seminar on World Religions and the proposed gathering of the world's religions to be held in 1985. The participants continue to be involved in New ERA-sponsored activities as well as bringing their friends and colleagues. Frequently it is the scholars and religious leaders working with New ERA and the International Religious Foundation who provide suggestions and direction for many of its present activities.
Set in the Mediterranean city of Athens, Greece, the conference convened in a hotel with a panoramic vista stretching from a view of one of the world's ancient wonders: the serene and magnificent Parthenon on one side and the sparkling Aegean Sea on the other. Often, participants and Unificationists would venture to the Plaka in the afternoon to share anything from theology to air travel arrangements to the ancient sites of Greece, over lunch at an outdoor cafe. The Plaka is the old village around the Acropolis that formerly was Athens during the four centuries of Turkish rule. In the warmth of the early afternoon, its narrow streets, now pedestrian walkways are peaceful and lined with hundreds of tourist shops and charming terrace restaurants. A fascinating relationship exists among the bustling traffic the churches of Greek Orthodoxy and Islamic mosques from the Ottoman Empire, the ancient and modern cities blending into a unique and vital Athens.
At the Opening Plenary Session, John Maniatis, the Secretary General of IRF and conference coordinator, extended a warm welcome. David S.C. Kim, President of the Unification Theological Seminary, conveyed greetings and a few comments to the participants:
The destiny of the world depends on the younger generation in the higher educational institutions: the heirs of the next age. You are directly influencing them through their education and in many other ways...
I believe that these seminars shall be fruitful when all of you as participants sincerely help our movement with objective evaluations, honest observations and constructive criticisms. Our goal is to live together in a peaceful world.
Mr. Kim also presented the most recent information regarding Rev. Moon's trial and conviction. The court case was of interest to the participants, hence the agenda was altered to allow a full evening later in the week devoted to discussion of the case. Prof. Frank Flinn, consultant in Forensic Theology, and Albert P. Blaustein, President of the Human Rights Advocates International, Inc. and one of the writers of an amicus brief to the Supreme Court, lucidly explained the updated situation and entertained questions from the audience.
Prof. M. Darrol Bryant, senior consultant to New ERA and Associate Professor of Religion and Culture at Renison College, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, welcomed the audience and explained about the founding of New ERA:
Many of us involved with the early meetings prior to the birth of New ERA went through a process of spiritual and intellectual growth that led to the formation of New ERA. We hope that during these next days you too will be touched by that spirit that grew out of those initial meetings. There is, in this movement, a vision of unity that far transcends identification with, and even agreement with, the particular beliefs of the Unification Church.
Of interest from the introductory seminar are some of the prepared theological responses to the lectures on Divine Principle and the wide spectrum of perspectives from which they come. The "Principle of Creation," given by Jim Fleming, was critiqued by an Indian scholar offering an Islamic viewpoint. He pointed out amazing similarities in the Qur'an.
...the chapter on the "Principle of Creation" in the Divine Principle is a serious, original and penetrating effort to discuss the perennial issues of God, man and the universe in a way that would commend itself to any rational and scientific inquiry.
An associate professor of philosophy from Utah gave her opinion in her critique on the "Fall of Humankind" showing the lack of rational argumentation based on 1) unsubstantiated premises, 2) faulty inferences, and 3) unwarranted generalizations. However, she continued to say that this in no way shows that the conclusion of the "Fall of Humankind" is false, only that the reasoning to obtain the conclusion appeared to her to be faulty. A professor of psychiatry and pastoral care interestingly enough discovered on her own in 1976 many strikingly similar points of the "Fall of Humankind" which she expressed in one of her books published that same year.
Regarding the "Critique and Counterproposal to Marxism" lecture, a Christian professor from Dallas, Texas, wrote:
There is a clarion call blowing in the wind for the resurrection of the Christian church. God exalted (resurrected) the life of Jesus as a living example of the incarnation of His love for the world. Jesus' life is the norm -- the measuring stick -- by which individuals can free themselves from arbitrary social realities. Secularism, scientism, denominationalism and racism all have numbed the soul of the church. The church has become God's frozen people. How can the church warm the hearts of others when it is shivering on the inside? Unificationism by exampling the peace of God is resurrecting the church. Communism cannot be defeated militarily, because it is a seed of destruction that has been implanted in the hearts and minds of mail. Therefore, only the power of God's love can pluck this evil out of the hearts of men.
