Newsletter 2011

Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies

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ICSA NEWSLETTER 2011
Vol. XXIX Fall/Winter 2011-12: Online Edition (Condensed)
"Walk in Love, in the Spirit of Christ" (Ephesians 5:2)

THE IDEA OF A UNIVERSITY

The Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies: An International Journal of Interdisciplinary and Interfaith Dialogue, Vol. XXIII, No. 1/2 2011 (ISSN 0890-0132) was published on 4 November 2011. We thank God for His guidance, and congratulate all authors as well as colleagues serving in manuscript peer-review, and book reviewers for an insightful volume on: "The Idea of a University: From John Henry Newman to the Multiversity & Beyond." JIS XXIII 2011 is an attractive 224-page paperback (6" x 9" trim, 2-color cover: white & yellow), featuring 9 major articles and 15 book reviews, plus Books Received, Call for Papers for JIS XXIV 2012 and ICSA VII. World Congress, with Abstracts and Cumulative Indexes, 1989-2011, Free Sample Article, Symposia, About IIR-ICSA, Art Gallery, Poetry, and much more, on the JIS web: www.JIS3.org (Contents).

JIS XXIII 2011 draws inspiration from John Henry Newman’s iconic The Idea of a University to re-imagine the university for the 21st century as free inquiry. The lead essay argues for a recovery of the idea of the university as the quest for truth, reflected in the classical Greek paideia and Newman’s integrative approach. Essays compare Martin Luther’s and Newman’s historic challenges in their respective milieus, and recall Newman’s aesthetic vision understanding theology as a key to the education of the whole person. Other essays explore the potential of humanities and interdisciplinary studies for integrating faith with learning in a postmodern age, and the need for the integration of ethics into the business curriculum. A graduate student laments the effects of globalization and marketization of higher education in communist Vietnam, while a Christian biologist and proponent of Intelligent Design chronicles the increasing animosity toward Christian viewpoints at all levels of education, reflected in U.S. court rulings which deny academic freedom to religious believers. A fascinating essay by a mathematician in search of a theology of mathematics concludes this timely volume on the prospects for higher education in the Third Millennium.

The contemporary crisis of the university presents a unique opportunity for re-envisioning higher education to extend the “American Promise” to all. This calls for re-examining affirmative action and its ethnic/racial/gender profiling which excludes many a poor youth. What the university needs most is intellectual diversity, questioning the postmodern ethos of relativism, nihilism, and disconnection, which undermine community, as well as the anti-liberal strictures of “political correctness.”

Guest Editorial
THE JOHN PAUL II FORUM
John P. Hittinger, Ph.D.

    In 1978, a Polish philosopher, not well-known in the West, finished correcting the proofs for an English translation of his work, The Acting Person: A Contribution to Phenomenological Anthropology (1979). In the Preface, he struck some themes that would later characterize postmodern efforts to salvage philosophy from the ravages of reductionism since the time of René Descartes. He said it was the task of the philosopher to face major issues of human existence and not just dwell on “theories of theories” or historical trivia about philosophical systems. He also spoke of reversing the post-Cartesian attitude that places exclusive interest in man as a cognitive being, neglecting human action and the experience of the person in community. He used a phenomenological approach derived from Max Scheler, combined with an Aristotelian concept of human nature, to probe the experience of human action.

    The name of the philosopher was Karol Wojtyla, who a few months later was elected Bishop of Rome, the first non-Italian Pope in centuries, now known world-wide as Pope John Paul II. In one respect, the career of a promising philosopher came to an end, overwhelmed as he was with the duties of high office. But it really did not. As he would later explain in Fides et Ratio: On the Relationship Between Faith and Reason (1998), faith and reason are like two wings on which the human mind ascends to the contemplation of truth; each without the other becomes impoverished and enfeebled. In his encyclicals and speeches one discovers a vigorous philosophical approach to those issues upon which one “has to take an active stand” (1979: vii). Human rights, religious freedom, human love, work and justice, evolution and human dignity, global cooperation, and other issues, engaged Pope John Paul II as he traveled around the world and reached out to men and women of diverse regions, backgrounds, and creeds. His vision for the life of the mind and spirit in fact came to deep fruition as he meditated upon human existence at the turn of the Millennium.

    To promote the understanding of his thought, the Pope John Paul II Forum for the Church in the Modern World was founded in 2009, affiliated with the University of St. Thomas, Houston (www.jp2forum.org). The Forum seeks to accomplish its goals through publications, speakers, summer faculty development workshops, and other events, including the dramatic production of his play, The Jeweler’s Shop (1960). Past summer workshops for faculty include social justice, faith and culture, and the theology of the body. The Forum website contains an archive providing documents and videos, news and upcoming events, and a blog on John Paul II’s thought.

