On Thursday 10 April, the Observatory attended the Ateneu Barcelonès to witness an interreligious dialogue entitled ‘Hope in Nirvana and the Kingdom: two visions of the same longing?’, as part of the fifth edition of the ‘Cycle of Dialogues Hope: are we moving forward?’, organised by the fourth year students of the degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the Pompeu Fabra University. In this dialogue, which dealt with hope from the perspective of Christianity and Buddhism, there were speeches by Armand Puig, priest of the Archdiocese of Tarragona, theologian and doctor in Sacred Scripture; Thubten Wangchen, Tibetan Buddhist monk and founder of the Casa del Tibet in Barcelona; and Berta Meneses, sister of the Congregation of Religiosas Filipenses Misioneras de la Enseñanza, chemist and theologian, and at the same time Zen Master of Catalonia and the Balearic Islands of Zen Dana Paramita associaction.
The event dealt with the theme of hope ‘with the intention of raising horizons in a context that they consider to be depressed and in crisis’ through a religious perspective. The more spiritual dimension when talking about hope is often forgotten, and more political and social expressions are favoured. For this reason, a conversation has been introduced into this Cycle of Dialogues to deal more concretely and rigorously with the role of religion in proposing new horizons.
The panel was structured in three main blocks. The speakers first compared Buddhism and Christianity, then discussed the challenges of religious faith in a secular world, and finally addressed the importance of religion as a possible source of hope in the modern world.
The dialogue included a comparative analysis of Christianity and Buddhism; then discussed the challenges of religious faith in a secular world, addressing hopes beyond the spiritual realm; and finally discussed the importance of religion in today’s world as a potential source of hope.