For much of human history, religion has been tightly connected to peoplehood and to territory – to blood and land. Collective identity was a blending of faith with deep relational ties, in today’s terms, religion and [...]]]> CALL FOR PAPERS
SOCIETY FOR THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF RELIGION
NOVEMBER 9 – 11, 2012
Hyatt Regency, PHOENIX, AZ

For much of human history, religion has been tightly connected to peoplehood and to territory – to blood and land. Collective identity was a blending of faith with deep relational ties, in today’s terms, religion and race/ethnicity. To be a part of a people was to be located in a particular geographic place and social space, and bound by one’s god(s). While the rise of universalist monotheisms, and then modern society, challenged some aspects of these overlapping social realities, the rise of the nation-state did not disrupt it completely, as the existence of state churches and communalist national identities in Europe testify. Even in – perhaps especially in – our globalized, post-industrial society – ethno-religious connections form deep national identities that have produced social conflicts, wars, and even genocide in such disparate places as South Asia, the Balkans, the Horn of Africa, and the Nordic countries. These connections also can foster a deep sense of belonging in a world often seen as spinning out of control.

One story about the U.S. posits that the « first new nation » rejected these ascribed bases for national belonging, and was open to all
ethnicities, cultures, and religions. As the story goes, American identity is an idea and an ideal to which one assented, not a tribe into
which one was born. And yet an enduring issue in American life has been race. From the founding of the U.S. republic and the Constitution’s 3/5th clause, to the Civil War, to Martin Luther King’s « beloved community, » to the election of President Barack Obama and recent debates over immigration, race has been a structural fact and a cultural controversy in American life. And from John Winthrop’s « city on a hill, » to Great Awakenings, to millions of immigrating Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists, to debates over school prayer, evolution, and claims as to whether the U.S. is a « Christian Nation, » religion has been an integral part of our national consensus even as it is often a source of deep conflict. These two staples of social life, race and religion, have been consistent axes around which American identity has revolved, as much in the 21st century as in the 18th.

Arizona has recently been at the center of a number of political issues surrounding issues of race, immigration, and American national identity. Many call recent Arizona policies implicitly racist, while others argue that the state is acting in the best interests of American territorial and cultural integrity. Clearly, issues of blood and land remain salient in American life and politics. As such, Phoenix becomes a setting in which we can confront the relations among religion, race, and national identity with the perspectives of social science.

Papers and discussions are invited on a broad range of topics in the social scientific study of religion relating to the meeting theme, including, but not limited to:

* Religion and the politics of immigration
* The ‘culture wars’ and religious commitments
* Religion and American political culture
* Religion and global migration
* Race and religious practices
* Multiracial churches and efforts at diversity
* Religious justifications of and challenges to racial inequality
* Theories of religion and social power
* Religion and multiple arenas of social conflict
* Religion and the election season of 2012

As always, we seek an inclusive mix of substantive, theoretical, and methodological approaches. Therefore, proposals for sessions and papers that fall outside the formal theme are also welcome.

All session and paper proposals must be submitted via the on-line submission system that will be available on the SSSR’s web site,
www.sssrweb.org, beginning January 15, 2012. In addition to the session proposer’s full contact information, a session proposal requires a session title and an abstract of not more than 150 words describing the goal of the session and how the proposer expects the session to contribute to scientific knowledge about religion. Paper proposals require the name(s) of the author(s), first author’s full contact information, an abstract of not more than 150 words that succinctly describes the question(s) motivating the research, the data and methods used, and what the paper contributes or expects to contribute to the knowledge or understanding of religion. The submission deadline is March 1, 2012.

