Academic Conference in Seoul, South Korea, February 2020

From February 1 until February 8, 2020 I involved myself in a number of tasks and work in Seoul, marking the culmination of some months of preparation.

The context for my efforts was a large international peace summit, serving a broad community of leaders from different disciplines and callings, including educators, elected officials, spiritual leaders and others. The purpose of the meeting was to draw out the potential of each group to contribute to peace and prosperity both from their respective areas, and as related and integrated among fellow leaders from different missions and disciplines.

My brief this time involved scholars and members of the academy, which themselves were further divided into four distinct branches: Natural Sciences, Social and Political Sciences, Theology and Religious Studies, and University Presidents and administrators. I was centrally responsible for the first three sections, but did not have input nor influence in the section for University Presidents.

Colleagues of mine convened the sections on natural science, and political science, and I managed the section on theology and religion.

These academic sections each had a total of four meeting hours over the course of two days. Conveners then had to insure the presence of 16 - 20 properly prepared participants (alliteration much?), four moderators, eight paper presenters, and between four and eight respondents. The flow of the meeting included Q and A sessions fielded by the speakers in a panel format.

My closest familiarity of course was with the religion section, for which I designed its concept and worked with writers for some months prior. My colleagues did the same for their sections respectively.

My section ranged from pure theology, examining concepts of the divine (the Godhead), to a session examining “Religion in the Era of Tech, and the Decline of Institutional, Religious Affiliation.” Presenters included Hindus, Muslims, Mormons, Jews, and traditional Christians, from Israel, the US, India, and Korea. (Write me for greater detail if you like).

I did not have much free time, but I did manage to climb a good part of Namsan mountain, and there spent time among the monuments and historical testaments to patriots of the Korean resistance and wars of liberation.