Rik Pinxten

Speaker
Dutch
French
Photo of Rik Pinxten

Who is Rik Pinxten? 

Rik is professor emeritus of cultural anthropology who has refreshing ideas about religions, diverse cultures and one's own identity. For years, this speaker has been conveying the message that the mixing of cultures is not only irreversible, but also enriching. Yet he is strongly opposed to the classical belief in multiculturalism, which he believes does not bring communities together. Instead, he advocates interculturalism. 

Pinxten stimulates you with his message, but also with the way he delivers it. Dry humor is an extra weapon to make himself and his audience think. He dares to philosophize about everyday things, without being pompous. Let this speaker guide you and you will automatically gain new insights.

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  • Our children’s century

    During this lecture, anthropologist Rik considers the major shifts in our post-war history; a history that largely coincides with his own life. He uses reflections to talk about economic developments in Flanders, the emergence of our secular society, the shift from information to knowledge, the primacy of neo-liberalism, the revival of xenophobia and nationalism and the segmentation of society and individuals. He has written this account in a book called De eeuw van onze kinderen (Our children’s century), which is not an actual autobiography, but uses his memories to initiate universal reflection on life in the western culture. This is Pinxten's way of going against current hypes and opinions, which are feeding a climate of populism. The speaker's original and candid view of the 21st century will be an enriching experience for the audience.

  • Global citizenship and cultural individuality

    Interdependence between regions and peoples is now increasingly replacing the drive for independence of the 19th Century. Globalisation, and the realisation that we will still be populating this planet for many generations, is causing us to think from a new cosmopolitical perspective: all humanity is one. This means experiencing and expanding ‘cosmopolitics’ as a subordinate search for identity, without breaking the ground rules of global interaction. This combination of cosmopolitical and identity-based dimensions is new. It means culture and religion give way to negotiated general interests. And an important role is played by developing intercultural skills and nurturing ‘dialogical personalities’.

  • Rites of passage and comparative religious studies

    Baptism at birth; the marriage ceremony when two people decide to share their lives; the funerals when people die - they are all rites of passage encountered all over the world to signify important moments in life. Various religions and the three faiths have added a religious dimension to these rites of passage. But there are also many non-religious rites of passage and new ones are still being created. Rik uses his book, Overgangsrituelen (Rites of Passage) to provide an overview during this lecture.

  • Religion, faith and fundamentalism

    There are currently 4,000 active religions in the world, but only Judaism, Christianity and Islam are faiths. Unlike the three ‘religions of the book’, many religions do not have a concept of God, a requirement of faith or a moral code.

    Rik believes it is thus impossible to conduct a scientific study on being religious if one only focuses on the three main religions. He proposes adopting three ‘archetypes’ of religiosity, namely mythical, ritual and shamanistic actions. Combinations of these facets then characterise each separate religion and the three main faiths. Rik Pinxten's lecture also qualifies fundamentalism using the same basis.

  • Clean protest: there is an alternative

    Neo-liberalism is a vampire ideology: 1% continuously needs more blood and gets it by extracting the spirit of the remaining 99%. This 1% will also destroy the planet in the pursuit of excessive consumption. From a political perspective, this ideology can only survive by presenting conflict and inequality as unavoidable (TINA, There Is No Alternative), while that is clearly a lie.

    In his book, Schoon protest (Clean protest), Rik calls on people to take back control. This is possible by removing market forces from important sectors: education, culture, health and elderly care, but also some of the food sector. Because if we restrict the market, then shared wellbeing and happiness will become possible for more people. A friendly call for resistance in the spirit of his mentor, the late Jaap Kruithof. About the need to think and choose ethically, aesthetically and politically. About thinking and behaving in a clean, decent and compassionate manner. Or do you want to wake up in a world where we are all ants or a dog-eat-dog society?

Rik Pinxten is an interesting speaker. His story is substantively and rhetorically very strong.

Jan Schurgers

Vita Humana

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