Submissions Open: January 15, 2012 (see http://www.sssrweb.org)
Submissions Close: March 1, 2012
Decision Notification: April 5, 2012

Please direct questions to:
Ryan T. Cragun, Program Chair
University of Tampa
401 W Kennedy Blvd.
Tampa, FL 33603
(813) 434-1458
rcragun@ut.edu; ryantcragun@gmail.com

The Religious Studies Project, in association with the British Association for the Study of Religions and with some support from the University of Edinburgh, launched in January 2012. This is a website and podcasting project, featuring a weekly audio interview (of around [...]]]> The Religious Studies Project: Podcasts and Resources on the Contemporary Social-Scientific Study of Religion

The Religious Studies Project, in association with the British Association for the Study of Religions and with some support from the University of Edinburgh, launched in January 2012. This is a website and podcasting project, featuring a weekly audio interview (of around 30 minutes) with leading scholars of Religious Studies (RS) and related fields. So far, these have featured James Cox, Armin Geertz, Carole Cusack, Donald Wiebe and Graham Harvey speaking on topical issues, novel approaches and important scholars and methodologies of Religious Studies in the 21st Century. Future interviews include Grace Davie, Jay Demerath, Callum Brown, Linda Woodhead and many more.

In addition, the website also features weekly articles from postgraduate students and other scholars on the themes of the interview that week, in addition to other useful resources and articles relevant to teachers and students of religion in the modern world.

If you have any suggestions or would like to contribute please contact editors@religiousstudiesproject.com

Website: www.religioustudiesproject.com
Twitter: @ProjectRS
Facebook: The Religious Studies Project
iTunes: The Religious Studies Project

Yours sincerely,

Christopher Cotter, David Robertson, Louise Connelly (editors)
University of Edinburgh

———
PhD candidate, University of Edinburgh

d.g.robertson@ed.ac.uk
davidgrobertson.wordpress.com
edinburgh.academia.edu/Davidgrobertson

Editor & Co-host, www.religiousstudiesproject.com

The Donner institute will arrange a Symposium

13-15 June 2012 in Åbo / Turku, Finland

Place: Åbo Akademi University Asa Fänriksgatan 3 / Vänrikinkatu 3 Åbo / Turku/ Finland

The theme we have chosen for the Donner Institute 23rd Symposium is Digital Religion. The conference “Digital Religion” aims to explore the [...]]]> CALL FOR PAPERS

The Donner institute will arrange a Symposium

13-15 June 2012 in Åbo / Turku, Finland

Place:
Åbo Akademi University
Asa
Fänriksgatan 3 / Vänrikinkatu 3
Åbo / Turku/
Finland

The theme we have chosen for the Donner Institute 23rd Symposium is Digital Religion. The conference “Digital Religion” aims to explore the complex relationship between religion and digital technologies of communication. Digital religion encompasses a myriad of connections between religion and digital technologies of communication and the goal of the conference is to approach the subject from multiple perspectives.

Developments in digital technologies are having a noticeably growing impact on the very character and nature of contemporary religious life and practice across the globe. Digital technologies of communication –
epitomized in the continuing development and proliferation of the Internet and online modes of communication – are providing religious communities of virtually all strands with new means, environments and
arenas within and through which to interact, express, and communicate their message in ways unknown to previous generations.

For many religious communities, this development has undoubtedly brought a whole host of challenges. Many religious communities today find themselves struggling with how to come to terms with a rapidly expanding Internet-based communications environment that challenges traditional understandings of religious mediation and religious authority. Nevertheless, there are also religious communities that have faced the challenges head on and come to thrive thanks to the new technologies or whose very existence is dependent on e.g. the Internet.

From a scholarly perspective, this development is intimately connected to ongoing debates about the impact of accelerating processes of mediatization and digitalization on contemporary religious life and
practice. Though religion has colonized many different forms of digital media, it has also doubtlessly been altered by the media. This process is, however, complex and moves in several directions. Though digital
technologies no doubt transform religion and the contemporary religious landscape, religion too can be argued to have an impact on the digital world.

