Red de Diseño Heurístico

Hermann Hesse

jmorin — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 20:56:38 +0000

Escritor suizo (1877-1962) de origen alemán. Frases.

El Juego de los abalorios.

UCM-AUT

jmorin — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 20:45:44 +0000

On April 20, 2007 Leoncio Jiménez and Jim Morin of the Universidad Católica del Maule met with Philip Sallis of the Auckland University of Technology to explore possibilities for collaboration between different faculties of our respective institutions. In this context Professor Morin presented the following epistemological model to orient the development of a Heuristic Design Network, as a framework for transdisciplinary dialogue and multicultural collaboration on specific problematic issues. This weblog was created to explore the theoretical foundations of this model and to document initiatives to advance developments within this framework.

This model offers epistemological criteria for a heuristic design network based upon the experience of knowing that may be conceived semantically, represented mathematically, affirmed philosophically and verified in the practice of all fields of knowledge. The model assumes that the desire to know orients the sensible, intelligible, rational, responsible and religious development of human consciousness, which must transcend authentically in relation with the object or subject of knowledge that may be known compoundly as data, as idea, as real, as good and as God. The model is heuristic in the measure that it begins with the problem of an unknown and proceeds methodically towards reasonable understanding. The model also orients the design of both research and development activities in the foundation and application of knowledge. Finally the model represents the network of cognitive and linguistic activities that guide human historical development and explains why their misuse lead to intelectual decline and moral decadance.

Within this general framework, Jim Morin offered to develop a position paper that will include two parts. The first section will develop in greater detail this model for a heuristic design network on the basis of Bernard Lonergan´s epistemological research. The second and concluding section will present a series of tentative hypotheses that explore how this epistemological model may orient information sciences in the research and development of learning organization that promote human resource development for the production of knowledge.

Ética y economía

jmorin — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 18:33:29 +0000

Mons. Alejandro Goic Karmelic.

Preocupación de Pastor. Dic. 2007). Ley de Subcontratación en la Gran Minería.
Por un Chile más justo. (nov. 2007). Consejo Asesor para la Equidad Social
Por un Chile más humano. (nov. 2007). Comisión de Salud de la Cámara de Diputados
La difícil tarea de fijar una remuneración justa, Congreso.
Weber, Goic, y el sueldo Mínimo. Clarín. Obispo Goic Ha Tenido La Ventaja De Poner El Dedo En La Llaga. Viera-Gallo.

Patricio Meller

Andrés Monares. Antropólogo. Profesor de Filosofía del Departamento de Estudios Humanísticos de la Facultad de Ciencias Físicas y Matemáticas de la Universidad de Chile. amonares@ing.uchile.cl.

Life and works of Bernard Lonergan

jmorin — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 20:35:06 +0000

Life and works of Bernard Lonergan Bernard Lonergan was born on the 17 of December, 1904 in Bukingham, Quebec a Canadian town with a French and English speaking population, located 27 kilometres north east of the city of Ottawa. In the same town, he completed his basic education in the École Saint Michel (1910-18), where three grades of the minority English speaking students were taught together in one course. Lonergan attributes to this experience the development of his extraordinary capacity for independent study. Later he was an outstanding student at Loyola College in Montreal (1918-22), where he completed his secondary education under a Jesuit curriculum inspired by the Renaissance’s ideal of a classical and universal culture. Upon finishing his studies he entered the English Jesuit noviciate at Guelph, Ontario.

As a Canadian Jesuit, Lonergan (1926-1930) studied philosophy at Hethrop College, in Oxfordshire, England and mathematics and letters in the University of London. During this period he wrote two papers that are indicative of his early interest in problems associated with the activities that are constitutive of human understanding. The first examines the function of inferences in the learning of geometry. In his study of one of Euclid’s proofs, he demonstrates that the solution to an angle of a triangle does not occur through conceptual deductions but through sensible inferences in which the image exercises an important mediating function in the act of understanding. The work is illustrative of his move towards an empirical and intellectual theory of understanding and his repudiation of conceptualism that characterize his later work.[1]

In the second paper Lonergan explores the distinction which John Henry Newman, in his An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent, made between notional and real assent in order to refute the liberal argument that judgements are probable but not certain. On this basis Lonergan distinguishes between scientific investigation and judgement to affirm that if judgement may be consciously true, then the mind offers a more certain criteria than the logical inferences of scientific and syllogistic methods. The work anticipates the later development of Lonergan’s thought upon judgement that is founded upon the operations of rational self-consciousness.

