Recommendations for Honorary Life Membership of the IAHR
February 11, 2005)
At its meeting in Bergen, Norway, on May 10, 2003, the International Committee appointed professors Louise Bäckman, Tamaru Noriyoshi and R. J. Zwi Werblowsky to serve on the Honorary Life Membership Advisory Committee. Prof. Werblowsky was appointed Chair of the committee.
After the deadline had been met, there were no recommendations from the IAHR affiliates. The Executive Committee sent three names to the Honorary Life Membership Advisory Committee, and that Committee has now sent its formal proposal to the General Secretary who will present the proposal to the International Committee at its meeting in Tokyo on March 27, 2005. The proposal follows below.
From: Chairman, Advisory Committee on election to IAHR Honorary Life Membership
To: IAHR International Committee c/o General Secretary IAHR
February 1, 2005
Dear General Secretary,
According to our constitution as currently in force, the Executive Committee as well as member organizations ("affiliates") may nominate candidates for honorary life membership in recognition of their services to both scholarship and the activities and objectives of the Association. The Advisory Committee is charged with selecting a maximum of 5 names from a possibly larger number of nominations and to submit their proposal to the International Committee. The Advisory Committee, as appointed by the International Committee at its meeting in Bergen, Norway, on May 10, 2003 is currently composed of R.J.Zwi Werblowsky (Professor Emeritus, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Chairman; Prof. Louise Bäckman, (Professor Emerita, University of Stockholm) and Noriyoshi Tamaru (Professor Emeritus, University of Tokyo).
The next meeting of the International Committee will take place during the Tokyo Congress next month, but none of our Affiliate Societies has suggested any candidates. The Executive Committee have submitted the names of Professors Peter Antes (University of Hannover), Michio Araki (Japan), and Giulia Sfameni Gasparro (University of Messina) and these have been forwarded by the General Secretary to the Advisory Committee for their consideration. In the circumstances the Advisory Committee does not have to select but can wholeheartedly endorse the proposed three nominations.
Peter Antes will lay down his presidency of the IAHR at the Tokyo Congress, after having served both the International Association and the German member-group for over 20 years in a variety of functions. In addition to his more specialized work on contemporary Islam, he has published widely on Religionswissenschaft in general (phenomenology, psychology, methodology). Special mention should be made of his efforts to promote the study of world religions also in schools.
Michio Araki, Professor Emeritus of Tsukuba University (since 2001), has distinguished himself as scholar, organizer and educator of a younger generation of Japanese researchers in the field of history of religions. The emphasis of his work is on "popular religions" in history and in the contemporary world, but he has also been active organizationally on both the international (member of the IAHR Executive Board 1990-2000) and national (Board of Directors of the Japanese Association) scene. The Tokyo Congress owes much to his initiative and efforts.
Most of Giulia Gasparro's numerous publications deal with the religions of the classical and hellenistic world of "Late (mediterranean) Antiquity": Greek and Oriental mystery cults, Gnosticism as well as early Christianity up to Origen and the Origenistic traditions and controversies. In her scholarly work Prof. Gasparro shows herself not only a disciple but a successor and academic heir of the late Ugo Bianchi. She has served as General Secretary and Vice-President of the Italian member-group, on the Executive Committee of the IAHR and (since 2000) as President of the European Association for the Study of Religions (EASR).
The Advisory Committee wholeheartedly recommends the aforementioned three nominees to the International Committee for election to Honorary Life Membership.
R.J.Zwi Werblowsky (Chairman, Advisory Committee)