Subjects for papers include but are not limited to the following:

- Theoretical, methodological and historical approaches to “digital
religion”
- Empirical studies of “religion on line”, “online religion”, and the
relation between “online” and “offline” religion
- New media and transnational religious networks
- Challenges and/or opportunities for religions by digital media
- The Internet as an arena for religious/spiritual community
- Authority and legitimacy in digital religion
- Technological development and religious change
- Religion and digital media: appropriations, configurations, impacts
- Digital religion: generational, demographic, and geographical aspects
- Religious communicational strategies and digital technologies

Keynote speakers:
Ass. Prof. Heidi Campbell, Texas A & M University, Texas
Prof. Mia Lövheim, Uppsala University, Sweden
Prof. Jolyon Mitchell, University of Edinburg, UK
Dr. Marcus Moberg, Åbo Akademi University, Finland
Dr. Alexander Ornella, University of Hull, UK
Prof. Michael Pye, Phillips-Universität Marburg, Germany
Dr. Sofia Sjö, Åbo Akademi University, Finland

Application:

Please send your application to give a paper, with a short abstract
included, to the Donner Institute no later than February 15 2012.

20 minutes will be reserved for your lecture followed by 10 minutes for
discussion.

Finally, we would like to inform you that the lectures will be
published, in English, French or German, in volume 25 of the Donner
Institute series Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis. The published
version of your lecture may be longer than the one you present at the
symposium. We will be happy to receive a digital and publishable version
of your lecture already at the symposium but no later than October 31 2012.

Registration:

The registration fee is 150 €. (75 € for accompanying person)

The fee should be paid by the end of April 2012.
Account number: Nordea FI 12 20571800020055 NDEAFIHH
Name of the accountholder: Stiftelsen för Åbo Akademi (Foundation of Åbo
Akademi University)

The registration fee includes an excursion and a banquet organised in
connection with the symposium.

Please indicate in your registration whether you wish to participate in
the excursion and the banquet.

Address:

Donner institute
PB 70
FIN-20501 Åbo / Turku
Finland
E-mail: donner.institute@abo.fi
Tel.: +358 20 786 1450

WELCOME

Tore Ahlbäck, Joakim Alander, Björn Dahla,
Ruth Illman and Anna Nyman

Åbo/Turku 08.11.2011

This symposium explores some of the religious and spiritual changes which have been taking place among Indigenous populations in Australia, New Zealand and some Pacific Islands. [...]]]> Religious Change and Indigenous Populations in the Antipodes
Tuesday 13 March, 2012 from 1:00 PM–4:00 PM
University of Western Sydney
Centre for the Study of Contemporary Muslim Societies
Parramatta campus, Building EZ

This symposium explores some of the religious and spiritual changes which have been taking place among Indigenous populations in Australia, New Zealand and some Pacific Islands. It focuses on changes in religious affiliation over the last 15 years. The analytical focus draws on both local social and political debates on these matters, while contextualising the discussion in a wider global discourse on changing religious affiliation, especially the growth of Islam. Event is free of charge and all are welcome. For catering purposes, please RSVP to e.garcia@uws.edu.au by Friday 9 March.

Symposium Speakers and Abstracts
Professor Tim Rowse
Prof. Tim Rowse is a Professorial Fellow in the School of Humanities and Communication Arts and in the Institute for Culture and Society at UWS.

Although much of what he writes can best be described as History, Tim’s formal training has been in Government, Sociology and Anthropology. He has taught at Macquarie University, the Australian National University and Harvard University (where he held the Australian Studies chair in 2003-4), and he has held research appointments at the University of Sydney, the University of Melbourne, the University of Queensland and the ANU. Since the early 1980s, his research has focused on the relationships between Indigenous and other Australians, in Central Australia (where he lived from 1989 to 1996) and in the national political sphere. In the 1990s, this and other interests led him to write two books about the life and works of Dr. H.C. Coombs.

Prof. Rowse is a Member of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, a Fellow of both the Australian Academy of Humanities and the Australian Social Science Academy.
Religious Profile of Aborigines, Pacific Peoples and Maoris in Australia and NZ. An analysis of the 2001 and 2006 censuses A/Prof Adam Possamai, University of Western Sydney.

The current literature remains silent on the various religious changes and conversion happening among the indigenous population. Using the data obtained from the 2001 and 2006 censuses from Australia and New Zealand, this paper analyses the religious affiliations of Aborigines, Pacific Peoples and Maoris. Among other things, it points out the decline in Christianity and growth in Islam, which is in line with current religious trends in the general population. However, with regards to the ‘no religion’ category, the growth of indigenous people is faster than that of the non-indigenous population.

