Menu:
Sacred Web Conference
September 23rd and 24th, 2006
Myer Horowitz Theatre, University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta
Conference Summary
The traditionalist journal, Sacred Web held its inaugural conference on the theme of Tradition and Modernity at the University of Alberta, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, on September 23rd and 24th, 2006. The Conference was attended by approximately 420 people from across North America, Europe, Australia, and the Middle East.
The Conference commenced with a presentation of sacred music from the Hindu and Muslim traditions, combining the bansuri (the flute associated with Lord Krishna) and the ney (the reed flute associated with the Mevlevi Sufis), in a musical dialogue accompanied by the sarangi. The presentation, titled “Jugalbandi: A Dialogue between Traditions”, was performed by Vinod Bhardwaj, bansuri, Michael Frishkopf, ney, and Regula Burckhardt Qureshi, sarangi.
This was followed by Introductory Remarks by the Conference Convener, M. Ali Lakhani.
The theme of the Conference was introduced by HRH The Prince of Wales in a 16-minute long, specially-videotaped address for the Conference. The video and text of the address are found here: Prince Charles' speech and Prince Charles' video
A list of the presenters and topics that they presented at the Conference is as follows:
PROFESSOR SEYYED HOSSEIN NASR, University Professor of Islamic Studies, George Washington University
- The Recovery of the Sacred—Tradition and Perennialism in the Contemporary World
A survey of the influences of modernism and scientism in the contemporary world, and of the vital need for contemporary man to avail of the timely message of the timeless truths of Tradition by recovering the sacred, the true, the good and the beautiful, and to restore harmony to the inner and outer environment
PROFESSOR WILLIAM C. CHITTICK, Professor of Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies at the State University of New York, Stony Brook
- The Traditional Approach to Learning
A study of the quest to recover the lost Heart in Chinese religious traditions and in Muslim teachings
PROFESSOR JAMES S. CUTSINGER, Professor of Theology and Religious Thought at the University of South Carolina
- The Noble Lie
A dramatized dialogue between Socrates and a professor who has to speak about metaphysical truths at a conference on Tradition in the Modern World
DR. MICHAEL OREN FITZGERALD, an adopted son of the late Thomas Yellowtail and an authority on native American Indian traditions of the Crow, Sioux, Cheyenne, Shoshone, Bannock and Apache tribes
- Beauty and the Sense of the Sacred: Schuon’s Antidote to Modernity
A presentation in words (from the writings on sacred beauty by Frithof Schuon) film, and images, on rediscovering sacred beauty in the modern world
DR. JEAN-LOUIS MICHON, a traditionalist French scholar who specializes in Islam in North Africa, Islamic Art, and Sufism
- The ‘True Man’: Myth or Reality?
A rare autobiographical glimpse into the life of this respected Sufi octogenarian presenter, and his personal reminiscences and insights into the True Men he has known (including Rene Guenon, Frithjof Schuon, Titus Burckhardt, and Thomas Yellowtail, among others)
PROFESSOR HARRY OLDMEADOW, Coordinator of Philosophy and Religious Studies at La Trobe University, Bendigo
- Tradition Betrayed: The False Prophets of Modernism
A critique of certain aspects of the modernist doctrines of Nietzsche, Darwin, Freud, and Marx, and the impact of these doctrines in the betrayal of Tradition
DR. REZA SHAH-KAZEMI, Research Associate at the Institute of Ismaili Studies in London, England
- Traditional Action in the Contemporary World
A profound meditation on the fundamental elements involved in engaging in a spiritual path in the contemporary world
PROFESSOR HUSTON SMITH, Thomas J. Watson Professor of Religion and Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus, Syracuse University, and Visiting Professor of Religious Studies, University of California, Berkeley
- The Universal Grammar of Worldviews
A distillation of this sage’s many years of studying the great religions, and an attempt to articulate the key universal elements of metaphysics
The Conference also included shorter presentations, as part of a Forum titled “The Future of Tradition”, from the following presenters, all former students of Dr. Nasr:
PROFESSOR WALEED EL-ANSARY, Consultant to the Grand Mufti of Egypt, and Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of South Carolina, Columbia, offered an outline of a critique of capitalist economics.
RPOFESSOR CANER DAGLI, Advisor for Interfaith Affairs to the King of Jordan, offered an outline of the changing forms of power and the traditionalist response.
PROFESSOR DAVID DAKAKE, Adjunct Professor in the Religious Studies Department of George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, specializing in Comparative Religion and Islamic Philosophy, outlined Muslim and Christian theological interpretations of the Crucifixion and offered a metaphysical basis for the reconciliation of these views.
PROFESSOR MARIA MASSI DAKAKE, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, specializing in Islam and Women in Religion, spoke about the story of Hagar and contrasted modern feminist interpretations of the story with traditional interpretations.
PROFESSOR JOSEPH LUMBARD, Professor of Islamic Studies at Brandeis University and a former Advisor for Interfaith Affairs to the King of Jordan, outlined Muslim and Christian theological interpretations of the Sonship of Christ and his Resurrection and offered a metaphysical basis for the reconciliation of these views.
