World Future Society

Orlando, July 13, 2014

Slides: http://www.wnrf.org/orlando14.pdf

Network

Religious Futurist

Hosted by Jay Gary, PhD

Philip Ratner, Burning Bush Satelite

Explore the Future of Religion

Religious Futurist 7:00 – 8:15 am

Would you like to meet other futurists who are helping their

churches or temples, mosques or ministries, lead from the

future, not just the past? Religious Futurists first gathered at the

World Future Society’s conference in 1980. At WorldFuture

2014, we will again have an open gathering for anyone who

serves at the intersection of spirituality and futures awareness,

as volunteers or full-time. Participants will meet each other and

share ideas on the best practices of foresight within spiritual

movements. This 75 minute meeting is being hosted by the

World Network of Religious Futurists, http://www.wnrf.org

WNRF.org

@WNRFuturists

Religious Futures: 34 year retrospect

1980 First Global Conference on the Future, WFS, Toronto 1980

1981 Religious Futurists’ Network (JSAC- NCC)

1987 The Future of Muslim Civilization, by Zia Sardar

1988 World Network of Religious Futurists

1992 The Temples of Tomorrow by Kirby & Brewer

1999 ChristianFutures.com, by Jay Gary & Todd Johnson

2002 Integral Futures, Richard Slaughter, Ken Wilber

2003 Futurizing the Jews, by Moshe Dror & Tsvi Bisk

2006 Regent University, MA & Strategic Foresight, DSL

2008 IFTF, Faith in the Future, Bob Johansen

To advance the

knowledge & practice of

• Futures Studies in Religion

• Religious Studies in Futures

wnrf.org Rabbi Dr.

Moshe Dror

(1934-2011)

Rev. Dr.

Richard Kirby

(1949-2009)

Excavating the Future

•Sciences

•Historicism

•Progress

•Revelation

•Divination Wagar, W. W. (1991).

The next three futures:

Paradigms of things

to come. Praeger.

Recollecting Ourselves “We need hope, a sense of a future…. If

we wish to know about a person, we

must ask, 'what is your story—your real,

inmost story?'--for each of us is a

biography, a story. To be ourselves we

must have ourselves – possess, if need

be re-possess, our life-stories. We must

“recollect” ourselves, recollect the inner

drama, the narrative, of ourselves. A

person needs such a narrative, a

continuous inner narrative, to maintain

their identity, themselves.”

Oliver Sacks The Man Who

Mistook His Wife

for a Hat and Other

Clinical Tales

Religious Futurist Narratives

1. What is my inner story as a futurist?

2. In what way has my faith enlarged

(or constrained) my ability to create the future?

3. What will I take back from World Future 2014

to shape my life work?

15 Provocations What will shape the future of religion

over the next 10 years? Mark the top

4 “provocations” that you feel will

most shape your tradition by 2024,

whether for good or bad.

• Read through it first silently

• Turn to a neighbor, share your

results & why

http://www.jaygary.com/fileseek/downloads/15provocations.jaygary.pdf

Sara Robinson A social futurist, Sara tracks emerging

trends, issues, and solutions to expand

progressives' awareness of the ways our

shared vision of the next America is

coming into being.

Her particular specialty is the role

religion, culture, and other deep

cognitive frameworks play in the way

individuals and societies imagine the

future and choose our strategies to

approach and manage change.

Religious Futurist Narratives

1. What is my inner story as a futurist?

2. In what way has my faith enlarged

(or constrained) my ability to create the future?

3. What will I take back from World Future 2014

to shape my life work?

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