Adam Possamai is Associate Professor in Sociology at the University of Western Sydney and the acting Director of the Centre for the Study of Contemporary Muslim Societies. He is the President of the Sociology of Religion Research Committee from the International Sociological Association.

The Invention of God amongst Australian Aboriginal Societies: The Case of the ‘Rainbow Spirit Theology’
James L Cox, The University of Edinburgh
This paper provides a critique of how Christian theologians have interpreted Indigenous Religions in Australia by considering the case of ‘The Rainbow Spirit Theology’, which originated in the 1980s in north Queensland. Such theological interpretations have been created in response to prior evolutionary interpretations, suggested by late nineteenth century scholars of indigenous societies such as E.B. Tylor and Baldwin Spencer, who depicted Aboriginal peoples as lowest on the scale of human development. The Rainbow Spirit Elders, in conjunction with the Lutheran theologian Norman Habel, have sought to integrate Christian teaching into ideas found in Aboriginal spirituality by suggesting that the ‘rainbow spirit’ represents an ancient symbol of the Creator God. Research suggests that such an endeavour to locate the Christian God amongst indigenous Australian societies is a theological invention. The question for scholars of religion raised by the Rainbow Spirit Theology is an ethical rather than an empirical one. Can we justify non-contextualised Christian interpretations of a postulated belief in God amongst Aboriginal societies on the grounds that theologians are attempting to instil in indigenous peoples pride in their own traditions after suffering so many years of denigration both by academics and colonial authorities?

James Cox is Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies in the University of Edinburgh. He has held prior academic posts at the University of Zimbabwe, Westminster College, Oxford and Alaska Pacific University. His most recent monographs include: An Introduction to the Phenomenology of Religion (Continuum, 2010), From Primitive to Indigenous: The Academic Study of Indigenous Religions (Ashgate, 2007) and A Guide to the Phenomenology of Religion (Continuum, 2006).

Reconciliation: religion in comparative indigenous politics
Dr Dominic O’Sullivan, Charles Sturt University
Reconciliation is a political/theological nexus that influences indigenous policy across Australia, Fiji and New Zealand in equally significant but markedly different ways. For the state, reconciliation is a political objective intended to achieve social cohesion and political stability, but for the Church it extends the sacramental notion of reconciliation between God and penitent to human relationships ordered towards the correction of injustice. The paper explores how these different perspectives are played out as politics of indigeneity in jurisdictions with marked differences in how they approach questions of religion and politics and with different conceptions of indigeneity and its relationship to human dignity and justice.

Dr Dominic O’Sullivan is a senior lecturer in political science at Charles Sturt University. His research interests transcend political science, education and public theology with indigeneity providing a unifying scholarly theme. He has published three books in these fields, including: Scaling-up Education Reform: addressing the politics of disparity (with Russell Bishop and Mere Berryman) (NZCER Press, 2010), Beyond Biculturalism: the politics of an indigenous minority (Huia Publishers 2007) and Faith politics and reconciliation: Catholicism and the politics of indigeneity (The Australian Theological Forum, 2005).
Elementary and ageless or lost in the course of history? A reflection on non-Indigenous articulation of Indigenous spirituality and religions and the nature
of Aboriginality.
Dr Helena Onnudottir, University of Western Sydney
In this paper I wish to explore two persistent, but opposing, perceptions of Indigenous spirituality and religions in Australia; the positive romanticised image of the primitive, or noble, savage – particularly evident in Dreamtime imaginary during the Sydney Olympics in 2000 – and the negative image, depicting an inauthentic Aborigine who has lost tradition, culture and history. Essentialist constructs of the cultural and spiritual aspects of Indigenous populations in Australia have been made by non-Indigenous people from the earliest stages of British colonisation, but political, social and economic objectives have brought these representations to the fore of public discourse over the past 30 years (e.g. in the contexts of land/native title claims and Reconciliation). During that same timeframe, the voices of Indigenous people (scholars, artists, activists, etc.) have gained momentum, increasingly providing their own understanding and accounts of their spiritual identities and religious practices. My particular focus will be on those parts of Australia which have been long settled by white Australians (esp. New South Wales), currently ‘home’ to the majority of Australia’s Indigenous population. My conceptual focus will be on exploring the concepts of ‘Aboriginality’ (claims to culture and spiritual identity), ‘Belonging’ (to place, kin and ancestors) and the articulation of these with a particular notion of ‘authentic’ Aboriginality.
Helena Onnudottir is a social anthropologist and a lecturer in the School of Social Sciences and Psychology at University of Western Sydney. Her broad research areas include Aboriginal Australia, Multiculturalism, Religion, Gender and Sexuality, and current research focuses on changes to religious identification, images and practices among Aboriginal people in urban settings.