Upon his return to Canada Lonergan taught at Loyola College in Montreal (1930-33). During this period he read John Stewart’s Plato’s Doctrine of Ideas, which lead to three important dicouveries: that Plato was a methodologist, that ideas need to be verified in one’s experience and that verbal definitions depend upon something previous which is insight and when one understands it is easier to define. Another significant influence was Christopher Dawson’s The Age of the Gods, which led Lonergan to overcome the influence of his Renaissance formation that conceived classical culture as universal, unchanging, a temporal and normative. With Dawson Lonergan was introduced to an anthropological, empirical, pluralistic and dynamic notion of culture. During this period he also reread the philosophical dialogues of St. Augustine and discovered Augustine’s preference for intelligence and understanding over universal definitions, which coincided with the development of his own cognitional theory.

In 1933 Lonergan began his theological studies in the Gregorian University in Rome. During his free time he read St. Tomas, Hegel and Marx. The effects of the great depression and the encyclical Quadrragesimo anno of Pious XIII led him to dedicate over a decade to the theoretic study of economics from the perspective of a moral science. He also wrote drafts for a fundamental sociology, a metaphysic of human solidarity and an analysis of history within a pattern of development, decadence and redemption. During this period he became familiar with the transcendental Thomism of the Belgium Jesuit Joseph Maréchal, who affirmed that human knowledge is discursive and not intuitive and that it is constituted through a heuristic process in which the decisive component is judgment. From Marèchal, Lonergan learned that knowledge is not constituted upon a priori or intuitive premises, as in Kant, but through a heuristic movement from something unknown that becomes explicit through cognitive operations that seek to understand and interpret the data within a perceptual framework and through founded judgment that has knowledge as its finality.

In 1936 Lonergan was ordained as a priest and from 1938-40 prepared his doctoral thesis that is a historical critical study of the development in Aquinas’s thought upon grace and freedom. With his dissertation Lonergan resolves the scholastic controversy on the topic, which for centuries had divided into irreconcilable positions the Jesuit followers of Luis de Molina and the Dominican followers of Domingo Bañez. With his historical critical method, Lonergan diagnosis the origin of the problem in scholastic speculations, which from the beginning of the XVI Century lacked the historical consciousness necessary to understand developments in the thought of Aquinas. The dissertation was published in four articles in Theological Studies in 1942 and 1942 and later as a book in 1971[2].

During his period as a teacher in Montreal and Toronto (1940-1953), Lonergan finished his research in economics with his essays on political economy[3] and circulation analysis[4], which were revised, updated and published only after Lonergan returned to these topics at the end of his career. The research he then undertook on the relation between thought and reality led to the publication of two major works. The first, a study of Aristotle’s theory of knowledge in Aquinas[5], is considered to be the most significant XX century contribution on the topic[6]. The second is Lonergan´s Insight: a Study of Human Understanding [7] the most important English epistemological treatise after John Locke and David Hume. In this study Lonergan leads his readers to experience insight in the development of mathematics, geometry, physics, the sciences and common sense.

On the basis of the experience of differentiated cognitional activity, that is sensorial, intelligible, rational and responsable, Lonergan establishes a “generalized empirical method” that includes both the data of the senses and the data of consciousness, through which both the natural and human sciences, as well as common sense, ascend from their attention to data, through the formulation of hypothesis and their verification to affirm what is known, meaningful and of value. On this basis Lonergan affirms the critically self conscious subject, and establishes a theory of knowledge, a heuristic epistemology and a critical metaphysics that offer the foundations for an ethics and transcendent knowledge. From this position Lonergan confonts a series of disputed questions on the possibility and nature of knowledge that for centuries have had negative repercussions upon the development of philosophy, the human sciences and theology.

After finishing Insight Lonergan taught at the Gregorian University in Rome (1940-1953) where he published three major works in theology that address foundational questions upon the ontological and psychological constitution of Christ[8], the incarnate word[9] and the triune God[10]. During this period he also developed his philosophical research for the summer conferences he realized regularly in a diversity of English speaking universities in Canada, the United States and Ireland. These conferences addressed a wide range of topics that led to a number of publications. In the Boston conference (1957) on Phenomenology and Logic [11] Lonergan examines the development and limits of mathematical logic and presents a critical appreciation of phenomenology and existentialism from Husserl to Heidegger. In his Halifax conference (1958) on Understanding and Being[12] he offers an introduction to Insight, which had been published the previous year, and explicitly distinguished how he differs from Kant in the foundation of knowledge.