    John Henry Cardinal Newman had a profound influence on Pope John Paul II. In his emphasis upon the human person, conscience, and the quest for truth, Newman in many respects laid out the path that John Paul II followed. In commemorating the centenary of Newman's death in 1990, John Paul wrote a letter to the Archbishop of Birmingham, linking Newman's work to the crisis of our times: “He urges [us] to keep asking the deeper, more basic questions about the meaning of life and of all human history; not to be content with a partial response to the great mystery that is man himself; to have the intellectual honesty and moral courage to accept the light of truth, no matter what personal sacrifice it may involve. Newman is a magnificent guide for all those who perceive that the key, the focal point and the goal of all human history is to be found in Christ.”

    Contemporary approaches to the human person and society tend to reduce the human to the material and the external, denying freedom, and lowering the goal of human striving. Indeed, the "prospects for genuine freedom" and the discovery of a solid foundation for the dignity of the person find a resonance in Newman. Newman’s ideal for liberal education provides one of the bright lights for educators today. We must preserve the mystery and depth of human existence, and in works of Newman and Wojtyla we find a deep reverence for the human person and the quest for the fullness of truth. John Paul II embodied the concerns of the Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies. He was truly interdisciplinary in his broad approach to the important questions about truth, human nature, political society, and God. He was a poet and a dramatist, a philosopher and a theologian. He explored central issues of science and religion, freedom and conscience, democracy and rights, and faith and reason. We welcome articles on John Paul II for posting on our resource page as well as hearing about events or projects that promote the understanding of his thought (jp2forum@gmail.com).

JIS ENCOURAGES BOOK REVIEWS

We welcome book reviewers for JIS XXIV 2012. We publish ca. 15 book reviews per volume. Book reviews receive the same careful editing as do the articles. Book reviews are especially important to academics, given time constraints and thousands of titles published annually. Hence, at JIS, we encourage the fine art of reading and reviewing books. We supply a complimentary copy of books, with instructions, and publish most reviews. Two copies of book reviews (4 pages, 900-1000 words, typed, double-spaced) are normally due one month upon receipt of the book. We expect reviewers and ideally their institutions to subscribe to JIS, thus helping to defray publishing costs. Books for Review are listed in JIS, ICSA Newsletter, JIS Computerized Bibliography, and the JIS web: www.JIS3.org/reviewbooks.htm.

ZINAM AND MORSEY MERIT AWARDS

The Oleg Zinam Award is given for an essay which best exemplifies JIS' quest to recover the lost unity of Renaissance learning, while affirming transcendental values and faith. Recipients: David Grandy; Wayne Allen; George B. Palermo; Zygmunt Stankiewicz; Karl Giberson; Stephen C. Meyer; Pamela W. Proietti; Catherine R. Moloney; John A. Campbell; Raymond Dennehy. David Morsey Award for Best Biblical Exegesis Recipients: Harold Shank & Wayne Reed; Bruce W. Speck; Paul Kukwon Chang; Dale McConkey; Christophe Berchem; Robert K. Garcia; Jesse J. Thomas; Gilbert R. Prost; William R. Clough. JIS merit awards for scholarly excellence include a Certificate, honorary designation as IIR Fellow, and two JIS copies with the award-winning essay (no self-nominations). 2012 Nominations due: 15 October 2012.

IIR ACTIVITIES 2010 - 2011

The Institute for Interdisciplinary Research is a "university without walls," an independent research and educational think-tank, encouraging innovative, interdisciplinary, faith-informed scholarship integrating knowledge, ethics and faith. IIR teaches via individual and team research, correspondence, student and faculty mentoring, consultation, peer-review, editing, conferences, personal contacts, and publications. The major Institute project during 2010-11 was the review and editing of mss., book reviews, and preparation of camera-ready original of JIS XXIII 2011. Other projects include the ICSA Newsletter, flyers, Call for Papers, computerized mailing lists, correspondence, publicity, order fulfilment, identifying books for review, updating JIS web pages, a cumulative JIS Computerized Bibliography, 1989-2009 (224 p., $25 disk, priority/airmail: add $5), et al. JIS is an interconnected thematic annual, offering constructive peer-review and mentoring akin to a comprehensive interdisciplinary honors program, and student and faculty development seminar.