The RRA submission link can be accessed through the following website.

The Religious Research Association (RRA) is now accepting session and paper proposals for its 2012 meetings in Phoenix, Arizona. The call for papers can be found at http://rra.hartsem.edu/call2012.pdf.  Recall that the deadline for all proposals is March 31.

The RRA submission link can be accessed through the following website.

http://www.sssrweb.org

As you may recall, we hold our meetings jointly with the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion and share a submission portal with them. So, when you click on the link listed above and navigate to the session proposal or paper proposal website, the primary point to remember is to click the ***RRA radial button*** immediately above the title of your session or paper proposal. Clicking this radial button will ensure that your paper is routed to the RRA program chair.

Questions about the meetings can be directed to me at john.bartkowski@utsa.edu.

Questions about the formation and organization of the RRA program can be directed to our Program Chair, Joseph Baker, at bakerjo@etsu.edu.

Looking forward to seeing you in Phoenix!

John Bartkowski (RRA Chair)

We would like to draw your attention to the call for applications for the 2012 UCSIA summer school on “Religion, Culture and Society”. This summer school is a one-week course taking place from Sunday 26 August  until Sunday 2 September (dates of arrival and departure). This year the programme will focus on the topic [...]]]>

Dear all,

We would like to draw your attention to the call for applications for the 2012 UCSIA summer school on “Religion, Culture and Society”. This summer school is a one-week course taking place from Sunday 26 August  until Sunday 2 September (dates of arrival and departure). This year the programme will focus on the topic of Secularism(s) and Religion in Society.

Topic:

It is evident that religion, culture and society are strongly interwoven and are crucial for understanding the contemporary world. With globalization touching all aspects of our lives, religion(s) and culture(s) have to understand their position in this complex globalizing process. It is the aim of the interdisciplinary UCSIA summer school to better understand the dynamic interplay between the macro- and micro-social developments concerning religion that take place in much of the contemporary world.

Guest lecturers are Rajeev Bhargava (Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi), Peggy Levitt (Wellesley College), Robert W. Hefner (Boston University) and John Hutchinson (London School of Economics).

Practical details:

Participation and stay for young scholars and researchers are free of charge. Participants should pay for their own travel expenses to Antwerp.

You can submit your application via the electronic submission on the summer school website. The completed file as well as all other required application documents must be submitted to the UCSIA Selection Committee not later than Sunday 15 April 2012.

For further information regarding the programme and application procedure, please have a look at our website: http://www.ucsia.org/summerschool.

Please help us to distribute this call for application among PhD students and postdoctoral scholars who might be interested in applying for this summer school.

For all further information, do not hesitate to contact us on the address below.

Best regards,

Sara Mels

Project coordinator

UCSIA vzw
Prinsstraat 14
B-2000 Antwerp
Belgium
Tel. +32 (0)3 265 45 99
Fax +32 (0)3 707 09 31
e-mail: sara.mels@ua.ac.be

The special issue on Gender, Religion and Migration will look at the intersectional dimension of gender, ethnicity and religion where religion in particular plays a central role in providing a sense of belonging for migrants and represents a source of [...]]]> Call for Papers for special issue on in
new e-journal Religion and Gender http://www.religionandgender.org

The special issue on Gender, Religion and Migration will look at the intersectional dimension of gender, ethnicity and religion where
religion in particular plays a central role in providing a sense of belonging for migrants and represents a source of identification during the migratory experience. The special issue will focus on the ways in which gender roles are constructed and reproduced through religion within migrant communities in urban contexts and brings together leading scholars in the field of migration to explore how geographical mobility shapes gendered religious identities. For too long social sciences and migration studies have paid insufficient attention to the importance of religion in the everyday lives of many migrants and Levitt’s (2008) call for more ‘empirical, grounded’ research on migration and religion aims at filling this particular gap in the literature.

