CALL FOR PAPERS
12TH INTERNATIONAL BEDIUZZAMAN SYMPOSIUM
THE ROLE OF BELIEF IN INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIAL LIFE
3-5 October 2021, İstanbul / Turkey
Humanity faces severe problems of material as well as spiritual nature. Despite great advances in science and technology, various social and psychological problems, global crises, and environmental disasters have escalated to a level that threatens our future. Yet, numerous efforts to improve this dangerous situation have not yielded permanent solutions to these problems.
It is not only societies that suffer from this situation; individuals suffer too. Ever more people are experiencing depression and mental disorders or losing their senses of excitement and happiness. Drugs, alcohol, domestic violence, suicides, and various crimes are troubling humanity at steadily increasing rates.
How can individuals and societies achieve happiness, order, peace, and prosperity in the face of such colossal problems?
We need new approaches and sustainable solutions to address our difficulties or at least reduce their impact. A worldview that lacks in spiritual and moral values underlines the predicaments of our time, and the solution lies in how human beings perceive and treat themselves and everything else in the universe.
Suffering takes hold, because humanity is moving away from values such as justice, compassion, kindness, love, respect, forgiveness, sharing, and charity. The dire consequences of this drift affect not only humans but all living beings and the entire environment.
Humankind can build a better world only by embracing a spiritual approach under the guidance of divine revelation and with a system of values that considers the human beings and everything else as the Creator’s artifacts within a harmonious whole.
To this background, studies that will pave the way for feasible solutions to achieve security, peace, order, justice, happiness, and prosperity at the individual, social, and global levels are needed.
Bediuzzaman Said Nursi’s Risale-i Nur, which offers a contemporary interpretation of the Holy Qur’an, relevant insights from the Sunnah of Prophet Mohammed (pbuh), and a complete system of reflecting upon the cosmos as God’s creation, offers a rich and inspiring source for such studies. Bediuzzaman Said Nursi views the universe, humanity, and all beings from a well-grounded perspective of faith and offers the principles of living in accordance with that perspective to achieve salvation for humanity. This approach, which is based on divine revelation and verified faith, needs to be examined theoretically and operationalized in practice. Thoughtful and innovative contributions and discussions are needed to discover how the Risale-i Nur’s perspective can lead to sustainable solutions for the urgent problems of humanity in all areas of life.
To this end, Istanbul Foundation for Science and Culture (IFSC) will hold the 12th International Bediuzzaman Symposium in Istanbul during 3-5 October 2021 on “The Role of Belief in Individual and Social Life.” IFSC invites academics, researchers, and thinkers worldwide to propose papers that address the symposium’s central theme and its subtopics as announced.
For further information and application guidelines, please visit the symposium website at http://www.bediuzzamansymposium.com.
Note: The symposium will be held ONLINE in case the Covid-19 epidemic, which is now widespread in the world, does not disappear until the symposium time.
Conference Secretary
E-mail: english@iikv.org