Until recently, the death of God in Western society had seemed inexorable. However, a growing and marked interest in contemporary scholarship now strongly contests this verdict. Either concerned with the somewhat cursory conclusions of the New Atheists, the reductive verdicts of nominalism, or the fatalist undertones of naturalism, a number of authors from different philosophical perspectives are now proposing a new fate to the idea of God.

Dates

23-24-25 November 2016

Venue

Memorial University of Newfoundland (St.John’s, Canada)

Topic Areas

• Metaphysics,
• Philosophy of Religion,
• History of Philosophy,
• Philosophical Theology

Keynote Speakers

• Dr. Garth Green (McGill)
• Dr. Jean Grondin (Université de Montréal)

Description

Until recently, the death of God in Western society had seemed inexorable. Rather than reanimating him, the fervidly exuberant – almost nervous – manifestations of evangelical devotion in fundamentalist movements only appeared to confirm the sentence. However, a growing and marked interest in contemporary scholarship now strongly contests this verdict. Either concerned with the somewhat cursory conclusions of the New Atheists, the reductive verdicts of nominalism, or the fatalist undertones of naturalism, a number of authors from different philosophical perspectives – David Bentley Hart, Jean-Luc Nancy, Charles Taylor, John Lennox, Jean Grondin, Alvin Plantinga, John Milbank, Gerard Hartung and Markus Schlette, to name a few – are now proposing a new fate to the idea of God.

These investigations, of course, are not ad hoc and have their roots in longstanding traditions of thought. The history of philosophy has been continually haunted by the specter of God, in some form or another, from Athens to modern rationalism, Patristic writings to phenomenology. What is more, far from confined to Judeo-Christian civilization, the idea of God has of course transcended its borders, sometimes revealing striking parallels between common concerns and queries, sometimes disclosing sharp if not irreconcilable differences.

Academics from all areas of philosophy, as well as from the Humanities, Theology and Religious Studies, are invited to Memorial University of Newfoundland to explore the idea of God, its current resurgence, and its place or role in the works of the history of philosophy, Western or otherwise.

Submission guidelines

Please send a 500-600 words abstract (for a 30-minute paper) to Dr. Joël Madore (joel.madore@mun.ca) and/or Dr. Sean McGrath (sjoseph.mcgrath@gmail.com)

no later than 15 August 2016.

Submissions should be anonymised for blind review and should be in a standard file format.