Mobilizing religion may serve a range of diverse purposes during the migratory experience and, indeed, migration may in turn shape the different ways in which religion is reproduced on an every day basis if compared with the country of origin of the worshippers. Religion can also provide a trans-national source of identification; for example, it may play a significant role in enabling migrants to imagine themselves within collectivities that span beyond the nation-state. In other words, religious worship may fulfil many functions for migrants, not only spiritual, but also material and social such as civic participation and commitment towards the parish for church goers (Levitt 2008). Hence, for migrants in particular, religion can potentially provide a means for both maintaining and expressing continuity of faith and practice while negotiating integration within a new environment (Stanczak, 2006).

The special issue On Gender, Religion and Migration will build on the symposium at Middlesex University, held in 2011, to explore comparisons and contrasts across different religious communities which could include for example, Muslim, Christian, Jewish and Hindi, etc. This collection of articles aims to bring together empirical research From_different academic disciplines, including sociology, geography and anthropology and using a range of methods to engage with and research different religious communities. We welcome papers that present a comparative approach to studying religion in migration.

In particular, we are looking for papers that tackle the following:

* Comparisons across religious groups
* Intersectional dimensions of gender, ethnicity and religion
* Construction of gender through religion in urban contexts
* Religion as a trans-national source of identification and the role of
gender in negotiating local integration through religion
* Religion as a source of civic engagement differently negotiated in
migrant women and men
* Role of religious organizations in providing integration opportunities while ensuring continuity of social practices with the country of origins for migrant women and man
* Role of religion in the intergenerational negotiation of belonging in the host country and outcomes in challenging traditional gender roles

If you are interested please send a 200 word abstract, along with a
short biographical note, to Dr. Ryan and Dr Vacchelli at the addresses
below by Monday 27 February:

Please note that if your abstract is accepted, full papers will be
needed by June 2012.
Dr. Louise Ryan and Dr. Elena Vacchelli, Middlesex University,
Contact: l.ryan@mdx.ac.uk and e.vacchelli@mdx.ac.uk

Table of contents Introduction: The Italian way to religious modernity I. From certain faith to doubtful faith: transformations of belief 1.    A more uncertain and precarious belief 2.    Reasons for believing 3.    Images of God and religion 4.    Selective adherence to fundamental beliefs 5.    The misty Otherworld 6.    Extra ecclesiam, nulla [...]]]> Franco Garelli
Religion Italian Style. The Country ’s Soul Laid Bare
Il Mulino, Bologna, 2011

Table of contents
Introduction: The Italian way to religious modernity
I. From certain faith to doubtful faith: transformations of belief
1.    A more uncertain and precarious belief
2.    Reasons for believing
3.    Images of God and religion
4.    Selective adherence to fundamental beliefs
5.    The misty Otherworld
6.    Extra ecclesiam, nulla salus (No salvation outside the Church)?
7.    Differences among Italians
II. Experience and religious life
1.    Direct experience of the sacred
2.    Mass: the optional style of religious practice
3.    Communion at least once a year
4.    The difficult mea culpa of the confessional
5.    Individual prayer
6.    Who prays, how and why
7.    Les trois cloches: religious rites of passage
8.    Church weddings, civil ceremonies or cohabitation?
9.    Popular devotional practices
III. Highs and lows of religious experience
1.    Attending religious environments
2.    The critical threshold: passage from adolescence to youth
3.    The pattern of faith in personal biography
4.    More religious “stand by” than involvement and crises
5.    Crisis factors and religious estrangement
6.    Militancy and associative belonging
IV. Italians and the Church: near and far
1.    Degree of thrust in Catholic Church
2.    Reasons for being far from or close to the Church
3.    The charm of charismatic figures and the voluntary sector
4.    Closer to the parish, further from the bishops
5.    Preferences within and without the Catholic world
6.    The many reasons for the vocations crisis
7.    Priestly celibacy and female priesthood
8.    Monks and nuns
9.    One church, many churches

