OPUS.Univ93 ****** XXVI International University Congress UNIV 93 SUFFERING AND HAPPINESS SARAJEVO... MOUNT PINATUBO... SOMALIA... HURRICANE ANDREW .... These names are synonymous today with untold agony and loss, apparently futile and irreparable. But must such human and natural disasters as urban pillaging, ethnic violence, famine and disease be regarded as alien to the equally natural and human aspiration to happiness? And what do they suggest about the direction of life in the contemporary world? In the remaining years of this century, UNIV studies will focus on topics which are indicative of the kind of world we are likely to live in beyond the year 2000. This year's topic is the relation between human suffering and happiness. At first glance, it may not be immediately apparent how such universal experiences as misfortune and well-being relate to each other. People naturally desire and strive to bring about a pleasurable environment for themselves and their loved ones. Yet it is also clear that organizational and technical advances in the material and spiritual areas of life have not brought about a world totally exempt from hardship and strife. Even attempts to create perfect societies have often led to anguish and disillusionment. The fear of pain and the prospect of suffering continue to mark our civilization; many resources are employed in the attempt to prevent or reduce pain. Today people place a high value on comfort and the absence of trouble, and they are willing to go to great lengths to achieve it. Due to the modern mass media, awareness of many kinds of suffering is pervasive. This only seems to make suffering more difficult to bear. How is the existence of so much suffering compatible with a hopeful understanding of humanity? Given the close experiential relationship between suffering and happiness, this question is inescapable. Not to face the reality of suffering in a serious way is logically equivalent to dismissing the quest for happiness as well. One cannot ask how or where to find happiness, at what cost or under what conditions, unless one is willing to consider those things which seem to impede it. Since this topic can be approached in many ways, it will be useful for those wishing to participate in this year's UNIV study to review the suggested sub-topics and bibliography before deciding how to proceed . Every UNIV study accommodates a wide range of options: reading and discussion groups, speakers forums, evenings of conversation, professional orientation seminars, opinion surveys, pro-life activities; and service projects. The topic can also be incorporated into regular course assignments in many academic fields or in extra-curricular activities. In past years the most beneficial projects have aimed at practical results which improve people's lives in some way. Thus UNIV-93 can be used to assist persons afflicted with illness, loneliness, or other misfortunes as well as those who work professionally with them - whether in one's own community or in a more needy one near or far. Local organizers of UNIV projects are invited to summarize their efforts in brief reports which can be considered for presentation at the closing session of the study - a world congress to be held between April 4 and 11,1993 in Rome, the seat of the sponsoring Institute for University Cooperation. Local reports (maximum of 8 double - spaced typed pages) along with one-page abstracts should reach one of the national coordinators by March 1, 1993. For Canada the coordinator is David Williams, Riverview Residence, 3618 Avenue du Musee, Montreal, QC H3G 2C9; for the U.S., the coordinator is John Gueguen, Political Science Dept., Illinois State Univ., Normal, IL 61761. Their telephone numbers are (514) 842-1912 and (309) 438-8638. More copies of this announcement are also available from them, as well as details about the Rome congress and past congresses. SUB - TOPICS 1. HUMAN LIFE IN GENERAL * the right to begin and to end life in keeping with the nobility of the human person * health, sickness, recovery and the quality of life * advances in preventive medicine 2. THE MORAL DIMENSION * the definition of happiness and its relation to moral good and evil * how pleasure and pain relate to goodness * suffering as a moral issue 3. THE RELIGIOUS DIMENSION * how religious faith and practice address suffering and happiness * temporal fortunes and misfortunes in light of an afterlife * happiness and suffering in the Bible and religious literature; in church documents 4. DEMOGRAPHY AND ENVIRONMENT * implications of population growth and decline for suffering and happiness * the impact of environmental problems on human well-being * urbanism and imbalances in population and resources 5. THE FAMILY AND EDUCATION * happiness and suffering in the immediate and extended family * special needs of children, the elderly, the