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Paul Oestreicher
Every form of fundamentalism threatens "the glorious
liberty of intellectual and spiritual exploration and
discovery", the Rev Dr Paul Oestreicher warned in Dunedin.
A distinguished University of Otago graduate and a former
chairman of Amnesty International UK, Dr Oestreicher was
commenting during an Otago University graduation ceremony on
Saturday.
More than 370 graduands, mainly in humanities and in health
sciences, graduated in person at the Dunedin Town Hall
ceremony, during which Dr Oestreicher was awarded an honorary
doctorate of divinity.
He urged all graduates to keep an open mind.
No scientific theory, medical textbook, manual of law,
philosophy, Bible, Koran, or Pope had "the last word in
wisdom".
"If there is a God, we are all God's children."
There was wisdom in being a "humble agnostic, enjoying the
mystery and wonder of life" - and in his own case as a
Christian agnostic.
Being a liberal and having an open mind did not mean that
"anything goes".
"Rules and good laws were needed in order to live creatively
with each other."
Anarchy was a "dangerous form of self-indulgence".
The Otago University vice-chancellor had been wise to "reach
for the rule book" when "a bunch of students made the good
citizens of Dunedin run for cover", he said, apparently
referring to the disorder at a student toga parade during
Orientation in February this year.
"That story even made the papers in Britain."
There was also wisdom in knowing when to challenge authority
and convention by creative and costly disobedience.
That was why he was dedicating his graduation comments "to
the memory of a visionary and courageous Otago farmhand,
Archibald Baxter, who, with a handful of others, had the
audacity to say 'No' to the senseless slaughter of the First
World War."
New Zealand's leaders had effectively dragged Baxter to the
trenches in France, and threatened to kill him but had failed
to break his spirit.
His autobiography, We Will Not Cease, was now a New
Zealand classic and should be a school textbook, alongside
the story of Gallipoli, he said.
Governments continued to exploit young people by teaching
them to kill those held to be a threat, "rather than find
non-violent ways of overcoming conflict".
It gave him great pleasure, and cause for hope that Otago
University had included peace and conflict studies in its
academic ambit, he said.
Dr Oestreicher is Canon Emeritus of Coventry Cathedral.
He has spent most of his life in England.
He now lives in Brighton, England, with his wife, Prof
Barbara Einhorn, who has an Otago University doctorate in
German.
john.gibb@odt.co.nz
