Soter Nr. 26 - Vytauto Didžiojo universitetas

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KONFERENCIJA
lish population, was transferred to the Polish Republic. The Prussian Province of Silesia
within Germany was divided into the Provinces of Lower Silesia and Upper Silesia. Austrian
Silesia, the small portion of Silesia retained by Austria after the Silesian Wars, became
part of the new Czechoslovakia. In 1945, after World War II, all of Silesia was seized by
the Soviet troops and most of it transferred to the Polish administration; about 10 million
inhabitants of German origin, both there and in Czechoslovak Silesia, were expelled and
replaced by Polish settlers.
The University of Silesia was established in Katowice in 1968. The University has its
origins in the Higher School of Education, which was founded in 1928. Later, the school
became a branch of the Jagiellońian University in Kraków, the oldest Polish University.
The majority of the Silesian University faculties are located in Katowice, but it now has
campuses in four cities in the region: Katowice, Sosnowiec, Chorzów and Cieszyn. Today
the University has 12 faculties, 25 institutes and over 40,000 students. Six universities and
institutions of higher education from Silesia located on the territories of Poland and the
Czech Republic in 2003 set up the Conference of Silesian Universities with the goal of
further reinforcement of long-standing cooperation. Conference members are: the Opole
University, the University of Ostrava, the University of Silesia in Katowice, the Silesian
University in Opava and the Wrocław University.
The following presents short summaries of the most interesting presentations which
will show a panorama of this international conference.
Santiago Sia (Milltown Institute, Ireland) in his paper “Whitehead on religions: a philosophical
basis for inter-religious dialogue” focused on A. N. Whitehead’s philosophical
notion of religion, discussed selected insights in his philosophy with a view to showing
how these insights can provide some kind of philosophical basis and incentive for interreligious
dialogue.
Hiromasa Mase (Keio University, Japan) presented a paper entitled “‘The contrasted
opposite’ in Nishida and Whitehead”. The speaker compared these two thinkers and stated
that Nishida, the founder of the Kyoto School, stressed the need for an idea of transcendence
in the Buddhist context, while Whitehead was impressed by the idea of immanence
in Buddhist thought, and was convinced that Christianity needs a sincere dialogue with
Buddhism.
A report “Religious experience in William James and Whitehead and the question of
truth” by Helmut Maaßen (Germany) was dedicated to the problem of the evaluation of
religious experiences. The lecturer pointed out some difficulties as well as possible solutions
of Whitehead’s metaphysics of experience.
In his presentation “Buddist Śunjata and Christian Kenosis – an attempt at a comparison
on the ground of Whitehead’s metaphysics” Bogdan Ogrodnik (University of Silesia,
Poland) indicated that both kenosis and śunjata point to the deepest level of reality experienced
by a human being and that successful inter-religious dialogue is possible if it is
illuminated by this experience.
Louwrens W. Hessel (Leiden University, Netherlands) presented a contribution entitled
“Inter-religious dialogue – by whom, for what purpose. How to overcome the clash of religions”.
According to the speaker, a philosopher will have to admit that absolute truth can