About Time: Comparative Approaches to Religion, Time, and Justice

We are running out of time. Such is the sentiment of so many people around the world today. In the face of a multitude of crises, global politics seems to be driven and defined by an overwhelming sense of anxiety and impending apocalypse. Whether it is climate change, increasing political instability, or rapid technological advancements, humanity seems to be barreling toward an uncertain future at best and catastrophe at worst. This panel brings together four scholars to critically reflect on religious perceptions and philosophies of time to explore where we are, where we are headed, and what we can do. Engaging Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, and secularist perspectives, this panel discusses both how dominant theologies of time undergird the present politics, as well as how alternative visions of time can offer individuals and communities a new way of political being and action not dependent on linear, fixed, or progressive time.