His Topics in education [13] of the Cincinnati conference (1959) examines limitations in traditional and modern conceptions of education in relation to the challenge of learning within a mass technological society marked by revolutionary changes in mathematics and the sciences. He proposes two complementary modes to address the issue. The first considers the finality of education in terms of the structure of the human good, conceived of as object and subject in development. The second proposes an epistemology that identifies a constant from which it is possible to understand historical change in the development of the sciences and in the cultural expressions of human meaning and value. This constant which endures through historical changes is the experience of inquiring, imagining, understanding, judging and deciding. The modes of historical understanding and their cultural expressions may change and differ historically but the processes of the mind that sustain understanding endures.

The topics of the above and following conferences offer a clear testimony to how Lonergan continued to develop notions he originally introduced in Insight. His Dublin (1961) conference on Critical Realism and the Integration of the Sciences, the conferences on Method of Theology, (Toronto, 1962), Knowledge and Learning (Spokane, 1963) and The Nature of Insight: Self-appropriation, Being and Objectivity (Los Angeles, 1963), expand upon these key topics that are present in Insight. During this period a first Collection of philosophical and theological papers, that span the 1943-65 period, were publishes. After being operated upon in 1965 for lung cancer, Lonergan continued developing his academic activities in Canada and the United States. He realized conferences on Operative grace (Toronto, 1968), Transcendental philosophy and the study of religion (Boston, 1968), Theological Method (Toronto, 1969, Boston, 1970, Dublin, 1971), Grace and Freedom (Harvard, 1971), Christology (Harvard, 1972), Technology and Culture (MIT, 1972), Philosophy of God[14] (Spokene, 1972) and then on his recently publishes Method in theology[15] (Yale, 1974). Other publications of Lonergan include three collections of his works as well as two volumes of his philosophical and theological papers.

From 1976 to1982 Lonergan taught and carried out his research at Boston College on topics such as Symbols and Analogy, Insight and Method, Myth and Theology and during the last four years of his life of his teaching career realized postgraduate courses on Macro Economy and the Dialectics of History. In 1982 he was once again diagnosed with cancer and the following year returned to be attended to at the Pickering Jesuit infirmary where he passed away on the 25^th of November, 1984.

During the Second Vatican Council (1957-1965) Lonergan was a consultant to the Canadian Bishops and later named as a member of the International Theological Commission (1969-1974). In 1970 he received the Order of Canada, the highest recognition of the country to honor those who have demonstrated merit in their contribution to humanity on a national and international level. In 1975 he was named Corresponding Fellows of the British Academy in recognition of his contribution.

[1] Cf. Frederick Crowe, Capitulo 1. ´The remote context: home, studies, formation´ en Lonergan. Geffrey Chapman. London. 1992, pp. 14.-15.

[2] Bernard Lonergan. Grace and freedom: operative grace in the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas. Volume 3, Collected Works. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 2000.

[3] Bernard Lonergan. For a new political economy. Volume 21, Collected Works. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998.

[4] Bernard Lonergan. Macroeconomic dynamics: an essay in circulation analysis. Volume 15, Collected Works. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999.

[5] Bernard Lonergan. Verbum: Word and Idea in Aquinas. Volume 2, Collected Works. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997. Originally published as “The Concept of Verbum in the Writings of Saint Tomas Aquinas”. Theological Studies Nº 7, 1946, 349-92; N° 8, 1947, 35-79, 404-44; N°10, 1949, 3-40, 359-93.

[6] Affirmations of Yale historian Jeroslav Pelikan, The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1989 and the British philosopher Anthony Kenny, Aquinas on Mind. Routledge, New York, 1993.

[7] Bernard Lonergan. Insight: A Study of Human Understanding. Volume 3, Collected Works of Bernard Lonergan. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997. Originally published in 1957.

[8] Bernard Lonergan: The ontological and psychological constitution of Christ. Volume 7, Collected Works. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 2002.