We thank all subscribers and IIR-ICSA members for their support. We pray for and appreciate your regular or gift subscriptions to the Journal and IIR memberships. Students, faculty, educators at all levels, and the public will benefit if you recommend ideally the entire interconnected thematic series of JIS I-XXIII 1989-2011+ to your college, institute, seminary, and major public libraries. IIR-ICSA membership is open to all persons and institutions sharing these aims. By becoming a regular reader and supporter of JIS, you, too, may share in this exciting calling to reclaim God's gifts of intellect for His glory. JIS' quest is for eternal truths in a secular era that brackets God. We are ecumenical in the best sense of C. S. Lewis' Mere Christianity and John Paul II’s Fides et Ratio, sharing in the New Evangelization. The Journal focuses on the need for a transcendent grounding of values and the moral “ought” attested to in Scripture, reflected in the Tao or the "Golden Rule," a universal moral imperative found in all cultures across time and space, known intuitively by all men and women of good will. Ultimately, as Christians, we put our trust in God's saving grace.

BRAVE NEW WORLD CONGRESS 2012

We invite all colleagues for ICSA VII. World Congress on: “Brave New World? Genetic Engineering & Human Dignity," Pasadena, CA, August 2-5, 2012. Our international conferences attract creative interdisciplinary scholars from U.S. and abroad for lively discussions over an extended weekend. Following the conference, fully-developed papers will be considered for publication in the Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies XXV 2013. IIR-ICSA-JIS conferences feature multidisciplinary panels which encourage interdisciplinary engagement, discovery, synergy, and synthesis, along with Christian fellowship. We have reserved a meeting room at the Hilton, with lower-cost group lodging rate at this fine hotel in the heart of Pasadena. Brave New World Call for Papers/Registration Form.

FELLOWSHIPS, AWARDS, TEACHING:
Compiled From Various Sources
Listed in ICSA Newsletter XXIX Print Edition: Order

JIS WELCOMES SPONSORS

INTERNATIONAL MIHAJLOV SYMPOSIUM REPORT

THE FIRST FREEDOMS:
MIHAJLOV’S QUEST FOR DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS

IIR-ICSA and the Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies co-sponsored an International Symposium on: “The First Freedoms: Mihajlov’s Quest for Democracy & Human Rights,” Hilton Pasadena, CA, 4-7 August 2011. There were expressions of interest from colleagues from all over the world, especially human rights activists, ngo reps, and students from Africa and Asia as far as Burundi, Gambia, Nigeria, Sri-Lanka, India, Nepal, Thailand, Uzbekistan, desiring to learn from experiences of Mihajlo Mihajlov (1936-2010), the human rights champion in Tito’s Yugoslavia (but lacked visas). The thematic Panels were: I. The First Freedoms: Thought, Speech & Association: O. Gruenwald (USA); Rusko Matulić, Editor, CADDY Bulletin (USA). II. Djilasism: Intellectual Ferment in Tito’s Yugoslavia: Christopher & Sean Ivušić (USA); Mirko Vidović (France); Olga Gerassimova (Lomonosov State University, Russia). III. Civil Society and Democratization in Asia: Bahodir Burkhanov (Samarkand State Museum, Uzbekistan); Bhuwan Kumari Sherchan (Bien-Venue Academy, Katmandu, Nepal). IV. Civil Society and Democratization in Africa: Ugochukwu Osuagwu (Victory & Rose Associates, Abuja, Nigeria); Annonciate Nduwayo (Observatoire Burundais des Prisons, Burundi); Musa Tunkara (Youth for Human Rights, Gambia). V. The Mihajlov Strategy: Human Rights, Democracy, Rule of Law (Roundtable): Moderator: Nastašja Radović (Republika Magazine, Belgrade). Special thanks to Lee Anne Peck (Univ. of N. Colorado), Panel chair & presenter, as well as our gracious IIR-ICSA-JIS hostesses.

Among the highlights of the Symposium were the guests of honor: Mihajlov’s family: Maria & Chris Ivušić, Sean Ivušić, and Tamary Kerry. Maria, Misha’s sister and translator, shared remembrances of her brother in an insightful Keynote: “Mihajlo Mihajlov: Homeland is Freedom,” invoking one his signature works. Vidović’s (imprisoned with Misha) mss. recalled the genesis of the first organized movement of independent intellectuals in the communist world in the early 1960s, which originated at the Faculty of Philosophy at the Zadar branch of Zagreb University. It was this group that Misha joined. While other members of the group were silenced or emigrated, Mihajlo became famous for his intellectual travelogue, “Moscow Summer, 1964,” banned in Yugoslavia, but published abroad in The New Leader (1965), and also in book form. This travelogue earned Mihajlov a suspended sentence for “hostile propaganda.” But Mihajlo would not be intimidated. There followed more op eds, journal articles, and books critical of the one-party dictatorship which prescribed strict limits for critical thought, and which led to Misha’s imprisonment for a total of 7 years. Thanks to vigorous international protests by intellectuals, writers, artists, and the Helsinki movement, Mihajlo was amnestied in 1977, and moved to USA where he continued to organize and publicize the censorship in Yugoslavia. Thus, Mihajlo founded the Committee to Aid Democratic Dissidents in Yugoslavia, whose CADDY Bulletin informed the West about the lack of freedom of speech, thought, and association in Yugoslavia, embarrassing even the U.S. State Department which lauded Tito’s “independent path to socialism.”