handicapped * teaching people to understand and deal with pain and privation 6. PROFESSIONAL WORK * the role of work in promoting human well-being * how various sectors of the professions are concerned with suffering and its effects * the health care professions in particular 7. THE COMMUNICATIONS MEDIA * the influence of the mass media on social well-being * the treatment of suffering and happiness by the press, other media, and advertising * consideration of particular instances or typical situations: what to report and how to report it 8. THE FINE ARTS * the contribution of artistic creativity to human well-being * how happiness and suffering are treated in literature, art, music, theatre, film * consideration of a particular author, composer, or artist 9. PSYCHOLOGY AND SOCIOLOGY * behavioral approaches to suffering and happiness * suffering as a social issue: various forms of addiction * compassion and love as responses to suffering 10. ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS * the relation of wealth and poverty to suffering and happiness * material and financial means to relieve pain; initiatives in philanthropy * the rise and extension of consumerism as a quest for happiness, or its substitute 11. POLITICS AND LAW * suffering and the common good (well- being of the community) * the justice and injustice of suffering and its cognizance in legal processes * nongovernmental organizations and voluntary services as responses to suffering 12. INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS * the notion of solidarity or cooperation among nations in diverse conditions of well-being * the capability of international organizations to enhance global well-being * extremes of suffering encountered in conflict situations: current problem areas of the world BIBLIOGRAPHY A contemporary starting place is the reflections of two great witnesses of suffering, Pope John Paul II and Mother Teresa. The Pope treats the subject most directly in "Salvifici Doloris", "On the Christian Meaning of Human Suffering" (1984) and the retreat meditations he directed before becoming Pope, as Karol Wojtyla, in 1976: "Sign of Contradiction". It is also a frequent theme of his apostolic journeys and other discourses. Two collections of Mother Teresa's speeches and essays may be consulted: "A Gift for God" and "The Love of Christ". One of these, "Speaking from the Heart" (1984) is reprinted in Scepter Booklet No. 164; the Nobel Peace Prize Address (1979) is especially noteworthy. Other recent studies of suffering as productive of happiness are Peter Kreeft's "Making Sense out of Suffering" (1986); C.S. Lewis' "The Problem of Pain" (1940) and his autobiographical meditation, "A Grief Observed"; Sheldon Vanauken's "A Severe Mercy" (1977) on a similar experience; Mary Ann Budnik's Scepter Booklet No. 121, "Why Suffer?" (1980) The ascetical orientation to suffering is well provided by the writings of Bl. Josemaria Escriva, especially "The Way of the Cross" (1980). See also, among them many spiritual writing that reflect on Christ's Passion, Bp. Fulton J. Sheen, "The Seven Words from the Cross" (1977), reprinted in Scepter Booklet No. 191; James Cardinal Hickey, "Mary at the Foot of the Cross" (1988); Scriptural study of the relation between suffering and happiness could begin with the Book of Job, in the Old Testament, and St. Paul's Second Letter to the Corinthians, in the New. Accounts of martyrdom also provide abundant sources; especially appropriate for Canada and the United States is Albert J. Nevins, M. M. "American Martyrs from 1542 (1987). Finally, classical studies offer still another orientation. Especially notable are the following: Cicero, "Disputations at Tusculus" (46 B.C.), books II, III, V (on enduring pain, alleviating distress, and the sufficiency of virtue for a happy life); St. Augustine's early works on the truth about happiness in regard to good and evil - - "Against the Academicians" (386), book I; "The Happy Life" (386); "On Free Choice of the Will" (388-396); and books IV - VIII of "Confessions"; Boethius, "The Consolation of Philosophy" (626); "The Purgatorio" section of Dante's "Divine Comedy" (c. 1310); "The Life" of St. Teresa of Avila (1662), especially chap. 30 and 36; "Spiritual Relations" V and XV; and "The Interior Castle" (c. 1680), VI; St. John of the Cross, "The Dark Night" (c. 1680), II; John Henry Cardinal Newman, "Parochial and Plain Sermons", III, 11 "Bodily Suffering" (1836). Different from all of these positive accounts of the relation between suffering and happiness and remarkable for its insight into the unproductiveness of suffering in many lives is Fyodor Dostoevsky's "Notes from Underground" (1864); the same phenomenon is traced at greater length in the novels, such as "The Brothers Karamazov", "Crime and Punishment", "The Possessed", and "The House of the Dead".