Christians Associated for Relationships with Eastern Europe -
Trip to and Service in Romania
report by Michael S. Jones
CAREE member Mike Jones, on a trip to and service in Romania (August 2006):
This August my wife and I had the privilege of spending 16 days in Romania. I was invited to participate in a SOROS-sponsored program organized by SACRI (Societatea Academica pentru Cercetare a Religiilor si Ideologiior). It is a three-year program titled “Religious Pluralism and Fundamentalism: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Religious Studies.” The August session in which I participated had the theme “Paradigms of Cohabitation, Tolerance, and Interreligious Dialogue.” SACRI is an association of Romanian professors and graduate students, but this program is international, and involves professors and graduate assistants from central and eastern Europe and the near east, as well as invited speakers from other parts of the world. The language of the symposium was English.
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We went to Romania a week before the symposium began so that we could visit friends and acquaintances made during the two years that we lived there. I had the opportunity to speak in three Baptist churches in the southeastern part of the country: a large church in Fetesti where I have spoken before, a new church being planted in Tanderei by a former student of mine, and a small church in Calarasi on the Bulgarian border, also pastored by a former student of mine. In all three locations we stayed in the homes of the pastors -- their hospitality is something to be admired.
The SACRI symposium was held on the other side of the country, in the Transylvanian city of Cluj-Napoca. After a week in the south and a day in Bucharest, we traveled cross country by train to the site of the symposium. In Cluj we met up with another American who had come to speak at the symposium, Dr. Leonard Swidler, Professor of Philosophy of Religion and Interreligious Dialogue at Temple University. Dr. Swidler was on my dissertation committee when I was a student at Temple, and it was a great pleasure to be able to collaborate with him at this symposium.
The symposium took place August 13-26. I had to return to the USA to start teaching on August 23, but Dr. Swidler was able to participate for the entire duration of the symposium. Len spoke several times on topics directly related to interreligious dialogue, spent considerable time cultivating a dialogic attitude in small groups and through one-on-one discussions, and was in general a great success. Everyone loved his combination of experience, expertise, and relaxed informality. For my part, I led two discussions on theories of religious diversity, spoke on the topic “Teaching Pluralism in a Traditionally-Oriented Academic Environment: Maintaining Your Faith while Embracing Pluralism,” participated in a round-table discussion on “Integrating Religious Studies into the Academic Curricula of the Human Sciences,” led several small-group meetings on teaching religion at the university level, and video-recorded an interview about my research on the Romanian philosopher Lucian Blaga.
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The make-up of the symposium was intentionally diverse. It was an international symposium, but also inter-confessional and inter-ideological. It was delightful that all this diversity did not negatively affect the cordiality in the least. The participants ate together even when the program did not involve meals, and spent most of their limited free time together. We were all quite interested in hearing about each other’s struggles and strategies. It was a warm social environment, which led to openness of discussion and even gracefulness of disagreement.
This is the second year of this program. My schedule did not permit me to participate in the first year, but I am certainly hoping to be invited back for the third!
Michael S. Jones
Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Liberty University
Associate Editor, Journal for the Study of Religions and Ideologies
http://hiphi.ubbcluj.ro/JSRI/
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