   Following the Tito-Stalin split in 1948, the U.S. supported the independence of this maverick communist state. Tito’s Yugoslavia developed into the most “liberal” among Communist Party states, and became a leader of the “non-aligned movement,” enjoying great prestige in the Third World. Under Tito’s leadership, the unified country of 6 republics underwent rapid modernization, industrialization, and urbanization, while labor migrated from country to the cities, unemployment grew, which impelled the regime to open borders for Yugoslav “guest workers” in Western Europe (especially Germany). Tito’s chief theoretician, Edward Kardelj, devised a system of workers’ self-management under Party tutelage. Yet this was, at best, a guided or “totalitarian democracy,” while the nationalism question was never solved: cf. O. Gruenwald, The Yugoslav Search for Man: Marxist Humanism in Contemporary Yugoslavia (1983). Since it was less repressive, major strands of dissent emerged early on in Yugoslavia: anti-communist, independent, nationalist, Marxist humanist. Cf. Gruenwald & Karen Rosenblum-Čale, eds., Human Rights in Yugoslavia (1986). Milovan Djilas, a former communist, Tito’s comrade-in-arms, and 2nd in line to succeed Tito, was imprisoned twice for books published abroad: The New Class (1957) and Conversations With Stalin (1962). Djilas’ The New Class revealed the truth re the Communist Party elite as a privileged “new class” based on nationalized property, whose power over men exceeded all previous eras. All dissent following Djilas’ became known as “Djilasism.” Cf. Gruenwald, “The Third Revolution: Intellectual and Spiritual Ferment in Yugoslavia” (M.A. Thesis, Claremont Graduate University, 1967).

    Mihajlov’s was the least ideological dissent, since he argued for an open society, pluralism, the rule of law, and the first freedoms–of speech, thought, press, association, philosophical, political and religious persuasion–for all. This is also what made Mihajlov’s dissent the most dangerous for a Marxist-Leninist regime, even Tito’s, which insisted on ideological purity. Mihajlov’s contributions to the quest for an open society, basic human rights and freedoms, regardless of nationality, race, politics or religion, have yet to be fully appreciated. Mihajlov’s Archive, now at the Hoover Institution, will shed light on his influence on the rise of dissent in the communist world. The central question which still needs answering is: How could communism implode all across Eastern Europe and the USSR by 1989 and 1991, respectively? Was it a combination of what Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn termed the moral force and the indomitability of the human spirit combined with the demonstration effect of Western affluence and the growing disillusionment of both Party members and the public re the constantly receding vision of the utopia of a classless society, which sapped the willpower of the elites, and which led, at least provisionally, to the demise of the Soviet behemoth? In brief, was dissent instrumental in undermining communist rule, e.g. Solidarność in Poland, Djilas and Mihajlov in Yugoslavia, Solzhenitsyn in Russia, and the mass dissident movements which developed in the 1970s and 1980s in East Central Europe? Cf. Gruenwald, “Toward an Open Society: The Enigma of the 1989 Revolution in Eastern Europe,” JIS XVIII 2006: 25-56.

    The International Mihajlov Symposium was capped by Voice of America interviews of Chris & Sean Ivušić and Oskar Gruenwald, videocast to Serbia (in Serbo-Croatian) on 12 August 2011. We welcome mss. for a special thematic volume of JIS XXIV 2012 Mihajlov Festschrift: Call for Papers.

2011 International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church 2012

JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES:
Key to 21st-Century Literacy and Curricula
Integrating Knowledge, Ethics and Faith

MANUSCRIPT GUIDELINES
JIS THEMATIC ISSUES 1989 - 2014

Merry Christmas and May God Bless All for a Happy New Year 2012!
"And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord" (Luke 2:10-11).
"The Lord is my rock, and my fortress; and my deliverer" (Psalm 18:2).

Published By: Institute for Interdisciplinary Research

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