[9] Bernard Lonergan: De Verbo Incarnato (dicta scriptis auxit) Universidad Gregoriana: Roma, 1960.

[10] Bernard Lonergan: De Deo Trino I: Parte dogmatica; II: Pars systematica. Gregorian University: Rome, 1964.

[11] Bernard Lonergan, Phenomenology and Logic: The Boston College Lectures on Mathematical Logic and Existentialism. Volume 18, Collected Works. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 2001.

[12] Bernard Lonergan. Understanding and Being: The Halifax Lectures on Insight. Volume 5, Collected Works. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 1990.

[13] Bernard Lonergan, Topics in education: the Cincinnati lectures of 1959 on the Philosophy of Education. Volume 10, Collected Works. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 1993.

[14] Bernard Lonergan, Philosophy of God, and theology. London, Darton, Longman & Todd. 1973.

[15] Bernard Lonergan, Method in theology. New York, Herder and Herder. 1972.

Isoformismo

jmorin — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 16:38:08 +0000

La escuela sistémica de la administración
Cuatro teoría de comunicación, Melvin Lawrence de Fleur
Strategic organizational adaptation. Fundamentación teorico-empirica. Márcia Freitas.

Jean-Louis Ermine

jmorin — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 22:04:38 +0000

Professor and Director, Département systèmes d’information, Institut national des Télécommunications, President, Club gestion des connaissances and CEFRIO Guest Researcher (France)
http://www.cefrio.qc.ca/2006conference/speakers.html
Leader-moderator – Workshops 3 & 7

Jean-Louis Ermine lectured and conducted research at the Université de Bordeaux I between 1978 and 1991, and turned his attention to research on artificial intelligence in 1985. At that time, he joined the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), where he assumed responsibility for training in respect of research devoted to information processing at the Institut national des sciences et techniques nucléaires.

In 1994, he joined the CEA scientific and technical information unit, where he was responsible for managing knowledge, first as a group leader, then as assistant to the unit manager. Between September 2000 and September 2003, he pursued his research on knowledge management at the Université de technologie de Troyes.

Since September 2003, Mr. Ermine has served as head of the information systems department at the Institut national des télécommunications in Evry, in the Paris area. In particular, he is developing there teaching, research and industrial transfers in the realm of knowledge management and cooperative information systems.

He designed the Méthode pour l’Analyse et la Structuration des Konnaissances (MASK, method to analyse and structure knowledge) that CEFRIO is using in conjunction with its project devoted to the intergenerational transfer of knowledge in the Internet age, in which a number of Québec organizations such as Hydro-Québec, RRQ and Telus are participating.

Jean-Louis Ermine is the founder and President of the Club gestion des connaissances de France. The United Nations, in particular the International Atomic Energy Agency, frequently consults Mr. Ermine. He is the coauthor of Trends in Enterprise Knowledge Management which is available in librairies since March 2006.

Challenges and Approaches for Knowledge Management.

Images

jmorin — Fri, 25 May 2007 13:57:03 +0000

Convergent Technologies

jmorin — Fri, 25 May 2007 12:45:21 +0000

Convergent Technologies in the Computer and Information Sciences Philip J. Sallis

The ubiquitous nature of computing has created a need for devices and technologies to combine into solutions that meet the needs and wants of society. This has given rise to what are now often called convergent technologies. There are many examples of applications or uses of computing that are the result of the convergence of technologies and methods for assisting work, domestic life, decision making and entertainment.

This talk reviews some of these convergent technologies and predicts their advancement into the future. It begins by reviewing the author’s own research background and describes how the development of sub-disciplines within Computer Science has led to a convergence of technologies for dealing with contemporary issues in the production of software systems, particularly in relation to their intellectual property and ownership.

In particular, the fields of computational linguistics and software engineering will be described, with reference to both research and academic curriculum evolution issues, followed by a review of some research projects and applications of software science to the area that has come to be known as software forensics.

Identity and purpose

jmorin — Thu, 03 May 2007 19:22:33 +0000

The folowing incluedes e-mail registers of the founding members´ initial reflections and proposals for a name that defines our identity and purpose.

