Smart Globalisation:The case for a robust and creative distributive justice

to be given by Fr Albino Barrera OP on Friday 24^th February at Blackfriars Hall.  The lecture will start at 5pm, and will be followed by a reception.

If you would like to attend the lecture and reception, please reply to this e-mail address (lascasas@bfriars.ox.ac.uk). The Aula at Blackfriars seats a maximum of 75, so please respond promptly to ensure a place.

Fr Barrera is a Professor of Economics and Theology at Providence College, and author of Economic Compulsion and Christian Ethics, God and the Evil of Scarcity: Moral Foundations of Economic Agency, and Globalization and Economic Ethics: Distributive Justice in the Knowledge Economy.  He holds a degree in Industrial Management Engineering from De La Salle University in the Philippines, a Licentiate in Sacred Theology from the Dominican House of Studies in Washington DC, and a doctorate in Economics from Yale University.

PORTSMOUTH ABBEY SCHOOL ANNOUNCES THE

2012 PORTSMOUTH INSTITUTE ON MODERN SCIENCE/ANCIENT FAITH

www.portsmouthinstitute.org

January 24, 2012
Portsmouth, RI

Dear Friends,

The Portsmouth Institute has announced an expanded list of speakers for its June 22-24 conference on Modern Science/Ancient Faith.

Speakers include Abbot James Wiseman, O.S.B. of Catholic University of America and St. Anselm’s Abbey, Washington, D.C., Dr. Kenneth Miller of Brown, Dr. William Dembski ’78 of the Discovery Institute, Rev. Nicanor Austriaco, O.P. of Providence College, Dr. John Haught of the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University, Dr. Michael Ruse of Florida State University, Dr. Joseph Semmes ’67, and Rev. Dom Paschal Scotti, O.S.B. of Portsmouth Abbey. Dr. Blake Billings ’77, Tim Seeley ’77, Robert Sahms and Dom Francis Crowley, O.S.B. will convene a panel exploring the practical implication of teaching faith and science at a school such as Portsmouth.

In addition to scholarly presentations, the Institute will feature a dramatic production based on the life and work of scientist, Dom Stanley Jaki, O.S.B., by Kevin O’Brien, founder of Theater of the Word and a frequent EWTN contributor. There will also be musical presentations including The Chichester Psalms by Leonard Bernstein and Appalachian Spring by Aaron Copeland.

Highlights of previous conferences can be seen at www.portsmouthinstitute.org. Please pass this along to your colleagues, friends or students who may be interested in this fascinating subject.

 If you have any questions or need additional information, please do not hesitate to contact Cindy Waterman at cwaterman@portsmouthabbey.org or 401-643-1244.

DEADLINE FOR ABSTRACT SUBMISSIONS: MARCH 15, 2012
(see details below)

Conference Theme

Recent developments appear to end the “end of history” and foreshadow instead the end of the West. After 1989, many expected a gradual convergence toward Western models of liberal market democracy. But Western responses to 9/11 and the 2007–8 transatlantic “credit crunch” have exposed the limits of U.S. international primacy and accelerated the global shift of power from West to East and North to South—as evinced by the rise of China, India, and other emerging markets.

Politically and economically, that shift seems to portend the emergence of a post-American and perhaps even a post-Western world. Yet the United States is still the default superpower whose military might and economic energy ensure its pre-eminence for the foreseeable future. Likewise, Europe’s institutions, culture, and way of life remain attractive across the globe. Even the near meltdown of Wall Street and the mishandling of the sovereign debt crisis have so far not led to a decoupling of the rest from the West.

Historically, the transition from a unipolar to a multipolar world order appears to restore a more “natural” global balance that had prevailed before China’s isolationist withdrawal beginning with the Ming dynasty in 1433 and the West’s growing domination following the discovery of the New World in 1492. At the same time, contemporary global multipolarity seems to coincide with the crisis of the modern centralized state and the modern free market that were instituted by the West. That crisis might mark the end of the Westphalian settlement, which is coextensive with Western global hegemony. However, non-Western powers are wedded to Western principles (e.g., national sovereignty and territorial integrity) and to the international system of nation-states instituted by the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648.

