Global-Critical Philosophy of Religion Unit
Translational Feminisms for Philosophers of Religion
Co-sponsored by the Society for South Asian and Comparative Philosophy
How might philosophers of religion constructively approach the unresolved, intractable, transcultural issue of patriarchy and gender-based oppression from the theoretical resources typically marginalized by the field? We seek papers and panel proposals that clearly articulate a specific problem, outline arguments in response, and philosophically evaluate the arguments’ merits. Our session will thereby produce a mutually illuminating conversation.
Unthought Unfreedoms: Engaged and Critical Perspectives on Philosophy of Religion
Co-sponsored by the Political Theology Unit
Philosophical reflection often involves thinking through certain types of conditions. How might we understand, and possibly interrogate, texts and topics in the philosophy of religion with attention to the effects of contingent yet persistent social structures? How might such an engaged and critical question help us consider ways of relating philosophy of religion to the AAR’s 2025 presidential theme of “freedom”? We seek papers that discuss the various ways that philosophers of religion might identify unfreedoms, and then argue the merits of leaving these conditions intact.
The Category of “Nature” and Anthropocentrism of Philosophy of Religion
Co-sponsored by the Society for South Asian and Comparative Philosophy
We seek individual papers and panel proposals organized around topics that use ‘nature’ as a key category for philosophy of religion. Proposals should emphasize ‘nature’ as a concept for the philosophy of religion.
The dichotomy of "nature" and "culture" is a by-product of the Enlightenment, where nature is conceptualized as something to be observed, analyzed, and studied by humans from an anthropocentric standpoint. Nature is thereby framed as an "other,” separate or disconnected from humans and other entities. Classic philosophy of religion often reflects this bifurcation while proving God's existence or establishing God's attributes (e.g., natural theology). The effect is to limit the field’s analytical scope. We seek proposals for papers or full panels on any topic whose arguments deploy ‘nature’ as a category inclusive of humans, non-human beings, and divine entities.
The Global-Critical Philosophy of Religion (GCPR) Unit seeks to globalize and otherwise diversify the contents, categories, and methods of philosophy of religion, by critically reflecting on current practices of the field, by developing conceptual frameworks for cross-cultural philosophizing, and by exploring innovative methods for cross-pollination between religio-philosophical traditions.
GCPR is “global” and “critical” in distinctive ways—global, in facilitating panels and sessions that are always populated by scholars representing different religio-philosophical traditions; critical, in interrogating the vocabularies and methodologies used to carry out such cross-cultural, inter-religious philosophizing. Our two key goals follow from this mission: first, to offer and reflect on new categories of inquiry for cross-cultural, inter-religious philosophy of religion; second, to explore and implement new methods for philosophizing about religion cross-culturally and inter-religiously. This, in turn, involves experimenting with session formats that are designed to foster conversations that go beyond “description” or “presentation” to interactive philosophizing about religion, including the pre-circulation of papers, designing sessions that cultivate engagement between panelists, and empowering moderators to lead conversations into “deeper” hermeneutic, phenomenological, comparative, and evaluative topics and issues.
| Chair | Dates | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Marie-Helene Gorisse | mhgorisse@gmail.com | - | View |
| Nathan R. B. Loewen | nrloewen@ua.edu | - | View |