E-mail de Jim a Philip and Leocio / Viernes 04-05-2007 11:55

Dear friends, I have been designing a Weblog to bring together our thoughts and proposals. At this moment the Weblog is identified by my suggested name, which is changeable at any time. I have also invited both of you, by e-mail to become co-editors so that we can have a common space to register and define who we are and what we want to do. The proposed pages of the weblog include the following information:

Home page with chronological listing of post entries.
Draft proposals of what each of us is developing to publish.
Members with web and curriculum information.
Purpose statement with specific objectives.
Resources bibliographic references we each want to make present.
Rules register of criteria for reaching agreements.

I think our name and identity should be subject to a discussion upon our purpose in relation to the thematic issues we what to address together. So far we have three proposals.

Philip: Inter-disciplinary Centre for Discourse Research.
Leoncio:

Academic
Center for Intellectual Capital, Knowledge Management and Organisational Learning.
Jim: Heuristic Design Network (for the transdisciplinary research and development of communication competencies.

My comments:

For epistemological and cultural reasons I prefer a transdisciplinary approach over an inter-disciplinary one. A transdisciplinary approach brings together different forms of knowing that may be scientific, cultural, common sense, religious and philosophical in order to face together a problem that unites participants in a common effort. For the same reason I would prefer not to use “academic centre” in order to be a space where the voice of citizens, workers, indigenous people, youth, scientists, impresarios and business people may also be considered.
I prefer “network” over center because this represents how we will actually be working. I also understand that the concept of a center assures institutional identity and administrative responsibilities that are necessary. In a network this could be regulated by establishing conditions for participation: ej. contribution of research products under Institutional affiliation.
I understand “discourse research” and the areas of “human capital, knowledge management and organizational learning” as topics that represent the interests of Philip and Leoncio respectively. These are topics that interest me also and I am willing to collaborate on. Nevertheless, as an educator with philosophical and theological interests, I prefer a more generic transversal definition that addresses the underlying processes of human cognition in the communication of knowledge. That explains my notion of heuristic design. All fields and forms of knowledge are constituted by questions that seek answers that offer criteria to orient decisions and action in all areas of life. The heuristic is constituted by the questions that guide searching; design is the process of creating in accord with what has been discovered. If we adopt such an approach I believe we can address Philip’s interest on “discourse analysis” and Leoncio’s interest on “communication competencies” and my interest on how communication models of knowledge influences upon the development of human consciousness.

Finally, I want to suggest that we define communication protocols among us.

We have begun communicating by e-mail,
We have a proposed weblog which I hope we will all use de to develop, share and define what will eventually be the work we published together.
I also want to suggest that we use Skype (download) as a means of having a monthly free conference telephone conversation in order to clarify issues and define working agreements.

I am very enthused by the new horizons of possibilities that are work together is beginning to open up.

Jim ______________________________________________________________________

This is part of an e-mail Philip Sallis sent for the review of the Rector. / Jueves 03-05-2007

Inter-disciplinary Centre for Discourse Research

This is the proposed title for the research group we have been discussing. Its founding members would be Leoncio, Jim and me.

In the first year we would be developing topology of the literature relating to discourse analysis and some of the most prominent communication models available. We will be taking an epistemological approach emanating from Philosophy, but also ordering (formalising) the processes using Systems Theory and analysing the themes and major topics using computational linguistic methods and statistical techniques of clustering and prediction…also involving the use of neural networks for dynamic knowledge management depictions.

The Centre aims in the wider sense to be inter-disciplinary, inter-faculty (at UCM) and international, initially through my involvement. It is cross cultural and inter-faith in terms of its expression in philosophical, theological and sociological paradigms. We hope to involve more academics as we move forward and initially expect o publish a paper describing our approach and early results in terms of formalising an ontology for the research area. This would all form part of the first year of work for the Centre.

We hope that UCM will adopt this Centre and give it the status of a serious research group. It is my hope to bring PhD students into the work, some from NZ.

——-

Philip´s e-mail in response to Leoncio´s proposal / Martes 01-05-2007 8:55

Thank you for thi email. I prefer ´The Centre for Discourse Research´or some variant of it. My reasons are that the term is wider and therefore, has more potential for inclusion of work and people. Also that it has greater potential (I think) for attracting funding. I am discussing with the Rector my work here in September and in relation to this Centre, if we can have something more formal in terms of my appointment as an Adjunct Professor then I believe it would be possible to attract both grant money (because of the formal International membership of this UCM research centre) and PhD students. I will keep you informed of progress on this aspect of my working relationship with you and the UCM, which I am very much enjoying!