In terms of present and future trends, there is some evidence to suggest that the dominant mode of globalization is synonymous with the demise of Western-style nation-states and the resurgence of non-Western empires—imperial spheres of influence and colonialist powers. Examples seem to abound: Turkey and Iran in the Middle East; Russia in the Caucasus and Central Asia; China in East Asia and Africa; India and Brazil in parts of the southern hemisphere. Or is globalization promoting a shift toward global cities and the institutions of civil society that are a distinct legacy of the West?

Philosophically, it is not clear whether the global shift in power confirms or refutes the utopia of linear, boundless progress that characterizes the dominant Western ideologies of liberalism and Marxism. What about cyclical conceptions of history that have been popular since the work of Jacob Burckhardt, Friedrich Nietzsche, Oswald Spengler, and Arnold Toynbee on the twilight and demise of the West? Perhaps the rise of China and other emerging markets in Asia is evidence in support of certain Hegelian or Marxist accounts such as world system analysis or cycles of hegemony. In what way do these ideas reflect Western “historicism,” which portrays the West’s peculiar and contingent history as universal, necessary, and even normative? Which Western and non-Western alternatives to historicism are available to us?

Theologically, ideas of the West are closely connected with the three Abrahamic faiths in general and the Christian fusion of Greco-Roman Antiquity and the biblical legacy in particular. Just as the Renaissance and the Enlightenment have their origins in medieval Christendom, so too late (or post-)modernity is inextricably intertwined with theological categories and the greater visibility of religion in public political life. That, coupled with the growing presence of Islam, raises questions about the distinctly Judeo-Christian identity of the West—including notions of the secular and the modern.

Call for Papers

In choosing the theme of the West, the Telos Institute launches its biannual colloquia in Europe. The first colloquium will take place September 7–10, 2012, in L’Aquila, Italy—the birthplace of Telos’s founding editor, Paul Piccone. Building on the success of the annual Telos conferences in New York City since 2006, these colloquia bring together scholars from the United States, Europe, and elsewhere to explore and analyze the ongoing political, socio-economic, cultural transformations across the globe.

The twin focus of the first colloquium is on the legacy of the West and its future. The conference organizers invite papers that address the complex dimension of one or both aspects, whether in terms of the West itself or the Western interactions with the rest of the world.

Possible topics include (but are not limited to):

• Jerusalem, Athens, and Rome: the origins and legacy of the West
• Hegel, Marx and Spengler: philosophies of history and the evolution of the West
• Universalism, relativism and Western culture
• The West and the rest: the United States and Europe in the emerging world (dis)order
• Culture shock? The legacy and future of the transatlantic alliance
• Faith in the West: U.S. exceptionalism and European secularism?
• The United States and Europe: divided by a common history?
• Russia and Turkey: the European non-West?

Speakers include (in alphabetic order)

• Russell Berman
• Alain de Benoist
• Alessandro Campi
• Michael Ledeen
• Tim Luke
• Giacomo Marramao
• John Milbank
• Adrian Pabst
• Marcia Pally
• David Pan
• Carla Pasquinelli
• Luciano Pellicani
• Carlo Ruzzo

Submissions: Abstracts of conference papers should be 200 to 250 words in length and should be sent to Adrian Pabst at laquila@telosinstitute.net with the words “L’Aquila Telos Conference” in the subject line. The deadline for abstracts is March 15, 2012.

Additional information about pre-registration, hotel accommodations, and other matters will be available soon. For more details, contact telos@telospress.com.

Visit the Telos Institute online at www.telosinstitute.net.

The Regent of Blackfriars Hall, Oxford very much regrets to inform you that we were today notified by Professor Jean-Luc Marion that, on medical grounds, he is unable to deliver the Aquinas Lecture in Oxford and Cambridge at the end of this month as planned.  We will be in contact with you again shortly with further news.

See the original schedule, originally posted here.

