The Table Ronde at the Eranos Foundation, in Ascona, Switzerland.

Conference reports ERANOS 2013: Tolerance and Trust

ERANOS has taken place from 1933.The ERANOS Tagung (Conference) 2013 on "The Virtues of Tolerance" was held at Neamt Monastery in Romania on July 14-20, 2013. Here we publish a contribution from one of this years' speakers, Anders Björnsson.

Published on balticworlds.com on August 8, 2013

The ERANOS Tagung (Conference) 2013 on “The Virtues of Tolerance“ was held at Neamt Monastery in Romania on July 14-20, 2013. ERANOS has taken place from 1933 and on year after year (with one interruption: 1989).  ERANOS is described at its homepage www.eranos.org as:

“A spiritual festivity upon which the associates in the event bestow something of their own, a speech, for instance, or a song, a bowl of wine, or, and not least, the open mind for improvising words to contribute to the symposion among the associates. Rudolf Otto – the eminent German historian of religions – must have thought of this when he suggested the notion of ERANOS to Olga Froebe-Kapteyn, the Dutch foundress of a Table Ronde at her estate on the shores of the Lago Maggiore near Ascona in Switzerland. She envisaged a spiritual and cultural quest, more than 60 years ago, which she initiated, indeed, in the year 1933. Scholars of quite different origins and orientations meet and live together, at the same place, for the time of eight days; and they talk; each has agreed beforehand to contribute to the banquet of thoughts a lecture of two hours, the topics of which he or she has chosen freely in consideration of a general theme. In its first year ERANOS had as its theme: “Yoga and Meditation in East and West”; in subsequent years the participants in the Table Ronde spoke on such themes as: “Form and Cult of the Great Mother”, “The Mysteries”, “The World of Primeval Images”, “Man and the Process of Creativity”.

The life of ERANOS arises from the inspired science of its speakers. As to their selection, Olga Froebe-Kapteyn followed a clear concept. A speaker at ERANOS is one who “delves into the fullness of his inner visions and seeks to retain them in scientific form”. The combination of imaginative-creative and strictly scientific thinking has remained the reigning principle of ERANOS. This explains perhaps why ERANOS has continued to attract scholars who in their fields were particularly innovative.”

Anders Björnsson, former editor-in-chief was one of the ERANOS speakers 2013. Here we publish his speech “Tolerance and Trust. Reflections on Some Scandinavian Values and Experiences.”>>

Ninna Mörner