Best regards, Philip

Leoncios e-mail proposal / Lunes 30-04-2007 13:58

Hi Jim and Philip ICICKM 2007 4th International Conference on Intellectual Capital, Knowledge Management and Organisational Learning. 15-16 October 2007. What do you think? “Academic Center for Intellectual Capital, Knowledge Management and Organisational Learning.” Regarding the three axes of Lonergan approach in a Jim view are: Human Resources, Organisational Learning.

Leoncio Jimenez

Multi-cultural and ecumenical dialogue: Chile and New Zealand

jmorin — Thu, 03 May 2007 19:21:27 +0000

May 3 2007 at 6.30pm
Professor Jim Morin, UCM

The Reverend Professor Philip Sallis, AUT

Opening remarks by Professor Sallis

Good evening everyone and thank you for attending this dialogue between Professor Morin and me. I am greatly honoured to be here in your country, in this University and now in this discussion. I apologise for not being able to speak in Spanish but I will endeavour to talk clearly in English.The purpose of this evening’s discussion is to explore some similarities and also some differences in the society and culture of our two countries.   It has been proposed that Professor Mori and I could do this by having a dialogue where Professor Mori will ask me some questions about New Zealand and my views as they may relate to Chile and this University.

The topics chosen are particularly because of my joint role as a professor in the university and also a priest in the Anglican Church. We decided it might be useful if I talk a little more about myself in that regard first and then describe a little of New Zealand’s culture and society, especially with respect to the university. Professor Morin will then begin the dialogue, including presenting some questions from the audience that I will attempt to answer as fully as I can in the time provided.

To begin then, my academic background has been as a student of mathematics, history and theology.   I am a senior professor in Computer Science, which has been my position for the past 20 years.

I am also the Deputy Vice Chancellor in the Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand.I am also a priest, ordained in the Anglican Church Tradition, which as you may know, has its roots in the Catholic Church, going back through time to the Apostles. The Catholic Church in England split into two in 1600 AD, with one part remaining in Communion with the Pope and the Church of Rome, and the other part becoming autonomous with the Archbishop of Canterbury as its spiritual leader and the reigning monarch of Great Britain as its governing head. Both churches honour the Holy Trinity as deity and celebrate the sacraments handed to us by Christ. We are all baptised into the one Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church of God. Our beliefs and understanding of the incarnate person of God in Jesus are the same, and our liturgies and pastoral ministry are practically identical.   We both respect and celebrate each other’s mission to proclaim the Gospel of Christ in the world, yet we acknowledge the historical differences that have brought us to this time where we are contemporaneously in two alternative communions.

I have said all that because I think it is necessary for me to explain how similar our two traditions are and yet how they have evolved differently.   The Anglican Communion, which is made up of autonomous provincial churches throughout the world, is a collective of separate worshipping communities who have a sense of belonging spiritually to a single ethos, which is the Holy Catholic Church in its Apostolic expression as it was first defined when the Church of England became an entity separate from the Church of Rome.

Professor Morin will be asking me some questions about how the Anglican Church relates to the Catholic Church in New Zealand and indeed, to other Christian denominations and further to other faith traditions.

Partly the reason for asking these questions is because New Zealand is a multi-cultural society and has some distinctive characteristics in terms of its social and economic being.   To begin with though, it is necessary for me to describe the bi-cultural nature of New Zealand and its indigenous Maori people.

The Maori settled in New Zealand long before Europeans arrived. There were no people in
New Zealand when they arrived and they named the country Aotearoa – ‘land of the long white cloud’ because it had that appearance from the sea as they approached by canoe. These Maori people established tribal communities and began to farm the land and travel around the country. They were peaceful people but at times fought against each other. They can trace their heritage to the Hawaiian Islands and have much in common with the Rapenui People and in fact, something in common with the Mapuche.

When the Europeans arrived to settle in New Zealand, first Protestant and then Catholic missionaries came to preach God’s Word. They were successful in converting many Maori to Christianity and in some cases absorbed some Maori customs into their worship.