Department of Theology and Religious Studies

Seminar Programme 2011-12

SPRING SEMESTER

22 February 2012
Adam Lipszyc (Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Science)
The Time of the Poem: Poetry as Messianic Action in Paul Celan’s Meridian Speech
4pm Staff Club Room B7

14 & 15 February 2012         Firth Lectures
Terry Eagleton
Culture and the Death of God
5.30pm, Kings Meadow Studio

 29 February 2012
Philip Esler (Principal, St Mary’s University College, London)
Reading Old Testament Narrative With Its Ancient Audience: An Anthropological Approach
4pm Staff Club room B7

14 March 2012
Yvonne Sherwood (Professor of Bible, Religion and Culture, University of Glasgow)
TBC
4pm Staff Club room B7

21 March 2012
David Thomas (Professor of Christianity and Islam, University of Birmingham)
The Islamic Construction of Christianity: A Channel and Obstacle to Understanding
4pm Staff Club room B7

28 March 2012
Daniel H.Weiss (Polosky-Coexist Lecturer in Jewish Studies, University of Cambridge)
‘Where man calls, God opens an ear’: Franz Rosenzweig, divine attributes, and the anti-theoretical style of the Hebrew Bible
4pm Staff Club Room B7

Theology-enquiries@nottingham.ac.uk

Telephone  (0115) 9515897

Hilary 2012

Thomas Aquinas and Contemporary Culture 

[Cancelled] Fri 27 Jan        Jean-Luc Marion (Universities of Paris and Chicago) “The Ontological Argument Again: Thomas Aquinas and Kant, Anselm and Descartes”

 Thurs 2 Feb     David Albert Jones (Anscombe Bioethics Centre, Oxford) “Aquinas as an Advocate of Abortion?  The Appeal to Thomas Aquinas in Contemporary Bioethical Debates on the Human Embryo”

 Thurs 9 Feb     Héctor Velázquez (Universidad Panamericana, Mexico)  “Teleology and Nature: The Relevance of Aquinas’ Position in a Self-Organised World”

 Thurs 16 Feb   Thomas Joseph White, OP (Dominican House of Studies, Washington,D.C.)  “Monotheistic Rationality and Divine Names: Why Aquinas’ Analogy Theory Transcends both Theoretical Agnosticism and Conceptual Anthropomorphism”

 Thurs 23 Feb   Conor Cunningham (University of Nottingham) “Modernity: The End of Culture and Nature in Light of Evolution”

 Fri 2 March    Rudi te Velde (Tilburg School of Theology, The Netherlands) “Does Praying Make Sense in Light of the Certainty of God’sProvidence?”

Fridays, Weeks 2 and 7, Thursdays, Weeks 3-6

4.30pm – 6.00pm

Aula of Blackfriars, St. Giles

 For further information: william.carroll@bfriars.ox.ac.uk

A conference organised by the Department of Foreign Languages at the University of Bergen, Norway; funded by the Bergen Research Foundation through the ‘Modernism and Christianity’ research project.

The modernist imperative ‘Make it new!’ posits a break with traditional artistic forms, but also with the entire mould of a civilization felt to be in a state of terminal decay (‘an old bitch, gone in the teeth’, as a second dictum by Ezra Pound has it). Modernism was steeped in the language of apocalyptic crisis, generating multiple (and contradictory) millennial visions of artistic, cultural, religious and political transformation. This conference will examine the continuing impact of Christianity upon the modernist thinking of Apocalypse in Western culture, covering the period of early-to-high modernism (c. 1880-1945), with glances towards the immediate aftermath of World War II and the Bomb. ‘Modernism’ is not here confined to the arts, and contributions are invited from scholars across the humanities and social sciences.

Conference organisers:
Dr Erik Tonning
Dr Matthew Feldman

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS:
Professor Paul S. Fiddes (University of Oxford)
Professor John Milbank (University of Nottingham)
Professor Hans Ottomeyer (Former Director of the German Historical Museum)
Professor Marjorie Perloff (Stanford University)

INVITED SPEAKERS:
Professor C. J. Ackerley (University of Otago)
Professor Mary Bryden (University of Reading)
Professor Gregory Maertz (St. John’s University, NY)
Dr Malise Ruthven (Independent writer)
Professor Shane Weller (University of Kent)

For a full CFP, see:

http://www.uib.no/filearchive/modernismconferencecfp.pdf

Conference venue: Hotel Solstrand (outside Bergen, Norway)
Conference fee (early bird rate): NOK 3700: This covers two nights at the hotel with full board, plus a
direct conference bus (at c. 11 am) to the hotel from Flesland airport (18th), with a return on Friday afternoon (20th, at 4 pm). There is also a postgraduate rate of NOK 3200 available.

