Harold Schweizer (Bucknell University): "THE POETRY OF SUFFERING AND WAITING"

The sufferer’s fundamental solitude, suggested in poems by Rainer Maria Rilke, William Wordsworth, Eavan Boland, and Alice Oswald, elicits our acknowledgment of the radically indecipherable qualities of suffering. It is precisely in the humility of this acknowledgment that we begin to feel empathy. A poetry that itself ought to be a rare and difficult thing can significantly nurture such a practice of empathic imagining. This year's Institute series, "The Contemporary Face of Suffering," will explore important philosophical, religious and literary aspects of suffering. From recent public debate about physician-assisted suicide and other end-of-life choices to new academic research on topics such as social suffering and the effects of trauma, there is much to prompt contemporary philosophical reflection about the nature and meaning of human suffering. Sponsored by the Institute for Philosophy & Religion.