As time has passed, the Maori who were either Catholic or Anglican and sometimes Presbyterian, either embraced these faith traditions totally, or moved into a more obvious expression of their beliefs.   An exclusively Maori Church called ‘The Ratana Church’ after its founder, was established and flourishes today. As new Christian traditions came to New Zealand some Maori people joined them but most remained Catholic, Anglican or Ratana. In more recent times the evangelical churches that are Pentecostal and Fundamentalist in their faith expression have attracted Maori, as well as Europeans,Pacific Island people and Asians. New Zealand is now a mix of numerous Christian faith expressions, together with a large Jewish community throughout the country, and growing Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist, Bahia and other faiths.

The largest group in New Zealand now are not any of those faith traditions however. In fact it is estimated that only about 10% of New Zealanders are religious, defined by regular church attendance.   Many people regard themselves as having a spiritual dimension to their lives but are not practising Christians or of other faith expression.

This essentially secular society continues to live by what we might regard as Christian values but in fact, they are really values of decency, respect of one another and care of the community and environment. So civilised and orderly in that respect.

New Zealand has a high standard of living and enjoys a temperate climate with a generally peaceful way of life. But there are aspects of it that are the product of intensive debate and arguments for equality and mutual engagement, especially by and for the Maori people.

We have a bi-cultural expression of a Treaty between the Maori and European settlers of the country, which mutually respects the right to live and be in New Zealand, and yet acknowledges individual ownership in a partnership of stewardship for the country and the people. One of the most obvious expressions of this bi-cultural partnership is the use of Maori and English in all legal and Government documents, titles for public office holders, policies and processes…and in the naming of buildings, road signs and place names. Increasingly, the Pacific Island languages are being included too because of
New Zealand’s special relationship with those people who have an ethnic and cultural affinity with the Maori people.

In the universities, the Maori language is most obvious in specific courses and in the inclusion of Maori protocol for events and across the curriculum for degree courses where as appropriate, a Maori dimension of concept and practice is imbedded, and language elements are included. In AUT, we have a Faculty for Maori Development (Te ara potama) where Maori language, customs and other dimensions of their culture is taught, but elements of Maori thinking and reasoning, custom and practice, are infused across all courses.   All research projects funded from within the university for example, and those sent to the Government funding agencies, reflect a Maori dimension and opportunities for relating to the advancement of Maori in some way.

Perhaps I have said enough for now but my final word to start our discussion off, is the word ‘engagement’. This word is more than ‘participation’ or ‘consultation’ or ‘involvement’ or even ‘integration’…although I think that ‘integration’ is a key to successful implementation of any agreed process that has had adequate joint development. But the word ‘engagement’ is much more about actually being in something together. Expressing different perspectives and challenging ideas or proposals is all part of the action associated with ‘engagement’, but valuing every input as of equal importance and having a sense of a common ownership of the goal and success of attaining it, is truly being ‘with’ one another. That is the spirit of biculturalism, which New Zealand struggles with but is absolutely committed too.   We are all New Zealanders together.   We are a country of only 4 million people and yet we do well internationally with our contributions to science and technology, the arts and sport. We also express strong views politically and challenge others to accept our regimes of environmental care, social justice and diversity.

As I walk down the main streets of our cities, especially in the north of the country, I am surrounded by Maori faces, Pacific Island faces, Asian faces…and increasingly Latin American faces.    New Zealand has a bicultural constitution but is essentially multi-cultural. People from Northern, middle and Eastern Europe have made their homes in New Zealand just have others from the Middle East and India, Asia and the Americas. The Maori, Pacific Island and European people of New Zealand welcome the world in this way and seek to live together in peace and harmony.

Finally, let me give you an example from my Parish in Auckland, where we share the church buildings for worship with congregations from Tonga, Fiji, India, Russia and Serbia. This is a reflection of co-existence between Western and Eastern Orthodox traditions, Catholic and Protestant traditions, and ethnic and cultural blending. All of us retain our individual character, which we honour, and yet we give glory to God in common and meet at the same place in our hearts and minds, which is at the foot of the Cross in the communion of our baptism.
I hope that has given you some useful background information and I am now ready to continue in dialogue with Professor Morin. Thank you very much for listening.

Professor Sallis

On the basis of your presentation and experience I would like to focus our reflection upon the practice of dialogue in a world characterized by diversity. To this end I would like to converse with you on six topics, if time allows.