PLEASE NOTE: Registration at this rate is limited to 75 delegates. Once this number of delegates has been reached (first come first served), additional registrations will cost NOK 4400. All delegates registering after 1 May 2012 will also be charged at this higher rate. Early registration is thus strongly recommended.

Please submit your abstract by 1 April 2012 at the latest.

To register: Please send your title, abstract (100-200 words) and
biographical information to erik.tonning@if.uib.no for consideration.

Download Conference Poster here.

Confirmed plenary speakers are:

• Antoine Arjakovsky: ‘The orthodox theology and the future pan orthodox council’.
• John Behr, ‘Studying the Fathers in the Twenty First Century’.
• Mary Cunningham: ‘The concept of “image” according to an eighth-century Byzantine bishop: St Andrew of Crete’s response to ps-Dionysius the Areopagite’.
• Pavel Gavrilyuk: ‘The Evolution of Florovsky’s Reading of Vladimir Solovyov and the Waywardness of Russian Theology’.
• Cyril Hovorun: ‘British Patristic School: Its impact on modern Orthodox Theology’.
• John Milbank, ‘The Far-Western Synthesis of East and West: Eriugena’s Promise for the Future’.
• Norman Russell: ‘Living the Mystery: the limits of patristic theology as an academic discipline’.
• Kallistos Ware: ‘The Future Path of Orthodox Thought: ‘Culture and Society’ or ‘Mystical Theology’?’.
• Jane Baun, title tbc.
• Augustine Casiday, title tbc.
• Thomas Graumann, title tbc.

Short papers of twenty minutes are welcome in the areas of:

Spaces of Capital, Moments of Struggle

Eighth Annual Historical Materialism Conference
Central London
10–13 November 2011

http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/conferences/8annual

To register in advance and benefit from a reduction: http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/conferences/8annual/register
Advanced booking will stop on Monday 7 November

All queries: historicalmaterialism@soas.ac.uk

The themes discussed will include: the Aesthetics of Marxism; Alternative Histories of Marxism; Althusser; Anti-Imperialist Struggles and Intellectualism; Art and Truth; Battling Austerity; Between Autonomy and Communism; Beyond the Developmental State; Black Critics of Empire and Capital in 1930s Britain; How Revolutionary were the Bourgeois Revolutions?; Building Palestine Solidarity in the Academy; Childhood, Global Capitalism and Marxism; the Comintern in Britain, France and Ireland; Crisis and Revolution in the Middle East; Derrida After Marx; the Early Years of the German Communist Party; European Crisis, the World Market, and the Left; Feminism, Race and Labour; For Lukacs; Forms of Capitalist Power; Franz Fanon’s the Wretched of the Earth: 50th Anniversary; Freedom, Liberalism, and Distribution; Geographies of Power; Gramsci and the Fourth Congress; Hegel Today; Histories of Class Struggle; the History of the International Communist Movement; Imperialism and Development in the Semi-Periphery; India’s Political Economy; Indigenous Revolt; International Law and Resistance; In the Name of the People?; Labour Struggles Today; Land, Food and Ecology; Latin American Political Economy; Local Resistance; Maoism and Social Movements in India and Nepal; Luxemburg, Levi and the Comintern; Marx and Lacan; Marxism and Anthropology; Marxism and Architecture; Marxism and Film; Marxist Theories of Money and Finance; Negation in Post-War Art Theory; Screening: Phil Collins’s Marxism Today; Popular Power in Latin America; Race, Migration and Capitalism; Racism and Imperialism; Radicalism in the US Working Class; the Rational Kernel of the Hegelian Dialectic; Reading Poulantzas; Revisiting Rosa Luxemburg; Revolution and Democracy in Egypt and Tunisia; Settler-Colonialism and Islamophobia; Social Forces in the Middle East; Social Movements in Theory and Practice; Spaces of Marxism: Thinking with David Harvey; Theorising the Crisis; A Tribute to Dorothy Thompson; Uneven and Combined Development; Urban Rebellion, Cities in Struggle; US Blacks and the Comintern; Utopia and Marxist Literary Criticism; Walter Benjamin; Who Pays for the Crisis?; Why Marx Was Right; the Worker Photography Movement 1926-39; Workers’ Control from the Commune to the Present; Workers’ Movements in East Asia

