CO-SPONSORSHIP: African Diaspora Religions Unit, African Religions Unit, and Global-Critical Philosophy of Religion Unit
Indigenous Epistemologies of the Future: Authority, Initiation, and the Living Dead
African and African diaspora indigenous traditions rely heavily on ancestral knowledge to find meaning in existence. Yet, as these traditions navigate a changing world, the mechanisms of transmission are under pressure. How is the "future" of religious authority being constructed? In traditions often governed by secrecy, initiation, and oral transmission, how is knowledge sustained when practitioners face new tangible realities such as migration and displacement?
This panel moves beyond the content of tradition to examine how religious knowledge is authorized and preserved for the future. We invite submissions that explore themes at the intersection of knowledge, survival, and transfer. How are indigenous systems of knowledge transfer adapting to modern constraints and opportunities? What is the future of initiation? To whom does the task of safeguarding tradition fall in the face of migration and displacement? This panel will be co-sponsored by the African Religions Unit, Global Critical Philosophy of Religion Unit, and African Diaspora Religions Unit.
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African and Afro-diasporic philosophy of religion
The field of African philosophy of religion, including scholarship on African traditional religions, Christianity and Islam in the African continent, or on syncretic expressions like Candomblé and Umbanda in South America, or like Haitian Vodou, Cuban Santería and Trinidadian Orisha in the Caribbeans, to quote but a few, is a rapidly expanding one.
The past decade has notably seen overviews that classify the concept of God in African traditional religions as resulting in modified monotheisms with either theistic or non-theistic conceptions of a limited-God, up to panentheism (Aga Adaga, Emmanuel Ofuasia); as well as scholarship on the implications that the concept of God or of that of ancestor bear on the meaning of life (Thaddeus Metz); or the burgeoning of studies that examine how ritual-centric practices, embodied epistemologies and syncretic dynamics can enrich philosophical debates on metaphysics and epistemology (José Eduardo Porcher).
This panel is an invitation to consider how selected issues and debates within this rich scholarship in the field of African and Afro-diasporic philosophy of religion can question the categories and expand the scope and methods of traditional philosophy of religion.