Jim Morin

Ecumenical and inter-religious dialogue

On the basis of your presentation we can speak clearly of two distinct, necessary and related levels of ecumenical and inter-religious dialogue. One level of this dialogue is based upon the common elements of our faith that favour mutual understanding and appreciation. This is clearly given in your example of our Anglicans and Catholics traditions in which we share common historical roots, beliefs and practices. Even in inter-religious dialogue with non-Christian tradition, the fact that most religions share a sense of respect for the sacred that is revealed as compassionate being, offers the basis for dialogue on shared common beliefs. A second and more challenging level of dialogue in which we want to know, appreciate and accept each other in the face of our differences. For example you spoke of Catholics and Anglicans as having evolved historically as different, separate and alternative communities and you described the Anglican Church as a communion of autonomous provincial churches. Even more challenging and enriching is the practice you mentioned of absorbing Maori customs into Christian worship. That is a profound recognition and affirmation of the fact that differences can also understood as a gift others offer us to enrich our lives. I think we would all appreciate it if you could give us some examples of the Maori customs that have become part of Christian worship in New Zealand.

Promotion of multi-cultural, multi-racial and multi-religious diversity

You described NZ as a country that values, protects and promotes the development of its multi-cultural, multi-racial and multi-religious diversity. You mentioned government treaties and norms as well as cultural and educational protocols that protect and promote the incorporation of Maori words and customs. Could you address the importance and difficulties of developing these norms and customs to promote the appreciation of cultural diversity?

Secular – religious dialogue

You mentioned that 10% of New Zealanders are religious practitioners. This growing tendency in our modern technological society poses another challenge for dialogue between sacred and secular understandings of reality. What are the challenges and difficulties of our times that open up concrete opportunities for dialogue in which both these world views may learn from each other?

Effects of our modern inattentiveness to the presence of the sacred

A characteristic of New Zealand secular culture you mentioned is its focus upon values such as decency, respect of one another, care of the community and the environment, a high standard of living and a peaceful way of life. Some have argue that this is a secular bourgeois notion of the Kingdom of God that has lost the mystical, transcendental, self-sacrificing, sacramental and prophetic dimensions of the sacred. Such lost or absence of an authentic presence of the sacred among us may even explain why many of our youth are so easily seduced by the Dionysian and nihilistic celebrations of darkness that is so predominant in our times. May not these nihilistic tendencies in themselves be negative prophetic announcements of the consequences of our neglect of the sacred? What are your views on such tensions?

Engagement and integration by discerning in dialogue

I believe that your observations on the notions of engagement and integration offer much food for thought in the context of multi-cultural dialogue and practice. If integration means negating ones own cultural heritage to assume a modern secular world view there is both a personal and cultural lost. However if integration is understood as mutual engagement in which both parts transcend in dialogue in order to authentically assume what they learn from each other, we may speak of an integration of new knowledge that nourishes our integral development as persons. Here we are speaking of engagement that discerns in dialogue in order to integrate new horizons of meaning in which self and culture are not lost but transformed.

Integrating and transforming fields of knowledge through engagement

You are an Anglican priest and teacher within a secular technological university. In your own academic field you move easily between mathematics, computer science, history, theology and linguistic analysis. As vice-rector of the Auckland U. of Technology, you have also been part of transforming how different fields of knowledge have been reorganized institutionally to promote dialogue in order to respond to problematic issues of our times. I believe it may be of value to our audience to know the reasons why and effects of having brought together different disciplines in faculties such as Creative Design Technologies, Health and Environment and Applied Humanities.

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La Facultad de Ciencias Religiosas y Filosóficas, y la Oficina de Relaciones Internacionales, le saludan muy cordialmente y tienen el agrado de invitarle a un “Diálogo multicultural y ecuménico”, con el Prof. Philip Sallis, Prorrector de la Universidad Tecnológica de Auckland (Nueva Zelanda), actividad que se efectuará el día jueves 3 de mayo, a las 18:30 hrs., en el Auditorio Monseñor Manuel Larraín (Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud).

El Prof. Sallis, quien además es sacerdote anglicano, perteneciente a la Orden de los Benedictinos de la Santa Cruz, será entrevistado por el Prof. James Morin Saint Onge, de la Escuela de Pedagogía en Religión y Filosofía. Talca, abril de 2007
Alvaro Morales Decher
Jefe Departamento de Comunicaciones y RR.PP.
Coordinador Oficina de Relaciones Internacionales
Universidad Católica del Maule
TALCA – CHILE