Starting from the title of the event, “Happy and discontented?”, The Festival of Religions 2021, in Florence from 19 to 21 November, rekindles one of the most incomprehensible questions of Western civilization, the theme of happiness in relation to the great availability of
resources and services.
The organizer Francesca Campana Comparini, philosopher, author of the book “Here I am – The theory of anticipation”, asks the participants the spiritual question on the one hand, socio-economic on the other, with interference from psychology, medicine, art, myth. The genesis of each meeting lies precisely in the provocative question, which traces, distorting it, the happy ending of every childhood fairy tale “and they lived happily ever after”: the writer Edith Bruck, to whom the mayor of Florence Dario Nardella will deliver the Keys to the City Friday 19 at 3 pm.
The Festival will begin with a testimony of the Shoah. Umberto Galimberti, journalist and philosopher, will propose a report on the myth of happiness. Vito Mancuso, theologian, and Father Bernardo Gianni will discuss with Francesca Campana Comparini how much man in the search for happiness, not being able to be enough for himself, needs God.
Paolo Mieli and Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio will focus on the prospects for peace in the Middle East. Enzo Bianchi will speak of happiness in God. The molecules of happiness and sadness will be at the center of the intervention of the doctor Professor Andrea Fagiolini.
Art, the wonder of the images of happiness and their meaning will be Vittorio Sgarbi’s in-depth study. Massimo Recalcati will devote time to the philosophical and psychoanalytical discussion between joy and happiness. Sergio Givone’s focus will be on the relationship between happiness and freedom. Then Imam Izzedin Elzir and Enrico Fink will talk about happiness in Islam and Judaism.
The meetings will be held between the Basilica San Miniato, the Convent Church of San Salvatore al Monte and the Convent Chapel of San Salvatore al Monte and can also be followed in live streaming.