Call for Papers
Power/Religion: A Revanche of Reaction or a Metaphor of Revolution?
Venues: Helsinki (University of Helsinki) St Petersburg (European University at St Petersburg and Russian Christian Academy for Humanities)
Date: September 10?15, 2013
Paper proposals due May 1, 2013
After a short-lived belief in the secularization of societies, religion has returned to the political arena with a vengeance. It is one of the most controversial but also determining political issues in today?s world. The majority of contemporary wars and terrorist attacks are religiously laden. The age of theocracies is by no means over. European secular countries are trying to tackle with the issue of religious symbols in the public sphere. Religious words such as blasphemy have reappeared in political vocabulary. While the Lutheran State-Church is reduced to insignificance, in Orthodox countries the Church and the State have entered into a
mutual partnership legitimizing each other?s power claims against secular reformists. Overtly secular intellectuals in the West have turned to religious discourses in their quest for tools of cultural and political criticism in order to fight capitalism and neoliberal hegemony. Not Marx or Lenin but the Apostle Paul and Thomas M?ntzer are leading revolutionary figures today.
But is religion a reactionary force or does it involve revolutionary potentiality? Or is religion, particularly the Abrahamic religions, fundamentally twofold, originally based on a revolutionary event but developed into a power system of the Church. Or is the very power of the Church based on the fidelity to the revolutionary event in its origin? What about religious doctrines? In the Epistle to the Romans, the Apostle Paul proclaims that every person should be subject to the governing authorities (Romans 13), while in the same letter he observes that we are ?not under law but under grace? (Romans 6:14). Further, in Acts 5:29 we may read the Apostles? collective reply to the high priest who charged them not to preach in the name of Christ: ?We must obey God rather than men.? Indeed, does not religion open up a transcendent dimension of freedom within the immanence of political order? Or is it precisely this transcendent dimension of freedom ? but also that of secrecy (arcana) ? that is needed in order to legitimize clerical and political power? Presumably, there is no definitive answer to these questions, for it is quite obvious that we have to take into account historical contexts: it is probable that same religious principles that empower revolutionary militants can be used by the established Churches in order to suppress them. Or is it? This two-day conference addresses these and related questions. Papers may deal with perennial, historical or contemporary issues. Both theoretical and empirical approaches are welcome.
Schedule
Tuesday September 10
Arrival at Helsinki
19:00 Get together party / dinner
Wednesday September 11
Venue: Collegium for Advanced Studies (University of Helsinki)
9:15 ? 11:45 five papers
11:45 ? 13:15 lunch
13:15 ? 15:45 five papers
19:00 Departure from Helsinki (Ferry to St Petersburg) Thursday September 12
9:30: Arrival at St Petersburg
14:00 ? 17:30 five papers
19:00 Dinner
Friday September 13
10:00 ? 12:30 five papers
12:30 Lunch
14:00 ? 17:30 special section for additional Russian participants (in Russian)
19:00 Dinner
Saturday September 14
Sightseeing
20:00 Departure from St Petersburg (Ferry to Helsinki) Sunday September 15
8:30 Return to Helsinki
Paper Proposals
Researchers interested in presenting a paper at the conference are asked to send an abstract of no more than 300 words by the 1st of May 2013 to the following email addresses:
mika.ojakangas@jyu.fi
power.religion2013@gmail.com
NOTE: The conference will take place in Helsinki and St Petersburg.
Those participants who wish to participate in the sessions in both cities are recommended to use the opportunity to purchase a visa free cruise / hotel package to St Petersburg including two nights on board (St Peter Line / Princess Maria, Helsinki ? St Petersburg ? Helsinki) and two nights? accommodation in a hotel (four stars) in St Petersburg.
The price of the cruise / hotel package is about 250-300?. If you are interested in the package, please contact Mika Ojakangas
(mika.ojakangas@jyu.fi) before the 1st of April. See also
http://www.ferrycenter.fi/index.php?1422?
Looking forward to receiving your paper proposals,
Roland Boer (University of Newcastle, Australia) Sergey Kozin (Russian Christian Academy of the Humanities) Mika Ojakangas (University of Jyv?skyl?, Finland)
Sponsors:
Subjectivity, Historicity, and Communality Research Group (Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, University of Helsinki) Academy of Finland (Faculty of Theology, University of Helsinki) European University at St Petersburg (http://www.eu.spb.ru/)
Russian Christian Academy for Humanities (http://rhga.ru/) Religion and Political Thought Project (Australian Research Council)
This is the fifth conference to be held in the ?Religion and Radicalism? series. To date, we have had:
Copenhagen: September 2010
Taipei: September 2011
Newcastle: October 2012
Herrnhut: March 2013
A five-volume series, under the title of Religion and Radicalism, will gather the articles from this international series of conferences.
Source: http://news.sisr-issr.org/?p=434
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