Series
Compassion Versus Security? What Faith-Based Approaches Can Contribute to the Discussion
May 20, 2025
9:00 - 10:00 AM PST
Presenter: Melanie Barbato, Researcher, University of Münster
Melanie Barbato is the author of Jain Approaches to Plurality: Identity as Dialogue (Brill) and the editor of Interreligious Dialogue and Diplomacy, a special issue of CrossCurrents (UNC Press). She is a Senior Lecturer in History of Christianity at the Pacific Theological College in Suva, Fiji, and coordinates the Network of Hinduism in Dialogue at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, UK.
Compassion Versus Security? What Faith-Based Approaches Can Contribute to the Discussion
Calls for a compassionate approach towards refugees are often met with arguments about the security of the host country's population. On the other hand, the 2022 United Nations Development Programme Special Report on human security has added "solidarity" to "protection" and "empowerment" as the main strategies for human security in the Anthropocene. Global solidarity, it could be argued, is not possible without a compassionate attitude towards those who suffer. This talk will explore the complex relationship between compassion and security, and highlight the contribution that faith-based approaches can make to this discussion.