Also the Isaac and Tamara Deutscher Memorial Lecture by David Harvey, ‘History versus Theory: a Commentary on Marx’s Method in Capital’ (separate booking required):

http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/conferences/8annual/deutscher

Amongst the speakers:
Amr Abdulrahman, Maha Abelrahman, Younes Abuyoub, Omar Acha, Gilbert Achcar, Matilde Adduci, Hakim Adi, Stefano Agnoletto, Haseeb Ahmed, Ilaria Alabiso, Greg Albo, Tariq Ali, Jamie Allinson, Sabah Alnasseri, Kevin B. Anderson, Maurice Andreu, Alex Anievas, Ricardo Antunes, Valerio Arcary, Owen R. Ashton, Daniele Atzori, Pier Vittorio Aureli, Dario Azzellini, Grietje Baars, Erik M. Bachman, Antonio Carmona Baez, Ruixue Bai, Aristides Baltas, Franco Barchiesi, Banu Bargu, Colin Barker, Laurent Baronian, Emmanuel Barot, John Barzman, Pietro Basso, Bernhard H. Bayerlein, Dave Beech, Simon Behrman, Riccardo Bellofiore, Gregor Benton, Anindya Bhattacharya, Pietro Bianchi, Andreas Bieler, Ian Birchall, Paul Blackledge, Marcel Bois, Derek Boothman, Bruno Bosteels, Mark Bould, Stephen Bouquin, Paul Bowman, Honor Brabazon, Craig Brandist, Peter Bratsis, Lars Bretthauer, David Broder, Heather Brown, Ian Bruff, Nathaniel Boyd, Michael Calderbank, Alex Callinicos, Thomas Carmichael, Warren Carter, Giorgio Cesarale, Maria Elisa Cevasco, Dae-Oup Chang, Amy Charlesworth, Kunal Chattopadhyay, Francois Chesnais, Vivek Chibber, Lorenzo Chiesa, Joseph Choonara, Armelle Choplin, Todd Chretian, Riccardo Ciavolella, Carin Clement, Nicola Clewer, Joshua Clover, Mònica Clua-Losada, Sheila Cohen, Phil Collins, Simon Constantine, Luke Cooper, Penelope J. Corfield, Andrew Cumbers, Roberto Dainotto, Gareth Dale, Neil Davidson, Gail Day, Tim Dayton, Alberto Martínez Delgado, Simon Dell, Alex Demirovic, Radhika Desai, Brecht De Smet, Peter Dickens, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, Radha D’Souza, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Nick Dyer-Witheford, Terry Eagleton, Caroline Edwards, Steve Edwards, Doug Elsey, Ertan Erol, Asefeh Esfahlani, Hester Eisenstein, Luke Evans, Lorenzo Fabbri, Adam Fabry, Sara Farris, Catherine Feely, Mariano Féliz, Susan Ferguson, Joseba Fernandez, David Fernbach, Ben Fine, Harrison Fluss, Duncan Forbes, Ben Fowkes, Bridget Fowler, Carl Freedman, Alan Freeman, Dan Freeman-Maloy, Lorenzo Fusaro, Alexander Gallas, Anthony Galluzzo, Samir Gandesha, Christian Garland, Franck Gaudichaud, Elif Genc, Marina Gerber, Stelios Gialis, Oisin Gilmore, Larne Abse Gogarty, Jeff Goodwin, Todd Gordon, Jamie Gough, Gavin Grindon, Bruno Gullo, Peter Hallward, Jesper Hamark, Adam Hanieh, Bue Rübner Hansen, Jane Hardy, Harry Harootounian, Johan Hartle, Daniel Hartley, David Harvey, David Harvie, Evren