Concerning the lecture on "Providence and History," a systematic theologian from a Baptist seminary called Divine Principle Rev. Moon's commentary on Biblical scripture. He deemed it bold and innovative, but departing from traditional Christianity. Some attractive features he pointed to are:
For example, the stress on the corporate aspect of the Kingdom of God and of human salvation is a welcomed critique of the individual-centeredness of much Western Christianity religiosity. This emphasis is lived out by Unificationists in many ways and is a basis for the unique place given to the family in the movement.
A philosopher who leaches at a state university in New York concluded:
If the Divine Principle is in line with the historical Jesus and the divine plan of providence it is not because it described theologically correct truths (many people say it does not). The Divine Principle is divine because it turns all things into remembrance by sharing in a "reading technology" of decision- making through which humans are again conjoined with the divine in history. Had the Divine Principle not been written down, what a silence!
From
left to right: Mr. and Mrs. David S.C. Kim, Dr. Sang Hun Lee and Mr.
Takeshi Furuta.
With Athens, the birthplace of much Western philosophy, as the host, scholars of diverse traditions and Unificationists met to examine the philosophical aspects of the Unification teaching. This was the first seminar in which Unificationists and non-Unificationists focused exclusively on Unification Thought. Some professors viewed the seminar as a project to help develop a philosophical correlate to the theology of Divine Principle.
Dr. Sang Hun Lee, author of Unification Thought, (1973), and Explaining Unification Thought, (1980), and President of the Unification Thought Institute of Korea, attended the conference and offered presentations entitled, "The Outline of the Unification Thought System" and "The Necessity, Characteristics and Method of Unification Thought." He also expressed his own personal story through a paper entitled, "The Motivation and History of the Formation of the Unification Movement" and how he was moved to formulate Unification Thought, along with his experiences with Father and a testimony of his 21 day fast.
Scholars, based on their reading of Dr. Lee's two books, composed papers examining aspects of Unification Thought. The result was an array covering such diverse perspectives as "The Problems of Existence and Relationship: Love, Relationality, and the Path with Heart," "The Search for the Unity of the World View and its Limits and Risks," "Sketchy Thoughts on a General Theory of Education," "American Pragmatism," "Philosophy East and West: Unification or Unity?" and "Unification of Ontology and Axiology," a combined study of Brahmanical teachings in India, Taoism in China and Platonism in Greece.
One professor from Indiana began his paper,
It is appropriate in this setting that we begin with an ancient Greek proverb: "The loving heart is always young." For while Lee's recent book, Explaining Unification Thought, discusses a number of fundamental, technical issues in ontology, aesthetics, epistemology, logic, and axiology, a cornerstone of this text -- in my judgment -- is its treatment of "heart."
The Unificationists present came from varied backgrounds: CAUSA, ICF, graduate students in philosophy, CARP, the Education Department -- Research and Development, the Unification Thought Institute in Korea, Japan and the United States.
In response to the continual questions and interest regarding Unification lifestyle and worship, participants were invited to an evening worship service led by two Unificationists. Over ninety participants and their spouses, a much larger number than anticipated, from all religious traditions represented at the conference, joined in the singing and prayer. Songbooks were distributed so that all could follow the instrumental and vocal offerings of Unification Holy Songs, Christian hymns that are often sung in the Unification movement and a few original musical creations by Unificationists. This was followed by a description of Unification prayer, then a representative prayer and unison prayer, and closed with "Tongil" in both Korean and English.
Although Rev. Chung Hwan Kwak, Chairman of the Board and President of IRF, was not personally able to attend this seminar, he delivered his address entitled, "An Introductory Talk on Reverend Moon" to the participants through a representative, John Maniatis, expressing Father's motivation and heart behind these seminars.
What do these objectively critical academics find meaningful in these seminars? According to a professor of religious studies at the University of Dallas, who is also a New ERA Board member, and who served as a group moderator at this seminar,
What gradually began to happen as people from different disciplines, religions and nationalities worked over the Unificationists' lectures on Divine
Principle was a kind of ecumenical discussion rare in religious or academic circles. The sharpest criticisms, as well as the broadest agreements, seemed funded by a sense of our common humanity, lending new pertinence to the Latin word from which our term "ecumenical" is derived -- oecumenic, which means "belonging to the whole inhabited earth."
Is this then the genius of New ERA? Is this what makes New ERA a new Ecumenical Research Association? These globe-girdling discussions do not bring together those who even remotely profess "one Lord, one faith, one baptism." Rather, they bring together those who acknowledge one earth, one species, one race -- the human earth, species, race! Perhaps this shared acknowledgement will someday yield the unified and unifying religion that Divine Principle so fervently proclaims. But, until and unless that happens, we can all be grateful for a religious movement that calls people together from the far-flung corners of the earth to sit down at the same table and share the elements of a common quest to become one whole inhabited earth.