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The Role of Religion in the Longer-Range Future 931819_cover 7/8/08 12:14 PM Page 1 THE ROLE OF RELIGION IN THE LONGER-RANGE FUTURE Boston University 67 Bay State Road Boston, MA 02215 tel: 617-358-4000 fax: 617-358-4001 e-mail: [email protected] www.bu.edu/pardee Copyright © 2008 by the Trustees of Boston University. The Pardee Center Conference Series All rights reserved. Spring 2006 0608 931819 931819_cover 7/8/08 12:14 PM Page 2 The Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future was established at Boston University in late 2000 to advance scholarly dialogue and investigation into the future. The overarching mission of the Pardee Center is to serve as a leading Frederick S. Pardee academic nucleus for the study of the longer-range future and to produce serious intellectual work that is interdisciplinary, interna- tional, non-ideological, and of practical applicability towards the betterment of human well-being and enhancement of the human condition. The Pardee Center’s Conference Series provides an ongoing platform for such Pardee Conference Series investigation. The Center convenes a conference each year, relating the topics to Pardee conference proceedings are published in a volume series and are available through the one another, so as to assemble a master-construct of expert research, opinion, Pardee Center. The Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study agreement, and disagreement over the years to come. To help build an institu- of the Longer-Range Future, Boston University, 67 Bay State Road, Boston, MA 02215 tional memory, the Center encourages select participants to attend most or all of The views expressed herein are those of the the conferences. Conference participants look at decisions that will have to be symposium participants and do not necessarily express those of the Pardee Center or made and at options among which it will be necessary to choose. The results of Boston University. For more information about Pardee Center these deliberations provide the springboard for the development of new scenarios programs and publications, visit us on the Web at www.bu.edu/pardee. and strategies. The following is an edited version of our conference presentations. To view our conference proceedings in their entirety, visit us on the Web at www.bu.edu/pardee. 931819_PARDEE_06 6/23/08 10:21 AM Page 1 THE ROLE OF RELIGION IN THE LONGER-RANGE FUTURE April 6, 7, 8, 2006 Co-organized by David Fromkin Director Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future and Ray L. Hart Dean ad interim Boston University School of Theology Sponsored by Boston University Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future with support from the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs 931819_PARDEE_06 6/23/08 10:21 AM Page 2 THE ROLE OF RELIGION Contents in the Longer-Range Future CONTENTS SESSION THREE: “What Can Religion Offer to the Modern World?” Presenters and Participants Panel: Benjamin Friedman Religion and the Economic Order KEYNOTE ADDRESS Peter Berger David Fromkin “A Tour d’Horizon” Religion and the Political Order SESSION ONE Presider: H. Joachim Maitre Charles Harper “The Great Dilemma: Science, Religion, and the Human Future” SESSION FOUR: “Must We Choose Between Religion and Science? The Question Revisited” SESSION TWO: “Where Is Religion Going?” Panel: Kirk Wegter-McNelly Panel: Phillips Talbot Hans Kornberg South Asia Hindus and Buddhists Owen Gingerich Ralph Buultjens Presider: Ray L. Hart East Asia Hindus and Buddhists Jane Kramer Catholics: The New Papacy Christopher Marsh Orthodox Christianity Michael J. Smith Niebuhr Protestantism Steven N. Simon Muslims and Jews Presider: Walter Connor 2 3 931819_PARDEE_06 6/23/08 10:21 AM Page 4 THE ROLE OF RELIGION Presenters and Participants in the Longer-Range Future PRESENTERS AND PARTICIPANTS Steven Katz Director, Elie Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies; Professor Sophie Lei Aldrich Senior Major Gifts Officer, Development & Alumni of Religion; Director, Department of Religion, College of Arts & Sciences, Relations, Boston University Boston University Nancy Ammerman Professor of Sociology of Religion; Director of Graduate Roger Kimball Co-editor and Publisher, The New Criterion Studies, School of Theology, Boston University Sir Hans Kornberg University Professor; Professor of Biology, College of Arts Peter L. Berger University Professor; Professor of Sociology and of Theology, & Sciences, Boston University College of Arts & Sciences and School of Theology; Director, Institute on Jane Kramer The New Yorker Culture, Religion & World Affairs, Boston University H. Joachim Maitre Director, Military Education; Director, Center for Defense Ralph Buultjens Professor of Social Sciences, New York University Journalism; Acting Chairman, Department of International Relations, College Walter Connor Professor of International Relations, of Political Science, and of Arts & Sciences; Professor of Journalism and International Relations, of Sociology, College of Arts & Sciences, Boston University College of Communication, Boston University Patti Craig-Hart Senior Scientist and Owner, Cyberneutics, Inc. Christopher Marsh Interim Director, J. M. Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies; Associate Professor of Political Science and Church-State Studies, Constance S. Cramer Deputy Director, Global Health Initiative, School of Baylor University Public Health, Boston University David Mayers Professor and Chairman of Political Science; Professor of Craig Drill Craig Drill Capital History, College of Arts & Sciences, Boston University Benjamin Friedman William Joseph Maier Professor of Political Economy; Anita McGahan Everett W. Lord Distingushed Faculty Scholar; Professor of Director of Undergraduate Studies, Department of Economics, Harvard Strategy and Policy, School of Management, Boston University University Michael Meyer European Editor, Newsweek International David Fromkin University Professor; Professor of International Relations, History and Law; College of Arts & Sciences and School of Law, Boston Stephen Prothero Professor and Chairman, Department of Religion, College of University; Director, The Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Arts & Sciences, Boston University Longer-Range Future, Boston University Steven Simon Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies, Council on Foreign Owen Gingerich Emeritus Professor of Astronomy and of the History of Relations; Senior Analyst, Middle East and Terrorism, RAND; Adjunct Science, Harvard University Professor of Middle East Security Studies, Georgetown University Sheldon Glashow Metcalf Professor of Math and Science; University Professor; Michael J. Smith Professor of Political and Social Thought; Associate Professor of Physics, College of Arts & Sciences, Boston University Professor of Politics, University of Virginia Irena Gross Professor of Modern Foreign Languages; Executive Director, Phillips Talbot President Emeritus, Asia Society Institute for Human Sciences, College of Arts & Sciences, Boston University James Tracy Headmaster, Boston University Academy Norman Hammond Professor of Archeology; Chairman, Department of John Watts Chairman, Fischer Francis Trees & Watts, New York, NY Archaeology, College of Arts & Sciences, Boston University Kirk Wegter-McNelly Assistant Professor of Theology, School of Theology, Charles Harper Senior Vice President, John Templeton Foundation Boston University Ray L. Hart Dean ad interim, School of Theology; Professor of Philosophical and Systematic Theology, Boston University Douglas M. Hart President and Owner, Cyberneutics, Inc. 4 5 931819_PARDEE_06 6/23/08 10:21 AM Page 6 THE ROLE OF RELIGION Keynote Address in the Longer-Range Future KEYNOTE ADDRESS ment. One is geographical; the other is sociological. The geographical exception Peter Berger is Central and Western Europe. When you get to Eastern Europe, you have a dif- A Tour d’Horizon ferent ballgame. What I say doesn’t apply to say, Russia. But Western and Central In a global overview of the situation of religion in the world, let me first say Europe, what used to be the world of Latin Christianity, is highly secularized. what I think is very important—that is, what the situation is not. Social scien- Like every phenomenon, when you look at it more carefully, it becomes more tists, historians, and many theologians are still of the opinion that we live in an complicated. Europe is not quite as secular as it first seems, but certainly com- age of secularity, that the big challenge to religion is secularism in one way or pared to most of the world and certainly compared to the United States, Europe another. There are some reasons for this notion. I, myself, along with most soci- is exceptional. The other exception is not geographical, but sociological. There is ologists dealing with religion, believed that this was in fact the case when I indeed a rather thin but very influential class of people internationally, broadly started out my career, but I think it is fair to say that this theory has been mas- speaking, a sort of intelligentsia, which is indeed secularized. What has been sively falsified. We do not live in a secularized age. We live in an age, in most of called a culture war in the United States is a very clear expression of this. We the world, which is passionately religious. The world is full of enormous explo- now know from lots of polling data that the single most important factor of sions of religious fervor, and I think it is fair to say that there is not a single whether people vote Republican or Democrat in the United
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