On Cultivating Gratitude as a Mode of Being
by:
Dr. Atif Khalil
when:
Saturday, September 22, 2012 - 10:45 to 12:00
In traditional Western ethical philosophy, gratitude has played the role of a relatively peripheral virtue. Recent developments in positive psychology, however, have begun to draw out the rather remarkable ways in which the cultivation of this often neglected virtue can contribute towards startlingly positive and optimistic attitudes towards life. Positive psychology, however, operates within a worldview which prevents the full potential of gratitude from being released because it neither fully acknowledges an ultimate benefactor to whom gratitude can be shown consistently, as a mode of being, nor the “gift” of suffering. Using the Sufi tradition as a focal point, it will be argued that the great contemplative traditions offer a means for the fullest realization of gratitude, in all its modes and levels
Dr. Atif Khalil teaches in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Lethbridge. His area of specialization lies in the formative period of Sufism, with a focus on the early development of Islamic moral and spiritual psychology. He completed his doctorate at the University of Toronto in 2009 with a thesis on repentance in early Sufism. He has also had the opportunity to study in more traditional settings in Syria and Yemen.