Haspolat, Owen Hatherly, Mike Haynes, Daniel Hayward, Eric Hazan, Paul M. Heideman, Michael Heinrich, Henry Heller, Andrew Herod, Chris Hesketh, Andy Higginbottom, Joachim Hirsch, Christian Hogsbjerg, Jane Holgate, Ståle Holgersen, Owen Holland, Phillip Homburg, Angela Hubler, Peter Hudis, Elizabeth Humphrys, Michel Husson, Ursula Huws, Eka Ikpe, Anthony Iles, Feyzi Ismail, Robert Jackson, Dhruv Jain, Leslie James, Sarah Edith James, Anselm Jappe, Saru Jayaraman, Deborah Johnston, Branwen Gruffydd Jones, Mike Jones, Thai Jones, Alex Julca, Christoph Jünke, John Kannankulam, Jyotsna Kapur, Sami Khatib, Jim Kincaid, Andrew Kliman, Chris Knight, Robert Knox, Alessio Kolioulis, Paavo Kotiaho, Demetra Kotouza, Michael Krätke, Tor Krewer, Stephanie Kron, Clarice Kuhling, Alexi Kukuljevic, Ishay Landa, Costas Lapavitsas, Manuel Larrabure, Esther Leslie, Spencer Leonard, Ben Lewis, Jerome Lewis, Paul LeBlanc, Alex Levant, Colin Leys, Lars Lih, Marcel van der Linden, Au Loong-yu, Toby Lovat, Ottokar Luban, Moshe Machover, Stella Magliani-Belkacem, Artemy Magun, Andreas Malm, Matteo Mandarini, FTC Manning, Soma Marik, Stewart Martin, Jean-Jacques Marie Abelardo Marina-Flores, Thomas Marois, Jamila Mascat, Michele Masucci, Wendy Matsumura, Marcelo Badaró Mattos, Marco Maurizi, David Mayer, Annie McClanahan, John McDonald, Andrew McGettigan, Scott McLemee, David McNally, James Meadway, Antigoni Memou, Philip Merfleet, China Miéville, Keir Milburn, Tyrus Miller, Mritiunjoy Mohanty, Simon Mohun, Colin Mooers, Kevin Morgan, Claudio Morrison, Suzanne Morrison, Adam David Morton, Joshua Moufawad-Paul, Daniel Mourenza, Francis Mulhern, Patrick Murray, Paula Nabuco, Oliver Nachtwey, Mary-Jo Nadeau, Yutaka Nagahara, Nima Nakhaei, Nick Nesbitt, Immanuel Ness, Alf Gunvald Nilsen, Kerem Nisancioglu, Brice Nixon, Tony Norfield, James Norrie, Benjamin Noys, João Nunes, Bertel Nygaard, Emmet O’Connor, Vesa Oitinnen, Chris O’kane, Ozlem Onaran, Judith Orr, Jesse Salah Ovadia, Carlos Oya, Ali Behran Ozcelik, George Paizis, Maia Pal, Bryan Palmer, Costas Panayotakis, Alexander Pantsov, Georgios Papafragkou, Hyun Woong Park, Leda Maria Paulani, Alexei Penzin, Camilo Perez-Bustillo, Lorenzo Pezzani, Kees van der Pijl, José Paulo Guedes Pinto, Charles Post, Alex Potts, Jeff Powell, Camilla Power, Nina Power, Gonzalo Pozo, Tim Pringle, Vasna Ramasar, José A. Laguarta Ramírez, Jason Read, Paul Reynolds, Jorge Ribalta, John Riddell, Sébastien Rioux, John Roberts, Marco Antonio Martins da Rocha, Ed Rooksby, Kristin Ross, Tomas Rotta, Frank Ruda, Thomas Sablowski, Devi Sacchetto, Agustin Santella, Jyoti Saraswati, Eduardo Sartelli, Hajime Sato, Edwin Sayes, Jeanne Schuler, Gregory Schwartz, Stephanie Schwartz, Alan Sears, Ben Selwyn, