THE FUTURE OF RELIGION; A SYMPOSIUM Mothers Trust /Lakeshore interfaith Institute 6676 122nd ave Ganges Mi 49408 register at 269 543 3951, $15.00 suggested donation

        
               Invited Participants
     Rudolph Siebert PhD. www.rudolfjsiebert.org, 
     Rev. Richard Rhem,www.religionandlife.org 
     Indra Makhija PhD,www.motherstrust.org
     Pastor Robert Linstrom  www.accn.org/~peace.org  
     Mercy Gilpatric, D.Min.,
     Edward Gilpatric, PhD. 
     Peter Hart PhD,  www.conflictlab.org,
     Dena Blay-Stroba,OCDS www.motherstrust.org
     Dustin Byrd, Olivet College 
     Dr. Michael Ott, Western Michigan U.

SCHEDULE:
10:00 to 11:15............. Keynote address by Dr.Rudolf Siebert 

11:15 to 12:15............. Responses
 Rev. Richard Rhem, Indra Makija,Ph.D.,
 Mercy Gilpatric, D. Min,
 Peter Hart, Ph.D.
 Dr. Michael Ott
 Questions from audience

12:15 to 1:00.............. Lunch Break [your brown bag-only beverages and desserts provided]

1:00 to 2:00 .............. Responses 
 Dena BlayStroba, OCDS, 
 Rev. Robert Linstrom, Edward Gilpatric,
 Ph.D., Dustin Byrd,Olivet College
 Questions from audience

2:00 to 3:00............... Break Out Discussions
 with guest speakers and Dr. Siebert

3:00 to 3:30............... Conference wrap up remarks 
 Dr. Rudolf Siebert. 

Rudolf J. Siebert was born in Frankfurt a.M., Germany.   He studied history, philology, philosophy, sociology, psychoanalysis, and theology at the University of Frankfurt a.M., the University of Mainz, the University of Münster, and the Catholic University of America, Washington D.C. from 1947 - 1955.   Professor Siebert has taught, lectured, and published widely in Western and Eastern Europe, the United States, and Canada.   He is a professor of Religion and Society in the Department of Comparative Religion at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA.   He is the director of the Center for Humanistic Future Studies at Western Michigan University since 1980, the director of the international course on the "Future of Religion" in the Inter-University Center for Post-Graduate Studies in Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia / Croatia since 1975, and the international course on "Religion and Civil Society" in Yalta, Crimea, and Ukraine since 1999.   The Inter-University Center is sponsored by the University of Simferopol, Simferopol, Ukraine, and Western Michigan University.

Professor Siebert's main works are The Critical Theory of Religion: Frankfurt School,  and From Critical Theory to Critical Political Theology: Personal Autonomy and Universal Solidarity.   From 1955 to the present, Professor Siebert has developed the critical or dialectical theory of religion out of the critical theory of society, from the endeavors of the Institute for Social Research at the University of Frankfurt, globally known as the "Frankfurt School," and in continual discourse with sociologists, psychologists, anthropologists, economists, philosophers, religiologists, and theologians from the United States, Canada, England, Belgium, Holland, France, Germany, Yugoslavia / Croatia, Israel, and Columbia.   The dialectical theory of religion emphasizes the three global alternative futures of society: Future I - the totally administered society; Future II - the entirely militarized society; and Future III - the reconciled society.   It stresses the three global alternative futures of religion: Future I - religious fundamentalism; Future II - total secularization; Future III - the open dialectic between the religious and the secular aiming at a post-modern reconciliation between a reformed religion and a transformed secular enlightenment.  

Rudolf Siebert and his late wife Margaret nee Noyes had eight children and 13 grandchildren.  

At this time, our Key Note Speaker, Dr. Siebert , is involved in a major research work concerned with the critical theory of religion of Max Horkheimer, Walter Benjamin, Theodor W. Adorno, Erich Fromm, Herbert Marcuse, Alfred Sohn-Rethel, Jürgen Habermas, etc. It will be published under the title The Critical Theory of Religion: The Rescue of the Hopeless - the Longing for the Totally Other.