Professor to Speak about Religious Symbolism
Posted on Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Dr. Bryan Rennie, Westminster College associate professor of religion and Vira I. Heinz chair in religion, will be the featured speaker at Faires Faculty Forum Wednesday, Feb. 13, at 11:40 a.m. in the Sebastian Mueller Theater in the McKelvey Campus Center.
His presentation is drawn from "Mircea Eliade: The Perception of the Sacred in the Profane, Intention, Reduction, and Cognitive Theory," an article he wrote for publication in Temenos: the Nordic Journal of Comparative Religion, and a talk he gave at the New York Open Center.
"It is part of my on-going agenda to develop a fully rational and fully reasoned explanation of religious pluralism, that is, the belief that there is truth to be found in all of the religious traditions of the world," Rennie said. "Only if the relative truth claims of competing religions can be rationally explained in some way and their varied and incompatible claims to truth rendered comprehensible in some way can the current deadlock between militant exclusivism and incoherent relativism be resolved."
Faculty Forum was established in 1990 by Dr. Barbara Faires, Westminster professor of mathematics, during her term as Dean of the College and Vice President for Academic Affairs. Faculty members from all disciplines volunteer to present lectures on their current research, artistic productions, and/or scholarship of teaching and learning. Each forum presents new ideas with innovative lecture techniques.
Rennie, who has been with Westminster since 1994, earned an undergraduate degree, master's and Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. Rennie has published four books and numerous articles on Eliade.
Contact Rennie at (724) 946-7151 or e-mail brennie@westminster.edu for additional information.
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