WHAT role does religion play in a conflicted world? Does it make the human propensity towards violence more pronounced, or can it help bring peace? If so - when, why and how?

This afternoon (Thursday 25 August, 5.30pm – 6.45pm) some leading thinkers about these problems come together for a public dialogue on the issues involved. 'Not Peace But A Sword' will take place at St John’s Church, Princes Street, Edinburgh - as part of the 2011 Festival of Spirituality and Peace, and co-sponsored by Ekklesia.

Fresh from his experience talking with Hamas and the religious right in Israel, Oliver McTernan, a former Roman Catholic priest and broadcaster, and author of Violence in God’s Name will engage in conversation with historian Owen Dudley Edwards and church historian Lesley Orr.

Imam Faisal arriving in Edinburgh

A PROMINENT American Muslim leader, author and activist involved with the creation of a peacemaking Islamic community centre near Ground Zero in New York, arrives Scotland on Friday 26 August for a series of talks and events connected with the 2011 Festival of Spirituality and Peace in Edinburgh.

Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf will be speaking at a discussion on 9/11, entitled ‘The Day the World Changed’, on Saturday 27 August, from 9.30 to 10.30am at St John’s Church, Lothian Road, and on Wednesday 31 August, from 6.30 to 8.00pm. at Wellington Church, University Avenue, Glasgow.
He will also be receiving a Peace Award at the closing event of the Festival of Spirituality and Peace, on Sunday 28 August, at 6.00pm at St John’s Church, and will be meeting religious and civic leaders while he is here.

Tickets for the Edinburgh conversation (£6 or £4 concessions, free to under1 8s and claimants) from Hub Tickets, Castlehill, Edinburgh (http://www.hubtickets.co.uk/auto_choose_ga.asp?area=1188), or on the door - though getting advanced tickets is highly recommended.

Examining the Arab revolutions

AS IMAGES of the fast-changing situations in Libya and Syria continue to flash across our television and computer screens, what is going on undereath the surface?  

Moreover, what is the 'Arab Spring' all about?  Can largely non-violent revolt succeed in the face of armed dictatorship?

These and other urgent questions will be explored in major sessions at the 2011 Festival of Spirituality and Peace in Edinburgh this weekend. Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf from New York is among the prominent speakers taking part. The full Festival programme is here.

The ethics of finance

WITH our societies reeling once more from the shock of the near collapse of global financial systems, what can we learn from what happened to prevent a recurrence?

What principles should underpin banking in a market-based economy? If we were designing the system from scratch – or indeed drawing on the practical wisdom of the faith communities - what would it look like?

This is the focus of a discussion at the 2011 Festival of Spirituality and Peace with Susan Rice, Managing Director of Lloyds Banking Group, Scotland, and Omar Shaikh from the Islamic Finance Council.

They will be in conversation on Tuesday 23 August, from 12.30pm – 1.30pm, at St John’s Church, Princes St, Edinburgh, with Charles Munn, former Chief Executive of the Chartered Institute of Bankers in Scotland and now Chair of the Church of Scotland Special Commission on the Purposes of Economic Activity.

Top recitalists play Edinburgh

LEADING recitalists Evelina Puzaité, a concert pianist, originally from Lithuania, and oboe maestro Andrius Puskunigis, also Lithuanian, are travelling from London and France respectively this week, especially to perform their Scottish Premiere in at the 2011 Festival of Spirituality and Peace in Edinburgh.

There is more on their background here.  Evelina and Andrius will play pieces from their new Schumann CD, interspersed with a variety of international musical greats – Chopin, Rachmaninov, Liszt, Rossini, Piazzolla, and Prokofiev.

Both performers are convinced that music can play a significant role in awakening the human spirit and bringing a longing for harmony and peace in a troubled world.

The concert takes place at St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral, Palmerston Place, Edinburgh, on Friday 26 August 2011, at 7.30pm. Tickets £10 / £8 (children free) from the Hub: 0131 473 2000 www.hubtickets.co.uk or on the door. 

Thinking more imaginatively

HOW we see and think about the world shapes our responses to each other, and what we produce by way of interventions and effects.

A fascinating conversation about how to distinguish 'wood from trees' and what is entailed in interpreting the world, texts, each other and much more took place at lunchtime on Saturday 20 August at the Festival of Spirituality and Peace.

Over recent centuries, has there been a drift towards literalism, fundamentalism and scientism in western culture. It was suggested that this ‘left brain chauvinism’ can make us dangerously unaware of all that the right brain can offer – the big picture, meaning, metaphor and spirituality.

Iain McGilchrist, psychiatrist and writer (author of The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Modern World) explored these issues with Dr Joe Bouch, consultant psychiatrist and editor of Advances in Psychiatric Treatment, and John Munro, philosophy of science graduate, retired Church of Scotland minister and member of the Scottish Institute of Human Relations.

Finding a desert in the city?

SOME say that monastic communities are an escape from reality, others that they are a journey into reality where you cannot hide from God, from others – or from yourself.

Which is it? Dom Mark Caira, Abbot of Sancta Maria Abbey, Nunraw and Sister Candasiri of the Amaravati Buddhist Monastery looks at the issues in conversation with Ruth Scott, Anglican priest, writer and broadcaster, who for many years has worked with a number of religious orders as a facilitator. Saturday 20 August, 11am – 12noon St John’s Church, Edinburgh.

This is an important theme for the 2011 Festival of Spirituality and Peace, which is bringing together some 25,000 people for 300 performances and 200 events across 15 venues in Scotland's capital. 

A brave new future?

GENETIC modification, synthetic biology, nuclear power, stem cells,  nanomedicine, smart homes, surveillance, perhaps even enhancing the  human body and mind.

But a crumbling mural at Chernobyl shows that new technological promises do not always mean progress for humans or God’s world.  What values should govern our potential for good or ill in this complex area?

Dr Donald Bruce from Edinethics and former director of the Society, Religion and Technology Project of the Church of Scotland joins in conversation with Professor Kenneth Boyd, Professor of Medical Ethics at the University of Edinburgh on Sunday 21 August, 12.30pm  – 1.30pm at St John’s Church.

Feeding heart and soul

MARTIN Aelred is among those performing at Sacred Space at the Festival of Spirituality and Peace in St John's Church this coming week.

The singer-songwriter promises to "feed your heart and soul" on Monday lunchtime, 22 August (12.15-1pm and free).

Sacred Space is an opportunity to experience the stillness and peace of a beautiful church. It provides music and silence in the midst of a busy festival.

Spend an half an hour with some of Edinburgh’s finest musicians in one of its most stunning buildings. Open to those of all faiths or of none.

The upcoming roster is: Monday 22, Martin Aelred –Voice and Guitar; Tuesday 23, Sacred Sphere with Mio Shapley – Harp; Wednesday 24, Norman Lamont – Wave forms – gentle layers of sound;  Thursday 25, Ben Kearsley – Classical Guitar.

The music of nature

YORK harpist and contemporary composer Ruby Paul has premiered her new work at the Festival of Spirituality and Peace on Monday evening, 15 August 2011.

The concert took place at 6pm, at St John’s Church Hall, Princes Street. Ruby introduced Encyclopedia Botanica to the audience. The work is a series of 15 mood pieces for solo harp inspired by the flowers and plants from across the British Isles.

“Each piece has the title of a wild flower, like ‘Poppy’ or ‘Daisy’ or ‘Bee Orchid’,” explains Ruby Paul to the York Press newspaper. “They’re mainly very common flowers and plants, all the things I experienced and enjoyed in my childhood growing up on the Gower Peninsular, south of Swansea, near Caswell, about a mile from the sea.”

More from the York Press here.