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The Intercultural Dialogue and the Challenge of our Time

Speaker: Maria Roberta Cappellini – CIRPIT President

We are living in an age of transition, the old myths (visions of life) have died and the new ones have not yet emerged; as Panikkar affirmed, we have to prepare the ground for a new “myth” based on pluralism, peace and harmony. For this reason we have to deconstruct our global vision of the world, our monolithic beliefs and prejudices and our occidental official dogmatisms (both confessional and scientific), rethink our positions and cross our frontiers discovering “otherness”. To build a new myth we need interculturality and dialogue. Panikkar’s “dialogical dialogue” conditions are represented by a holistic education, based on the idea of human wholeness and enhancement of its differences, by an empathic attitude based on the binomial of knowledge and love and by the symbolic language, which constitutes our relational a-dual experience. These dialogical aspects can enable us to realize “the radical relativity” of our positions and opinions, learning from the others’ experiences, while discovering our roots, at the same time widening our singular, fixed perspectives into moving horizons and into the possibility of a cross-fecundation among different cultures and civilizations.

Maria Roberta Cappellini

Maria Roberta Cappellini is a researcher and essayist in intercultural studies, hermeneutics, aesthetics, and contemporary philosophy. Her university studies include: Foreign Languages and Literatures (Bologna 1977), Philosophical and Pedagogical Sciences (Brescia 1992), Hebrew hermeneutics (Milan 1995), Contemporary, Intercultural philosophy (Milan 1997, Catalunya 2005). She has been actively involved in promoting intercultural understanding as Counsellor at Cepaf Social Centre (Brescia); Promoter of Open Event (Cultural Events and International Conferences for Regione Toscana); She is Co-founder and President of CIRPIT (Intercultural, Interuniversity Centre Dedicated to Raimon Panikkar-Italy, www.cirpit.raimonpanikkar.it). She has participated to Conferences at national and international cultural Institutes and Universities. Her publications on philosophical and theological studies include: André Neher tra esegesi ed ermeneutica, (Morcelliana, Brescia, 2000); Il sogno di Mosè, (Hermatena, Bologna, 2006); Sulle tracce del sogno dell’uomo. A colloquio con Raimon Panikkar tra tradizioni e pensiero contemporaneo.