V. The God of Small Things? Between Catholicism and alternative spirituality
1.    A spiritual revolution?
2.    Religion and spirituality in everyday life
3.    Alternative spirituality in the public arena
4.    The holistic milieu: work in progress
5.    Religion and spirituality: not a win-win game
6.    Spiritual Catholics
VI. The Italian way to layness
1.    Critical issues in the laity debate
2.    Religious symbols in public spaces: the crucifix
3.    Church-State relations: tax exemptions
4.    Catholic schools and religious instruction
5.    Religion and the public sphere
6.    The referendum on artificial procreation
7.    The Church’s public pronouncements in the socio-ethical field
8.    The State, religion and Catholicism
VII. Religiousness between politics and ethics
1.    “Anything goals” for Catholics in the political field
2.    The moderatism of the most committed Catholics
3.    Public and private morality
4.    Moral dilemmas: contraception and abortion
5.    Genetic experimentation and engineering
6.    Euthanasia, moral dilemmas and juridical recognition
7.    Ethical orientation among different kinds of religiousness
VIII. An increasingly plural Divinity
1.    Individualism of belief
2.    More religious faiths and multiple Catholicism
3.    How religious pluralism is viewed
4.    The appeal of other religions
5.    Being Muslims in Italy
6.    Muslims at school and at work: the challenge of cohabitation
7.    Various perceptions of Islam in different parts of Italy
8.    Muslims: more religiously devout than Christians?
9.    Religious pick-up
Methodological appendix Bibliographical references

Call for Papers

The fact that religion has not privatised, but remains an important [...]]]>
AHRC/ESRC RELIGION AND SOCIETY PROGRAMME
5th to 7th September 2012
The Divinity School, St John’s College, Cambridge, CB2 1TW

Call for Papers

The fact that religion has not privatised, but remains an important aspect of public life, is now well recognised.  But talk of ‘public religion’ can be vague and unfocused. The aim of this conference is to explore – with new findings – the forms which public religion is taking today, not only in the West, but elsewhere in an increasingly connected world.

The conference streams indicate the main arenas in relation to which public religion will be discussed, and on which papers are invited. Additional suggestions are also welcome:

• The Market and Religion
• Politics and Religion
• Law and Religion
• Religion, Media and Civil Society
  

· Violence (State and Non-state) and Religion

• Religion in Public Places and Spaces
• Religion, Health and Welfare
• Religion and Education
• Religion and Migration
  

Speakers include:
Lori Beaman
José Casanova
The Rt Hon Charles Clarke
Grace Davie
Pamela Dickey-Young
Stewart Hoover
The Rt Revd Graham James
Meredith McGuire
Nancy Nason-Clark
Jim Spickard
Linda Woodhead

The conference will showcase thirty or so projects funded by the Religion and Society Programme which have new findings in this area. These will be supplemented by the papers received through this open call.

Individual paper proposals (max. 200 words) should be submitted to:  Peta Ainsworth:  p.ainsworth@lancaster.ac.uk by 30th April 2012.

The conference is subsidised by the sponsors and costs £100 per delegate, £50 for postgraduates/unwaged (for the entire conference) or £50 per day, £25 for postgraduates/unwaged.  The conference fee excludes accommodation and evening meals.  For further details and registration go to: http://www.religionandsociety.org.uk/events/programme_events/show/new_forms_of_public_religion

A limited number of bursaries are available for postgraduates in the UK who need to travel some distance to Cambridge.  Please send an email with your registration form to Peta Ainsworth stating in one paragraph why you require assistance and how much your travel costs will be.
Peta Ainsworth (Administrator)
AHRC/ESRC Religion & Society Programme
FASS Building
Lancaster University
Lancaster  LA1 4YN
Tel. (01524) 510826
www.religionandsociety.org.uk <http://www.religionandsociety.org.uk>