Between 7 and 13 March, we had the privilege to host the John Hick Centenary Conference 2022. This was an event organized by us and it is the result of well over a year of planning. Our main ambition with the event was to celebrate the memory and legacy of John Hick and, by doing this, create opportunities for interreligious and intercultural dialogue. Therefore, the week was filled with lectures, talks, and workshops meant to inspire our students to further explore religion from philosophical perspectives.

We started the week with the whole school gathering for the opening of the conference, during which we welcomed our guests and listened to an address by Professor Peter Hick (son of John Hick who was also joined by his sister Eleanor and his brother Mark) and a keynote lecture by Professor David Cheetham.

In the following days, we were privileged to be able to listen to a philosophical discussion on Hick’s pluralism and the result this hypothesis has on the interreligious dialogue between professor Cheetham and Professor Perry Schmidt-Leukel who joined us online from Germany. Later that evening the students could listen to a talk on the religious pluralism of Gandhi and Hick by Dr. Sharada Sugirtharajah and enjoy three different workshops, led by Dr. Sugirtharajah, Mr Hugh Rice and Revd. Canon Philip Lambert, and Dr. Alan Race on such diverse topics as the problem of evil, the masculine and feminine in Hinduism, and the interreligious response to the climate crisis. The conference continued on Wednesday with a lecture by Dr. Race on early, global efforts to create arenas of interreligious dialogue and another set of workshops led by Revd. Sonya Wratten (who interacted with students talking about how views on the Transcendent reality can transform through interfaith encounter), Dr. Timothy Musgrove joining us online from California (who delivered a session on the evolution of John Hick by talking about 5 major works), and Professor Schmidt-Leukel (who had a workshop on Buddhist responses to religious diversity).

On Thursday, Dr. Musgrove gave an appreciated lecture on the dialectic between religious inclusivism and religious pluralism, and on Friday, Mr Hugh Rice gave a lecture on optimism, rationality, and faith. We ended the week by the students organizing a religious “speed-dating” during which students had the opportunity to interact with many different believers from many traditions.

Our students have made us proud with their engagement, openness, and focused questions. We are convinced that they all have gotten new ideas to analyze and wrestle with and we expect that the different discussions will continue for a long time. A lot of material, including recorded sessions, will soon be available on the Centenary’s website

UWC Red Cross Nordic will celebrate the 100th birthday of the philosopher and theologian John Hick, by organising a week of activities between 7th and 11th March 2022, centered on Hick’s ideas, the plurality of religions, and religious pluralism. We believe it to be a particularly important task for multicultural environments to create meeting points for interreligious dialogue and understanding. Since John Hick was known for his work against racism and religious intolerance, we are creating a program to enable our students and other participants to engage actively and philosophically with religious differences. All in Hick’s spirit. In addition to members of his family, who are supportive of the event, we will welcome several scholars and thinkers to our campus or online. Read about our guest speakers in our booklet. The keynote lecture will be delivered by Professor David Cheetham from University of Birmingham and there will be (among many other presentations) sessions on the interreligious response to the climate emergency by Dr Alan Race and on Buddhist responses to religious diversity by Professor Perry Schmidt-Leukel.

Our ambition is to create a memorable contribution to an ongoing, global and local discussion on how we create a tolerant, open-minded, and aware conversation on religion and religious belief. Be part of it at our College or online!

Some of the academic sessions will be screened and shared online. Other sessions will be open to the public. We will have a limited number of rooms for external guests, but will happily welcome visitors from other educational institutions, and other interested parties. Please see our invitation with the detailed program.

For more information, visit our website:
uwcrcnhickcentenary.no