Dear. Dr . Krasnov:
I have just retired as ProfessorEmeritus of Comparative Religion from 64 years
of teaching inGermany, Europe and America. During this time I developed with
myfriends in Germany, Europe and America our "Critical Theory ofReligion and
Society (CTRS)".
Through the years the CTRS hasfound expression in over 30 books and over 400
articles of mine, notto speak of books and articles written by my students and
friends, aswell as in the foundation and direction of a Center for
HumanisticFuture Studies at Western Michigan University, and of aninternational
course on the "Future of Religion" in theInter-University Centre at Dubrovnik,
Republic of Croatia, and of aninternational sister course on "Religion in Civil
Society"with the Universities of Simferopol and Sebastopol in the Republic
ofCrimea.
It has been and will continue tobe the purpose of the CTRS, to help to
reconcile the modernantagonism between the religious and the secular, and thus
theconsequent conflicts on the religious side between believers whostress
revelation, and believers who are also open toward the modernenlightenment
movements, and on the secular side between enlightenedpeople, who promote total
secularization and the end of religion, andthose who are also still open for
progressive religious ideas andvalues and want to translate them into the
modern and post-moderndiscourse of the expert cultures, and beyond that into
the life worldin modern systems of human condition and action
systems,characterized by communicative praxis, mediated by ethical
andsocio-ethical norms, and into the economic subsystems, determined
byinstrumental action mediated by money, and into the politicalsubsystems, also
characterized by instrumental action, but mediatedby power.
In the CTRS as discourse,understood as future-oriented remembrance of human
suffering with thepractical intent to diminish it, believers and non-believers
meet inorder to help to resolve the ongoing more or less bloody culturewars.
This discourse must continually be kept open and be preventedfrom being closed
fundamentallstically, or naturalistically andpositivistically.
The CTRS is practical in that itworks for peace among religions and nations.
There is no peace amongnations without peace among religions. There is no peace
amongreligions without dialogue between the religions. There is nodiscourse
among the religions without foundational research in thereligions and in the
nations. The CTRS understands itself as suchresearch process with the practical
intent of reconciliation.
Youcan find out about all the work connected with the CTRS on mywebsite.
http://www.rudolfjsiebert,org/
In November 2019, Western MichiganUniversity will perform a Conference on the
Critical Theory ofReligion and Society (CTRS) at the occasion of my retirement
after 54years of teaching and research at Western Michigan University. WMUwould
also like to establish a Chair and Humanistic Research Centerfor the Critical
Theory of Religion and Society, in order to promotethe CTRS further into the
future, for generations to come.
Here we need your help! We arelooking for individuals, institutions,
foundations, corporations,etc., in America and Europe, who would be interested
and able to helpus fund such a CTRS Chair and Humanistic Research Center for
Religionand Society at Western Michigan University.
In Europe, Germany is particularlyimportant for us, since the CTRS has
originally been derived from theCritical Theory of Society of the Institute for
Social Research atthe Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt a.M.,
before itbecame global.
Please, let us know if you areinterested in our important project, and if you
can help support itwith a financial contribution? We would greatly appreciate
it if youcan forward this letter onto others who can help support thisproject.
I am with all my best wishes,
Your
Dr. Rudolf J. Siebert
Professor Emeritus of ComparativeReligion
Western Michigan University
Kalamazoo, Michigan USA
TheEvolution of the Critical Theory of Religion
andSociety:
Union,Disunion, and Reunion of the Sacred
andthe Profane (1946-2019)
By
RudolfJ Siebert
2020
-----Original Message-----
From: Vladislav Krasnov <president92@xxxxxxxxx>
To: Leo Semashko <leo.semashko@xxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Lucas Pawlik <pawlik.lucas@xxxxxxxxx>; Bernard Scott <bernces1@xxxxxxxxx>;
gha-peace@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <gha-peace@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>; ghausa@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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Sent: Wed, Aug 21, 2019 8:34 am
Subject: [gha-peace] Re: Gandhica and Two key questions for you+++Your Kashmir
article
Dear Leo:Sorry, the contingency of my own peace-oriented projects prevented me
from responding sooner to your laudably persistent requests. Having reviewed
the situation, I am persuaded to join those who approve the Gandica-Kashmir GHA
peace project .
John Avery is so right in reminding us of Gandhi's fundamental principal that
"violent methods for achieving a desired social result would inevitably result
in an escalation of violence." This means that a triumph of arms in Kashmir, be
that by India or Pakistan, will not solve the problem.
