Online Zoom Forum: Raimon Panikkar: The Spiritual, Intercultural, and Interreligious Vision in his Life and Work.
Date: Wednesday 9 July 2025.
Time: 7pm-9pm (UK time).
Event Description:
Format: There will be five talks, each of 12 minutes, followed by discussion among the speakers and the chair, followed by Q & A.
Chair:
Dr Elizabeth Drummond Young:
Bio: Elizabeth Drummond Young is a teaching fellow in philosophy at The University of Edinburgh (in the Centre for Open Learning). Her research interests include the contribution of women to philosophy in the 20th Century and the philosophy of religion.
Speakers:
Prof Michael von Brück:
Title: New Life and Freedom – Transcendental Consciousness.
Description: What is freedom, what is life or even new life?
Panikkar interprets the evolution of consciousness in the light of the Vedic experience as an unfolding explication of an ever transcendental mystery.
Our question should be: What is a mystery here, if we are able to name it as such? And who is the 'we' that asks these questions?
Do the Vedic reflections or the reflections of/on the Vedas give an answer?
Does Panikkarji intend to give an answer, and if so, what does it mean?
Bio: Dr. Theol, is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Munich, Germany, and has been founder and Head of the Interfaculty Program of Religious Studies at the same University; He was also founding member of the Centre for Buddhist Studies in Munich (international PhD Program). He studied Theology, Indology and Comparative Linguistics at Rostock University, Indian Philosophy and Religion at Madras University. He specializes in Advaita Vedânta and Mahâyâna-Buddhism. Besides, he received a four years training in Yoga at the Krishnamacarya Yoga Mandiram in Madras and studied Zen-Buddhism in theory and practice at Tenryu-ji in Kyoto, Japan.
After a visiting professorship at Gurukul Lutheran College in Madras 1980-1985 he became Prof. of Comparative Religion at Regensburg University in 1988 and took over the chair of Religionswissenschaft at the University of Munich in 1991 and became director of this institute. He lectures widely all over the world and has been a visiting lecturer and professor at several German (Hamburg, Tübingen), American (Univ. of Hawaii, Univ. of California (Davis), Rice University, Harvard Centere for the Study of World Religion etc.) and Asian Universities (Madras, Bangalore, Chiang Mai). For eight years he has served as the General Editor of the journal “Dialog der Religionen”. He is member of the Human Science Centre of Munich University and Co-Founder and member of the Centre for Buddhist Studies at the University of Munich. He has been a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Goethe Institute and a member of the Advisory Board of Suhrkamp Verlag: Edition World Religions.
He is the Founding Director of the Palliative-Spiritual Academy in Weyarn/Munich, Germany. Since 2015 he is Honorary Professor for Religious Studies/aesthetics of Religion at the Catholic Private University in Linz (Austria). He is the Head of Academic Development, University for Life and Peace Preparatory Office, Yangon and Taipei.
He has written more than twenty major books and about 300 essays in journals all over the world on theology, Buddhism, Hinduism and the encounter of World Religions (especially Buddhism and Hinduism).
Dr Andrew D. Thrasher:
Title: Cosmotheandric Encounters with the Silence of Life.
Description: Raimon Panikkar has written much on silence throughout his Opera Omnia, but how can his understanding of silence be understood in light of a cosmotheandric encounter with the Source of Life? In this talk, the goal is to explore what it means to encounter the Source of Life through cosmotheandric encounters in silence, drawing on Panikkar’s Ideas of Ecosophy, Tempiternity, and my own experiences at Milarepa where Panikkar spent his last days in silence on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea.
Bio: Andrew D. Thrasher finished his PhD at the University of Birmingham in 2024, where he focused on the study of Raimon Panikkar and Charles Taylor, and more broadly on Postsecular, Post-Christian, and Postmodern theology. He currently teaches at several institutions in Virginia in the United States, including George Mason University, Tidewater Community College, and Northern Virginia Community College, where he regularly teaches courses on Asian Religions, World Religions, Ethics, and the Concept of Religion. He is the author of An Advaitic Modernity? Raimon Panikkar and Philosophical Theology and Post-Christian Religion in Popular Culture: Theology through Exegesis. He regularly spends time in silence in a semi-monastic lifestyle and worships at an Anglican Church in Chantilly, VA.
Prof Zaida Espinosa Zárate:
Title: Spirituality for interculturality: Under What Conditions?.
Bio: Zaida Espinosa Zárate (Barcelona, 1985) holds a PhD in Philosophy and is an Associate Professor in the Department of Humanities and Philosophy at Loyola University (Córdoba/Seville, Spain). Her research focuses on ethics and character education, intercultural philosophy and theory of knowledge. Her recent publications include: “Epistemological Foundations of Intercultural Education: Contributions from Raimon Panikkar” (Studies in Philosophy and Education, 2023), “Purpose, Spirituality and Moderate Secularism: The Contribution of Religious Institutions to Purpose Development” (Religions, 2023), “Problem-based Service-Learning: Constructing a Pedagogy of Poverty based on Ignacio Ellacuría” (Educational Philosophy and Theory, 2022) or “Cultivating creativity for intercultural dialogue” (Revista Española de Pedagogía, 2019).
Dr Enrico Beltramini:
Title: Raimon Panikkar and the Law.
Description: Raimon Panikkar harbored a deep skepticism toward institutional authority and legal structures—whether understood as the Law of the Hebrew Bible or as the normative frameworks governing social and ecclesiastical life. This distrust of law shaped both his theological vision and personal choices. In this talk, I examine Panikkar’s libertarian spirit and explore how it informed both his intellectual project and his lived experience.
Bio: Enrico Beltramini has published a book and several articles on Raimon Panikkar and is currently writing a second book devoted to Panikkar’s thought. He specializes in political theology, historical theology, and historiography. His research areas include Mission and World Christianity, with a particular emphasis on South Asia. He is the author of five monographs, numerous book chapters, and over 70 peer-reviewed journal articles. He is a faculty member at Notre Dame de Namur University in California. He holds doctoral degrees in Theology, History, and Social Theory, as well as two Master’s degrees from the University of Stirling in Scotland.
Prof Young-chan Ro:
Title: Panikkar’s Ontology and Epistemology.
Description: I will discuss Panikkar’s way of understanding “knowledge” and “being”, and how Panikkar is trying to overcome a dualistic approach as found in the Western intellectual and philosophical tendency to separate, how “to know,” and “how to be”.
Bio: I am a Professor of Religious Studies at George Mason University.
Raimon Panikkar was my doctoral advisor while I was doing my Ph.D. at the University of California at Santa Barbara.
I have written numerous articles on Panikkar for the periodical dedicated to Raimon Panikkar and edited with Peter C Phan, Raimon Panikkar: A Companion to his Life and Thought, James Clark & Co, 2018.
An archive recording will be made for the EICSP archive.
NB: There will be no refund if you cancel your booking.
Cost: By Donation:
Contact: Neill Walker, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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