June 6-8, 2016 - Padova, Italy

Nowadays, reference to religions in bioethics is inescapable. Yet, the more such reference and consideration of religions become inevitable, the more bioethics must create the conditions for a fruitful dialogue among these traditions and between religious and secular persons. The lecture series explicitly identifies the basis for this dialogue in the anthropological dimension. Such strategy seems to make possible and justify, better than other approaches, the link between bioethics and religions.

Contents of the course include: (1) a critical analysis of different approaches on the relationship between bioethics and religion; (2) a sociological perspective on the interaction between religious attitudes and secular values; (3) anthropological presuppositions and bioethical implications of important Western and Eastern religious traditions: Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam.

As to the methods, the course will combine lectures, group discussions and workshops. Since the course will have participants from different religious traditions, group discussions will be of particular interest and a source of reciprocal enrichment. All course activities and materials are in English.