I also like the 2nd point of your peace proposal
2. To recognize as necessary as the first constructive peacemaking condition a
voluntary twofold increase in 2020 compared to 2019 of the budget expenditures
of each state for the development of social infrastructure in the region: for
the construction of housing, roads, educational and medical institutions,
sports facilities, shopping enterprises and the like to serve the Kashmir
population.
After all, destitute and idle population can be easier manipulated into
engaging or accepting violence than those who have something to lose. Perhaps,
the 2nd point could be strengthened by greater emphasis on educational
programs. Abdul Kalam, a former President of India, was exactly right when he
said that only "the enlightened citizens (are) capable of building a
harmonious civilization of peace and prosperity". Last but not the least, we
should not treat the Kashmir conflict as a purely local problem, far removed
from the mighty and more prosperous countries. The fact that both Pakistan and
India are nuclear-armed makes their conflict of primary importance not just for
their neighbors, but puts at risk the existence and well-being of Mother Earth.
In the absence of a nuclear arms control agreement, any local use of nuclear
arms might trigger a catastrophic chain reaction. The fact that we live in the
age of Internet and do communicate globally is not re-assuring because in
war-time condition, Mass Media are likely to escalate their current fake, false
and misleading info wars to the degree of total confusion of even normally
enlightened citizens.
With the avalanche of information via Internet, the Cyber agreement among the
super-powers is urgently needed, so argued James Cardin in The Nation magazine,
and I think GHA can and should support this idea even before a nuclear
arms-control agreement.
Personally, I like John Avery's suggestion for "Kashmir to become an
independent state, under the protection of the United Nations, and for the
military forces of both Pakistan and India to be withdrawn". However,we, the
outsiders, should be careful in not imposing us.
I also like John's saying "The end achieved would always be contaminated by the
methods used. He (Gandhi) was influenced by Leo Tolstoy with whom he exchanged
many letters, and he in turn influenced Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela".
This leads me to suggest another Russian name, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, whose
essay, "REPENTANCE AND SELF-LIMITATION IN THE LIFE OF NATIONS Aleksandr
Solzhenitsyn (1973) * http://my.ilstu.edu/~jguegu/ALEKSANDRSOLZHENITSYN.pdf I ;
recommend for people of both India and Pakistan.Finally, you might want to take
a look at Mahatma Gandhi and AleksandrSolzhenitsyn,
The Two Giants Who Blessed the20th Century.
Will Vladimir Putin, OtherWorld Leaders Listen?
By Vladislav Krasnov (aka WGeorge Krasnov)
https://www.peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=884
PEACE and HARMONY to ALL
Sincerely,
W George Krasnow (http://wiki-org.ru/wiki/Краснов,_Владислав_Георгиевич)
President, RAGA
www.raga.org
Facebook
вт, 20 авг. 2019 г. в 12:45, Leo Semashko <leo.tetrism76@xxxxxxxxx>:
My dear friend John, Nobel Peace Laureate,
Thank you very much for your warm letter and highly relevant theoretical
response.
We greatly regret your health and your blindness, but we admire your Gandhian
courage in serving the interests of humankind and its global peace in the
ingenious intellectual struggle against "absolute evil", in your assessment,
nuclear weapons and its global patron - the world militaristic order.
Your brilliant article about Kashmir by Gandhi, as the full support of the GHA
project “Gandhica-Kashmir”, was published as its ANNEX on its page here:
https://peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=899 and in the attachment. We ;
disagree with you only in one, in a political way of solving the Kashmir
problem. You offer Kashmir the full sovereignty of an independent state under
the UN tutelage and we offer a condominium, joint voluntary and harmonious
governance of India and Pakistan, so that it becomes an instrument for their
reconciliation/harmony, instead of the "apple of discord". Which is better -
time and the will of two countries (peoples and governments) will show,
depending on its quality: good or militaristic. Our project showed its split
almost equally between these poles .... Today, these countries more like to
fight and kill each other than stubbornly, like Gandhi, to seek peace and
harmony among themselves, unfortunately .... We were happy to include you in
the supporters and co-authors of our Kashmir project.
Your other ingenious works, first of all your unprecedented fundamental book
about the past and modern fascism, are published on your personal page here:
https://peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=672
Please accept our strongest wishes for your health and unbending courage in the
most difficult time of life. We admire your example, which will forever remain
in the GHA memory!
