Global-Critical Philosophy of Religion Unit
"Happiness" as a category for philosophy of religion
We invite paper proposals for a session on “Happiness and Global-Critical Philosophy of Religion.” We want to explore how critical philosophical agents engage with and/or against diverse religious-cultural formations to understand happiness (in theory, practice, affect, etc.). We welcome papers that interrogate the intersections of religion, culture, and happiness, especially from non-Western, decolonial, feminist, or otherwise critical standpoints. Possible questions include: How do different religious traditions conceptualize happiness, and what might be the implications for a global ethics? In what ways do colonial histories shape religious understandings of happiness? How do gender, race, and class intersect with religious teachings on happiness? Can global-critical philosophies of religion offer alternative frameworks for understanding happiness; therapeutic cures to a quest for happiness; a constructive philosophy of happiness?
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 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Agnieszka Rostalska | arostalska@gmail.com | - | View |
| Nathan R. B. Loewen | nrloewen@ua.edu | - | View |