BIS #1610 ACPI ADDRESS THE ISSUE OF VIOLENCE

 

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BOSCO INFORMATION SERVICE # 1610

 
 

ACPI ADDRESS THE ISSUE OF VIOLENCE

Renvick Pereira sdb

NASHIK, NOVEMBER 5, 2009: The students of the Masters of Philosophy (MPh) Course of Divyadaan along with Fr. Ivo Coelho sdb and Fr. Robert Pen sdb attended the 34th Annual Meeting of The Association of Christian Philosophers (ACPI). The ACPI was born in the year 1976, under the inspiration and guidance of late Prof. Richard De Smeth, sj and has developed since then.  This years meeting was held at Anugraha, Capuchin Animation Centre, Dindigul, Tamil Nadu between October 19 and 22, 2009. The theme for this years meeting was Violence and it's Victims: A Challenge to Philosophizing in the Indian Context. There were 16 papers to be presented. The conference was attended by around 90 participants. It began with the Bishop of Dindigul, Rev. Bishop Anthony Papswamy giving the keynote address, wherein he emphasized the need to philosophize on the aspect of violence in light of the recurring incidents of violence in our country and more especially in the religious sphere. This was followed by the releasing of the book on the papers of the last ACPI meeting titled "Enigma of Tribal Reality in India: A Philosophical Response" edited by Vincent Aind. He was commended for the effort in editing his first book.

The first paper presented by Dr. Johnson Puthenpurackal, was titled on "Humans as Violent: A Philosophical Look". Herein Dr. Puthenpurackal traced the ontological 'Why' of human violence to the necessity of human pride and the need to possess. He also traced the Ontical reasons that being the need to create boundaries on one hand and on the other the inability to accept one's differences. The talk that followed was by Dr. Shylendra ims that focused on "Violence in the Hindu Scriptures". Here the participants were given a glimpse of the ethico-spiritual interpretation given by the Mahabharata and the eco-spiritual interpretation given by the Ramayana of violence. From the Indian perspective, it is avidya or ignorance that is the root cause of violence. Dr. R. Selvaraj presented the Islamic view of Violence in his paper on "Violence and Islam". He stressed that the Muslims are peace loving people and that sadly Muslims are victims of violence. Islam is what is contained in the Holy Quran and the Traditions (Hadith) and it preaches peace. Pastor Dr. James Daniel followed by presenting a paper on "Christianity and Violence" He highlighted the instances of violence that have marred the history of the Church. He also brought in the oppressing dimension of the Church and contemporary persecutions.

On the second day of the Conference, Dr. Augustine Perumalil, sj presented the paper on "Jesus' response to Violence". Jesus' commitment to non-violence was seen in the words "For all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword" (Matt. 26:52). A Christian is characterized by meekness, but this meekness does not rule out the expression of anger when necessary. This paper was followed by Dr. Andrew Ambarasu's paper on "Buddhist and Jainist Response to Violence". The Ahimsa approach to violence in Buddhism are found in the Mahayana texts. The code of Pancasila provides the guidelines to live a life of non-violence. Dr. Robert Pen sdb in his paper "Media and Violence" dealt with the influence of media in instigating violence in society through these malicious tricks. Since media has a great influence on today's youth and hence a critical appraisal of media is the requirement of the hour. The day ended with Dr. A.J. Mathew of mcap presenting his paper on "Violence and Human Rights" through which he expounded on the concept of human rights and the need to uphold the dignity of every person especially in light of the present scenario of violence. Dr. A. Pushparjan presented a paper on "Gandhi's Approach to Nonviolence and its significance for Christian Philosophizing". Gandhi advocates non-violence as a basic way of existence. Gandhi in his own words says 'I hold myself to be incapable of hating any being on earth'.

The third day began with a paper by Dr. Keith D'Souza sj titled "Interpretation and Violence: Reasons and Resolutions". Dr. D'Souza mentioned that there are four dominant types of interpretive violence, viz., violence with regard of the interpretation of texts, violent interpretations of past events, violence contained within symbolic systems and violent interpretations of the self and the 'other'. Following was the paper by Dr. Sekar Sebastin on "Violence: An Ethical Response". He provided the audience with a choice in ethical principles when one answers the problem of violence. Dr. George Panthanmackel, msfs, the president of ACPI, presented a paper on "From Violence to Peace: Agapeic Ontology as a Philosophical Response". An Agapeic Ontology is characterized by self-giving. And selfishness and self-centeredness is ontological violence. The day ended with papers on "Tribals and Violence" and "Violence and Dalits" presented by Dr. Vincent Aind and Dr. Harry Manuel omi, respectively. Both the papers elaborated the violence inflicted on the respective groups and the response that needs to be made.

The final day of the Conference a paper on "Body as the Locus of Violence" was presented by Dr. Victor Ferrao. Dr. Ferrao stressed the fact that the body is socially constructed and represented depending on time, place and context. The conference ended with the formulation of the statement of the conference. The Association also deliberated upon working towards collaboration in the sharing of information and knowledge. The next conference of ACPI is to be held in Coonoor Kerala on the theme: Tradition and Innovation. The ACPI has also launched the ambitious project of the publication of an Encyclopedia of Indian Christian Philosophy which will be released in the next Conference.

 

 

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