With love, your friend,
Leo
Dr Leo Semashko:
-State Councillor of St. Petersburg, Russia; RANH Professor;
-Philosopher, Sociologist and Peacemaker from Harmony;
-Global Harmony Association (GHA) Founder (2005) and Honorary President
(2016);
-Director, GHA Website "Peace from Harmony": www.peacefromharmony.org;
-Global Peace Science (GPS) from Harmony (616 pages):
http://peacefromharmony.org/docs/global-peace-science-2016.pdf;
-SPHERONS as GPS Center (20 pages):
http://peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=423;
-NO TO USA WAR WITH RUSSIA:
http://diy.rootsaction.org/petitions/no-to-war-hot-or-cold-with-russia;
“THE WAR KILLED MY FATHER, AND I KILLED WAR”:
-Personal page: http://peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=253;
-GHA Gandhi Book: https://peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=848
----- Original Message -----
From: John Avery, avery.john.s@xxxxxxxxx
To: leo.semashko@xxxxxxxxx
Sent: 20 августа 2019 г., 6:52:58
Subject: Gandhica and Two key questions for you
My dear friend Leo,
Thank you so much for your letter! I hope that you are well, and that you are
enjoying the summer.
I continue writing, despite serious health problems, blindness in one eye, and
near blindness in the other. I cannot read ordinary books, but I am able to
write with the help of the strong light and magnification of the computer
screen. My most recent book, "Fascism, Then and Now", can be freely downloaded
and circulated from the following link:
http://eacpe.org/app/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Fascism-then-and-now-John-Scales-Avery.pdf
Other books and articles that I have written about global problems are
available on the following educational website:
http://eacpe.org/about-john-scales-avery/
About Kashmir, I strongly applaud the efforts of all my dear friends in GHA to
bring peace to the region following Gandhian principles. Here is a link to an
article that I wrote some time ago about applying the ethics of Mahatma Gandhi
to Kashmir:
http://www.other-news.info/2019/03/kashmir-what-would-gandhi-say/
Thank you again for your letter, and for all your efforts in the cause of peace.
Your friend,
John
(John Scales Avery)
On Mon, Aug 19, 2019 at 9:50 AM Leo Semashko <leo.semashko@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
My dear friend John,
How are you? We have not heard you for a long time, but we hope that everything
is fine with you.
Please, let us know what do you think about our peacemaking and anti-militarist
project for Kashmir (https://peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=899)? Do you
approve of it, or consider it premature? Your opinion as Nobel Peace Laureate
would be decisive for our Kashmir project. The terror in Kashmir between
Indians and Pakistanis lasts more than 73 years. Could we hope to get your
decisive response to this extremely urgent question for the GHA, which split it
into two parts?
Another more important question concerns your participation in the promotion of
our “Gandhica”, where your strong anti-militarist article
(https://peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=848) was published together with
your wonderful photo. We would be happy to send you 4 copies of this book (240
pages) for free, so that you can provide its presentation at the Jubilee
Gandhian Session of the UN and UNESCO General Assemblies on October 2 in honor
of the 150th anniversary of Gandhi in New York and Paris through your
representatives (or colleagues of Nobel Laureates) in them, as well as in your
homeland in Denmark, at your unique European Peace Academy and at the
University of Copenhagen, to whose library you could give one of the copies.
Similar presentations would be also extremely appropriate for the International
Peace Day on September 21, which is impossible without the most effective,
non-violent peacemaker of all time, countries and nations - without Mahatma
Gandhi. Is this possible for you? Your presentations of this anti-militarist
book as a Nobel Prize Laureate would be the strongest demonstration of your and
our anti-militarist position under the banner of non-violence of the immortal
Gandhi and would become a world event and a shift, “hacking”, as Dr. Pawlik
says, a global militarist order from a dead center.
I am sending this letter in copies to our friends, co-authors and editors of
Gandhica Dr. Lucas Pawlik, Austria and Dr. Bernard Scott, England, who, as far
as possible, would be happy to provide you with all possible assistance and
support.
Looking forward to your understanding and support, peace,
Leo
Dr Leo Semashko:
-State Councillor of St. Petersburg, Russia; RANH Professor;
-Philosopher, Sociologist and Peacemaker from Harmony;
-Global Harmony Association (GHA) Founder (2005) and Honorary President
(2016);
-Director, GHA Website "Peace from Harmony": www.peacefromharmony.org;
-Global Peace Science (GPS) from Harmony (616 pages):
http://peacefromharmony.org/docs/global-peace-science-2016.pdf;
-SPHERONS as GPS Center (20 pages):
http://peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=423;
-NO TO USA WAR WITH RUSSIA:
http://diy.rootsaction.org/petitions/no-to-war-hot-or-cold-with-russia;
“THE WAR KILLED MY FATHER, AND I KILLED WAR”:
-Personal page: http://peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=253;
-GHA Gandhi Book: https://peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=848
