The symposium aims to address the emerging new faces of philosophy of religion that expand on the wider cultural issues of theorizing religion today. Topics to be addressed range from how ideology critique has come to change the face of studying religion academically and whether theology and religious studies can or should, in the context of post-phenomenological debates, co-exist in the university, to whether traditional philosophy of religion, as distinct from philosophical theology and phenomenology of religion, is more properly philosophy of religious studies.
The subject matter is a pressing one. Philosophy of religion is changing so rapidly that many wonder, more now than ever, in what it consists. This often raises the urgent question whether philosophy of religion should persist. The symposiasts offer ways in which to mitigate the issues, underlining the importance of reflexivity in the context of religion and not philosophy alone.
All speakers:
John D. Caputo (Villanova University)
Carl Raschke (University of Denver)
Tyler Roberts (Grinnell College)
Pamela Anderson (Oxford University)
Maurice Boutin (McGill University)
Wesley Wildman (Boston University)
Clayton Crockett (University of Central Arkansas)
Jim Kanaris (McGill University)
Morny Joy (University of Calgary)
Jin Park (American University)
Nick Trakakis (Australian Catholic University)
Conference Schedule:
BREAKFAST (SENIOR COMMON ROOM) 8:00 AM
Symposiasts are cordially invited to a light breakfast
SESSION 1 9:00‐10:30
SESSION 2 10:45‐12:15
LUNCH (SENIOR COMMON ROOM) 12:15‐1:30
Symposiasts are cordially invited to a light lunch
SESSION 3 1:30‐3:00
SESSION 4 3:15‐5:30
DINNER (FACULTY CLUB)* 7:00 PM
Symposiasts are cordially invited to dinner
The Canadian Society of Christian Philosophers will hold its annual meeting on June 3rd, 2013 as part of the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Victoria.
Meeting of the Canadian Philosophical Association:
When — June 2 to June 5, 2013
Where — TBD
Hosted by — Canadian Philosophical Association
Who can attend — Registered attendees of the association.
Concerning the schedule of meetings and the specific itinerary, more details will be posted as they become available. Check the website starting in April 2013.
Access — Only those people who have registered for the meeting of the Canadian Philosophical Association may attend. Note that registration fees do not cover the association’s membership fees. For membership inquiries, please contact the association directly.
Program Chair: Guillaume Fréchette, Universität Salzburg
Local Arrangements Coordinator: James Young, University of Victoria
Please visit the website for more information.
3-4 June 2013, Université de Paris – Sorbonne & Institut Catholique de Paris, “Thomas d’Aquin et ses sources arabes / Aquinas and ‘the Arabs'”. Call for papers on Aquinas and the Arabic Tradition. Initial deadline 15 February 2013.
Organizers: J.-B. Brenet, Isabelle Moulin & Richard C. Taylor
The Aquinas and ‘the Arabs’ International Working Group announces a conference on “Aquinas and Metaphysics in the Arabic Tradition” that will be held 7-8 June at Würzburg. The conference is organized by Profs. Jörn Müller, Dag Hasse and Richard C. Taylor.
Among the program presenters are Pasquale Porro, Deborah Black, Dag Hasse, R. E. Houser, Olga Lizzini, Luis López-Farjeat, Richard C. Taylor, and David B. Twetten.
There will be a workshop for Ph.D. students held on Friday 7 June before the evening plenary lecture opening the conference.
The Future for Philosophy of Religion? An exploration of recent ‘turns to the human’ in thinking about religion.
The past decade has been marked by significant shifts in the in the Philosophy of Religion. A discipline long characterised by close analysis of a limited number of topics, and focusing mainly on arguments for and against traditional theistic belief, has broken new ground, both in its subject matter and its methodology. Much work by contemporary philosophers of religion has taken on an increasingly ‘humanistic’ shape: to supplement abstract argument and analysis there has been an increasing interest in religion as a response to the problems of lived human experience. This interest has manifested itself in a focus on the relation between religious belief and moral and aesthetic experience; the role played by religion in the struggle for self-awareness and psychological maturity; the contributions to religious awareness made by the emotions, the body, and the disciplines of spiritual praxis; and the way in which a deeper engagement with poetic and literary resources may develop and deepen religious sensibility and also enhance our understanding of the religious outlook itself.
Among the possible themes to be addressed by the Conference are the following:
1. Criteria for evaluating a religious outlook. Is a religious outlook to be assessed in terms of the intellectual plausibility of the claims it purports to make about the origins or workings of the cosmos, or should it be understood instead as an attempt to articulate an appropriate emotional and moral response to the puzzle of the meaning of human life and the how it should be lived?
2. Methodology. What is the appropriate mode for religious philosophizing? Should the philosopher of religion aim at detached intellectual scrutiny of certain truth claims, in the manner of a scientist, or is religious truth a domain that is more fruitfully investigated from a standpoint of emotional and moral commitment?
3. Theoretical implications. Does the ‘humane turn’ in philosophy of religion lead to, or lend support to, so-called ‘noncognitivism’ about religious claims (the view that religious assertions are not really descriptions of states of affairs but express passionate commitments to a certain form of life); or does it need to preserve a cognitive core of essential truth-claims?
4. Theological and anthropological dimensions. Should theology operate primarily at the level of abstract metaphysical doctrine, or does it need to do more to accommodate the perspective of the human subject, and an examination of the nature of what the religious life means for those who are actually involved in the practice of religion, or belong to its institutions?
Speakers: John Cottingham (analytic philosophy); William Schweiker (theological ethics and hermeneutics); Mark Wynn (philosophy/theology and the emotions); Christopher Hamilton (philosophy and literature).
Please see website for additional details.
The APRA Conference, 2013: Religion and Science, Theism and Atheism
Keynote Speakers:
Professor Herman Philipse, University of Utrecht, Netherlands
Professor Michael Ruse, Florida State University, USA
Professor John Bishop, University of Auckland, New Zealand
Professor Peter Forrest, University of New England, Australia
Submission date 31 March 2013. Please see website for more information.