Presentations and Conversations on the Social Ethics of Peace

Three distinguished scholars from Iran participated in a wide-ranging conversation at Hartford Seminary last weekend during a conference called “The Social Ethics of Peace: An Interfaith Conversation.”

The conference, held from January 15-17, 2016, included the presentation of academic papers from the three professors, Dr. Gholamreza Raeisian of Ferdowsi University in Mashad, Dr. Jafar Morvarid, also of Ferdowsi University in Mashad, and Dr. Mohsen Javadi of the University of Qom.

It was also the continuation of a dialogue that began when a Seminary group visited Iran in spring 2015 and  an opportunity to discuss the role of travel and encounter in peacemaking.

The papers included:

• The Priority of Justice over Generosity and Forgiveness in Islamic Social Ethics by Dr. Javadi
• The Qur’anic Teachings on the Principles of Interaction with ‘the Other’ by Dr. Raeisian
• Peace and Peaceful Coexistence of Religions: A Critical Review of Cartesian Distinction between ‘I’ – ‘Other’ (distinction between subject-object) from Wittgenstein’s Language Games Philosophy and the Evolution of ‘Intellect’ in Encountering with the ‘Other’ in the Context of Shi’a Tradition by Dr. Morvarid

After the papers, a panel of International Peacemaking Program students from Hartford Seminary led a small-group discussion about significant questions on the social ethics of peace. Each then introduced themselves and talked about the impact of these questions.

In the afternoon, members of the Hartford Seminary group that traveled to Iran in spring 2015 led another small-group discussion about how participants found themselves changed when interacting with people unlike themselves. Another group from Hartford Seminary will be traveling to Iran this March.