Temenos Academy Newsletter August 2023
Temenos Academy
|
NEWSLETTER AUGUST 2023
ADVANCE NOTICE
The Temenos Academy will be taking a break this August but we will be back in September with the following two lectures: Love as a Cosmological Force PROFESSOR RAVI RAVINDRA Tuesday 5 September In the Chair Hina Khalid The sages in all the great traditions have said in many ways that Love is a fundamental quality of the cosmos. Not only a quality but a basic constituent of Ultimate Reality. The Rig Veda (X, 129.4) says, ‘In the Beginning arose Love, which was the primal germ cell of the mind.’ And the New Testament affirms: ‘God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.’ (1 John 4:16). The search for this great Love at the very heart of the cosmos is both the beginning and the end of the spiritual paths. In this presentation we will explore in two important spiritual texts, the Bhagavad Gita and the Gospel of John, the place of a searcher’s love for the Divine and more importantly the call to the searcher to be loveable by the Divine. RAVI RAVINDRA is a Professor Emeritus at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he served as a professor in the departments of Comparative Religion, Philosophy, and Physics. He was a member of the Institute of Advanced Study in Princeton, a fellow of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study in Shimla, and the founding director of the Threshold Award for Integrative Knowledge. Among the books he has authored are Whispers from the Other Shore: Spiritual Search – East and West; The Yoga of the Christ; Science and the Sacred; Krishnamurti: Two Birds on One Tree; Heart Without Measure: Gurdjieff Work with Madame de Salzmann; and The Bhagavad Gita: A Guide to Navigating the Battle of Life. Venue and Timing The Royal Asiatic Society,
Admission £8 or £5 Members of the Temenos
Academy/Concessions
Orality and Symbolism as Repositories of African Knowledge of the Self DR ELVIS IMAFIDON Monday 18 September In the Chair Professor Grevel Lindop Cultures have many different ways of gathering and transmitting knowledge. Today’s ‘Western’ cultures – cultures derived from northern Europe and its traditions – are largely based on written text. But text is only one way of keeping and transmitting knowledge. Cultures all over the world have used other modes, such as oral and symbolic ones. In this talk I shall examine traditions of orality and symbolism as providing access to knowledge produced in sub-Saharan Africa. Focussing primarily on the knowledge of self and personhood, I will explore aspects of the oral and symbolic repositories in the Akan, Yoruba and Bini cultures of West Africa. These reveal fascinating understandings of who we are and what gives our lives meaning. I conclude that the current threat posed by electronic media to the relevance of text may, perhaps, be an opportunity to think beyond text and re-embrace more diverse ways of producing and transmitting knowledge. ELVIS IMAFIDON is a Lecturer in the Department of Religions and Philosophies and Director of the Centre for Global and Comparative Philosophies at SOAS, University of London. He is also a Research Associate at the African Centre for Epistemology and the Philosophy of Science, University of Johannesburg. His areas of research include African Philosophy, the philosophy of difference, the philosophy of corporeality, the philosophy of healthcare, ethics, and ontology, primarily from African philosophical perspectives. He is the author and editor of several books including African Philosophy and the Otherness of Albinism: White Skin, Black Race (Routledge 2019), Handbook of African Philosophy of Difference (Springer 2020) and Handbook of African Philosophy (Springer 2023).
Venue and Timing Brunswick Ltd (formerly The Lincoln
Centre),
Admission
SPECIAL NOTICE The Renaissance Program in Florence, Italy Friends of the Temenos Academy may be interested in attending this 5-day course organised by The Renaissance Program: ‘Creating the Best Possible World: The Energizing Ideas of the Italian Renaissance’ November 13–17 & 18, 2023 This November, the five-day Renaissance Program in Florence, Italy, aims to create an unforgettable learning experience. It examines the profound ideas that gave birth to the Italian Renaissance. Then, through first-hand visits to famous sites, the program illuminates how those ideas were reflected in the civic life, artwork, and architecture of Renaissance Florence. This course explores the inspiring ideas that ignited the Renaissance, and how those ideas could inspire and enhance our world today. A symposium following the course discusses the role of ancient philosophy in the Renaissance, including Stoicism, Neoplatonism, and other topics relating to the life and culture of the Italian Renaissance. For further information please see: Creating the Best Possible World: The Energizing Ideas of the Italian Renaissance https://therenaissanceprogram.com/the-renaissance-program-in-florence-italy/ The Renaissance Symposium: The Ideas, Figures, and Influence of Renaissance Humanism https://therenaissanceprogram.com/the-renaissance-symposium/
WEBSITE ARCHIVE The website Archive hosts many audio and video recordings of lectures, digital versions of all thirteen issues of the journal TEMENOS, and the texts of seventy articles from Temenos Academy Review. New material is added regularly. https://temenosacademy.org/main-lecture-archive Many of our audio recordings are available as PODCASTS.
PAYPAL GIVING FUND UK The Temenos Academy is registered with PayPal Giving Fund UK. When using PayPal if you choose you may also make a donation in support of the Temenos Academy. Thank you
FURTHER INFORMATION EMAIL temenos...@myfastmail.com
PRIVACY POLICY https://temenosacademy.org/privacy-policy
|
