Religion in Europe Unit

This Unit analyzes religion in both Eastern and Western Europe or related to Europe (broadly defined) in any historical or contemporary period. We encourage interdisciplinary, interreligious, and comparative approaches, and we particularly welcome submissions from members of underrepresented groups in the Academy.

Religious Imaginaries and Ecological Futures in Europe

How do emerging forms of ecological activism—from Green parties to radical movements such as Extinction Rebellion—engage with religious affect, eschatological imagination, or ethical worldviews traditionally associated with faith? Conversely, how do religious leaders, communities, and institutions participate in ecological struggles or reinterpret doctrines of creation, destiny, and apocalypse in light of climate crisis? 

We welcome proposals that examine how European contexts shape the entanglement of religion and ecology—whether through political theology, affect theory, critical theory, or decolonial thought. Topics may include (but are not limited to):

• Apocalyptic and utopian temporalities in ecological movements;
• Religious hope, despair, and moral responsibility in times of planetary crisis;
• Futurity and eschatology in European political ecologies;
• The reemergence of spiritual or ethical vocabularies within secular environmentalism;
• Theoretical interventions in how “futures” are imagined, interrupted, or foreclosed in religion and ecology.
   

For a possible co-sponsored session with the Mysticism Unit and the Religion in Premodern Europe and the Mediterranean Unit:

Back to the Future: Mysticism, Apocalypse, and Innovation
This panel invites papers that explore how mystic writers and texts approach the theme of apocalypse. Of particular interest are historically grounded approaches to apocalyptic mysticism that consider premodern frameworks. Additional areas of focus include comparisons across traditions and between Eurocentric and non-Eurocentric perspectives, apocalypse and social reform, trans panic and apocalyptic futures, and apocalypse and the colonial imagination. Specific paper topics might include, but are not limited to:

• Repurposing of premodern frameworks in our contemporary moment
• Historical and contemporary theorizations of apocalypse and millenarianism
• Apocalyptic mysticism, neo-fascism, and accelerationism
• Decolonial interventions and apocalyptic narratives
• Imaginative reconfigurations of apocalyptic mysticism
• Technological visions of apocalypse (singularity, AI, and the posthuman)

We plan to co-sponsor a session with the Nineteenth-Century Theology Unit on the Handbook of Religious Culture in Nineteenth-Century Europe (De Gruyter, 2024), featuring contributors to the volume. This roundtable will bring together scholars of religion and history to consider the concept of “religious culture” in Europe during the long nineteenth century. Moving beyond institutional or doctrinal histories, participants will emphasize religious culture—how religion was lived, practiced, and contested in daily life, art, education, politics, and urban spaces. They will engage with what some scholars refer to as a “religious turn” in European historiography, highlighting how religion continued to significantly influence life in the nineteenth century. The panel aims to provide new perspectives on religion in Europe during this period through innovative conceptual frameworks. 

We also welcome proposals beyond these themes, especially proposals for complete pre-arranged sessions related to religion and Europe, broadly interpreted. Successful sessions will reflect gender and racial/ethnic diversity, as well as diversity of field, method, and scholarly rank as appropriate.