The DI's Leonard Swidler (Founder/President) and Rebecca Mays (Executive Director) have been invited to participate in the upcoming Fifth Session of the Centre of Heaven and Earth (Songshan) Forum on Chinese and World Civilizations, to be held October 27-30, 2016 in Dengfeng, Henan, China.
This year's forum, under the theme “Transformation and Innovation: Toward a Dialogical Civilization,” is intended to investigate different civilizations through creative transformation and innovative development to move toward a model for dialogical civilization.
A "dialogue on dialogue" between Professor Swidler and Professor Tu Weiming, Director of the Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies, Peking University, which is co-hosting the conference.
The forum will be co-hosted by the Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies of Peking University, China International Culture Exchange Centre, the Henan Chinese Civilizational Transmission and Development Foundation, the Institute for Songshan Civilizational Studies and the Municipal Government of Dengfeng, Henan.
While in China, DI staff will also be meeting with some of the participants of the Asia Interreligious Development Network (AIDN), a collaborative project begun by the DI in 2014 in partnership with Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) and with initial three-year funding provided by the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia.
