Symposium Review: 'Visiting the Divine'
Religious Practice in a Post Secular World

This year’s annual symposium of the
Irish Centre for Faith and Culture
was held on 3rd March
in Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth. 

It focused on the theme of
“Visiting the Divine:
Religious Practice in a Post-Secular World”

The guest speakers at the symposium were: Professor Grace Davie, University of Exeter
Professor Patricia Casey, UCD
Professor Richard Kearney, Boston College. 

The symposium was opened by Professor Michael Conway, from the Centre for Faith and Culture, who spoke on the subject of the mystical life.  Professor Conway suggested that the mystic is not an elitist hermit who condemns the world afar, but a human being open to mystery.  Moreover, all human beings are mystics.  Elements of the transcendent call to us through art and nature (the aesthetic dimension of mysticism) as well as through spiritual practice (the ascetic dimension).  Once we begin to explore this, we are freed to see our God-touched world beyond old categories.

 

 

 

 

Professor Grace Davie is the Professor of Sociology at the University of Exeter. She is a specialist in the sociology of religion, with a particular emphasis on patterns of religion in Europe, who discussed religion in modern Europe.  Rather than over-simplifying the debate, Professor Davie pointed out that religion involves a number of factors, some of which are in decline in Europe while others are not.  Furthermore, some faith communities face dwindling congregations even as others grow vastly more popular.  Professor Davie explored the part played by economic migration in Europe’s changing religious landscape as well as the roles of rituals and sacred places in its cultural and physical landscapes. 

Professor Patricia Casey is the Professor of Psychiatry at the Department of Psychiatry, UCD and the Mater Misericordiae Hospital. Her research interests include personality disorder and suicide and she is also the editor of the Psychiatric Bulletin.  Professor Casey spoke on the psychological benefits of religious practice.  She began by noting that religion and spirituality have recently ceased to be synonymous in the popular vocabulary.  Professor Casey then presented numerous studies and meta-analyses examining the health of those who followed certain religious practices (whether public or private), those who claimed a certain spirituality while distancing themselves from religion, and those who claimed no belief or interest in a higher power.  Based on the data shown, Professor Casey argued that religious practitioners generally tend to live longer and have a lower tendency towards self-destructive behaviour compared to other groups.

A stunningly beautiful presentation of living art followed in the form of a recital by the Schola Hyberniae.  The Schola is a female ensemble specializing in plainchant and early polyphony. The group has a particular interest in music from Irish manuscripts.  They performed a variety of songs including Gregorian chant and bicinium.  Between each piece, director Giovanna Feeley gave a succinct description of the history and purpose of the next song, revealing a different facet of what it can mean to visit the divine. 

 

The final speaker of the conference was Professor Richard Kearney.  Professor Kearney holds the Charles B. Seelig Chair of Philosophy at Boston College and has served as a Visiting Professor at University College Dublin, the University of Paris (Sorbonne) and the University of Nice.  As part of the symposium, professor Kearney delivered the Michael Devlin lecture.  Professor Kearney explored the concept of “anatheism” – that is, belief in the God who appears after a different kind of belief in God has been abandoned.  He proposed a double-negative theology of  retrieval, of the kind of return that can only take place from a position of helplessness or surrender in which one has let go of a God of power, of a single community, of exclusion.  This theology does not clings to one unassailable position, but calls the person to a certain disposition to receive from God and, indeed, to reposition himself or herself by making a choice in favour of God.  Following some questions and comments from the audience, participants retired to a reception for further discussion and reflection.