(These were the opening remarks that I delivered on the occasion of a workshop jointly organized by Wonkwang University in South Korea and the Society of Buddhist-Christian Studies-SBCS)
Good morning to everyone there in Korea. Good evening
to those joining us here in North America. I am Prof. Julius-Kei Kato,
president of the Society of Buddhist-Christian Studies (or SBCS) based here in
North America.
Today's topic is crucially important and very urgent, especially for us who are involved in various ways in the teaching, research, and learning of religion. It is about the Future of Religious Education, focusing particularly on the pivotal roles of values and spirituality in higher education. We are very blessed to have esteemed panelists who will help us through their reflections and insights on the religious spirit and founding philosophies that have guided higher religious education in the places where we work.
Personally speaking, throughout my life, I have been privileged to have lived and worked in places and institutions where the founders and their founding spirit and philosophy are given much importance. That continues to be true about my present university of affiliation, King's University College here in London, Canada, where the Catholic intellectual tradition broadly speaking is the clear founding spirit and vision of our university. This is brought to bear on the institution's present-day vision and day-to-day operations. Hence, I am very familiar with this theme and consider it of utmost importance.
When I reflect on the theme of religious spirit and founding philosophy, several concrete images come to mind. The first one is that of a construction site. It is said that when a building is about to be constructed, if you want to know how tall the building will be, look very well at how deep they are digging, in order to lay the foundation of the building. The deeper the foundation is, the taller the building will be. I'd like to highlight two key words from this image: depth and height. These two ideas are deeply linked to our theme today.
There is another insightful image I'd like to offer at this
point. It originally comes from a scholar of world religions I much respect,
the late Huston Smith.
I'm sure all of you have seen majestic mountains. I used to
live in Japan years ago, a very mountainous
country when I was in my 20s and
30s. I loved going mountain hiking on various occasions. I know that Korea as
well has many beautiful mountains. In Canada where I live at present, we have
the famous "Canadian Rockies," a mountain chain found mainly in our
Western provinces of Alberta and British Columbia and which extends down south
into the United States.
