visionsbennett

A Vision for IRAS Over the Next Decade

Pat Bennett

I confess that both ‘vision’ and its cognate ‘mission statement’ are notions which make my heart sink! Experience suggests that their construction involves infinite hair-splitting and their institution endless headaches! Moreover they are never simply about the future but are always inextricably entwined with both past and present. Any proposed vision for IRAS must therefore acknowledge its history and also take account of the current state of the S/R field where, according to a recent analysis:

Consensus…seems far away, the impact…is limited and the academic credibility…remains marginal.

With this in mind, the vision outlined here is not primarily concerned with what IRAS ought to be doing over the next decade but with how it ought to go about its task. It is set out under the twofold metric of engaging creatively and exploiting community - attitudes which I believe are also hallmarks of the original vision for IRAS.

In the early IRAS conference reports, various things stand out about its pioneers: Firstly their willingness to leave well-marked pathways and enter uncharted territory, despite the attendant personal and professional risks. Secondly the richness and breadth of their perception of what religion had to contribute to this venture – a stark contrast to the negative views and etiolated understandings which currently predominate; and finally their sense of the importance of the communal locus. I believe the revitalisation of these attitudes would help us address the identified stagnation – which is also well illustrated in some of our own recent debates with their reflex assumption of default and often defensive postures.

Engaging Creatively

Firstly then I would like to see the attitude and execution we bring to our various projects marked by an expansive creativity: I believe the S/R field will increasingly require a willingness to leave the protection of our assorted personal and disciplinary redoubts – be those religious, philosophical or scientific – and to grapple with the issues in very different ways. Adopting such an attitude will also facilitate a move beyond sterile debates shaped primarily by issues of disciplinary demarcation and their associated metaphysical preferences, and allow a re-imagining of possible models for engagement.

Whilst the mechanics of how this might be achieved are beyond my remit here, I want to suggest that alongside these we also need to recover that richer view of religion as a valuable and valid crucible for forging insights into the human condition (as distinct from pronouncements on the ‘supernatural’). I see this as part of a larger project with which we also need to engage creatively viz the development of completely new epistemological strategies for drawing together insights from different disciplines in order to build the type of knowledge needed for an increasingly complex world. And in the IRAS community, we have the perfect vehicle for such things.

Exploiting Community

IRAS may now be only one amongst many S/R societies, but in the eclecticism of its membership and the strength of its community identity, it still remains something of the ‘unique concurrence’ described by Burhoe, though arguably the full potential of this is as yet unrealised. Hence the second element of my vision is to see us fully exploit (in its best sense) our community in the service of the proposed intellectual venturing.

This depends in no small degree on a willingness to creatively address the epistemological and dialogical tensions indicated – the vision’s elements are not so easily separated as its heuristic implies! And whilst ‘comfort zone’ has become something of a cliché, the outlined engagements do involve both the likelihood of cognitive dissonance and the possibility of failure. However I believe their cultivation could open up possibilities for drawing together the wide range of experience and expertise of our community in completely different ways, and of thus significantly expanding and deepening our understanding of humanity, something which can then form a solid basis for considering effective praxis in the face of the pressing global issues we face.

Entering new territory is risky stuff, but we too would be making these essays within a strong and supportive community...and where safer to take such risks?

VISIONS FOR IRAS