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This new Study at the Center assesses how religious traditions and spiritual pathways around the world account for the nature of gratitude, and how well-being is restored after injury, and trauma, a theme important for our pandemic age.
The Center will convene a symposium of 10 scholars on a virtual platform over the course of three days – April 7-9, 2021 – in order to discern the theme of gratitude toward God or the divine. Many scholars will focus upon religious sacred narratives as the departure for their study. Why this focus? Because, early narratives reveal the first imperative of the human being moving toward God or the divine in gratitude. These texts are the seedbeds for the formation of richly imbued values that continue to guide billions of human beings to this day.
The Center will convene the second symposium of 10 scholars on gratitude on a virtual platform over the course of three days -- October 27-29, 2021 – of study and dialogue on the theme of gratitude toward God. The human experience is replete with contradiction, suffering, trauma, cruelty and incalculable calamity, upon which gratitude to God is reimagined and re-calibrated. Scholars will conclude their effort with papers that reflect the inclusion of gratitude within literature and the response or recalibration of gratitude to God or the divine, in light of the complexities and contradictions within even daily existence. Throughout, scholars will draw heavily on rich reserves across religious traditions in the world, on the theme of gratitude to God.
The Center is committed to advancing the interdisciplinary study of themes of that increase religious literacy and respond to the challenges of the world around us. The current study – Gratitude, Injury and Restoration in a Pandemic Age – has begun this year, with virtual symposia of 13 Center Scholars scheduled for April 7-9 and October 27-29, 2021. Center Scholars include expertise in religious studies, theology, philosophy, psychology, sociology, anthropology, and more. Based on these symposia, The Center will be creating educational resources available to faculty and to local communities. A peer-reviewed book will also be published in the year ahead.
To learn more about the progress of the study, or to provide suggestions to the Center Advisory Council on resource development, please contact the Director of the Center, Dr. Michael Reid Trice at tricem@seattleu.edu .
The Center for Religious Wisdom & World Affairs includes the Religica Theolab Podcast. The podcast interviews local to international leaders on topics of shared value and wisdom to the listener.
The Center Scholarly Project: Gratitude, Injury, and Restoration in a Pandemic Age is made possible through our continued collaboration with luminaries from throughout the world, each bringing valued insight into the themes of our Symposia, and providing new and important discorse on the themes.