RELIGION AND CIVIL SOCIETY: THE CHANGING FACES OF “RELIGION” AND “SECULARITY”. An international conference convened by the Culture and Society Institute of the University of Navarra and to be held at Harvard University Law School

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS:
Mary Ann Glendon (Harvard University)
Rafael Alvira (Universidad de Navarra)
Carmelo Vigna (Università Ca Foscari de Venezia)
Allen Hertzke (University of Oklahoma)
Jan Bethke Elstain (University of Chicago)
Robert Royal (Institute for Faith & Reason, Washington, D.C.)
Russell Hittinger (University of Tulsa)

CALL FOR PAPERS
We invite proposals for presentations (maximum length: one page), along with a short CV (maximum length: two pages), by April 15, 2012. Papers will have a reading time of 20 minutes. A selection of abstracts will be made and the authors will be notified by the end of April.

Apart from other four others workshops, see: http://philevents.org/event/show/1419, here is presented a new one: WORKSHOP
“MONOTHEISMS AND VIOLENCE”

The affirmation of the existence of one God is the common characteristic of the monotheistic religious traditions, especial Judaism, Christianity and Islam. All three commonly affirm the unicity of God. This workshop is not intended to highlight the points of convergence or divergence between the three mentioned forms of monotheism, but rather to examine the immanent “logic” of the discourse of monotheism. The reason for choosing this topic is the diverse and intense debate under which currently surrounds monotheistic faith. Predominant and omnipresent criticism of monotheism is underway to the point that it is associated with intolerance, fanaticism and violence, presented as an uncontested yet often inadequately justified assumption, which constitutes a sort of cultural and social evidence. However, the workshop does not seek to deal with historical, but rather argumentative issues. The topic could be formulated in the following way: to what sort of dynamic would the assumption of an immanent logic of monotheism lead? To intolerance, exclusion and violence, or to freedom, inclusion and pacification?
The workshop is rather, restricted to specific issues related to the affirmation of monotheism as potentially violent or liberating on the contemporary political society. Given that the criticism of monotheism is not something entirely new, but rather in some way a prolongation of past judgments, special attention will be paid to the current debates, to better detect the new propositions and the cultural context unique to current times. Among the numerous aspects within this topic, the project will narrow in on those of particular relevance: the issue of violence related to the assumption of the truth of monotheism itself, as well as its legal and political consequences; the principal monotheistic religions and their eventual pretense of exclusive truth and the resulting political violence that they are assumed to generate; current polytheistic and non-religious humanistic positions if related with the main topic of the workshop; fundamentalisms versus tolerance in civil society, in those cases in which their origin is of a religious nature and are manifested through violence; monotheistic religions as a means of forming social and political identities and their possible role in building social peace. This workshop invites all those researchers who would like to submit a paper on any of the referred questions, or related ones. Both systematic papers and those focused on one particular author will be accepted. Papers will have a reading time of 20 minutes. Please send an abstract to: mvanney@alumni.unav.es, the accepted papers will be notified by the end of April.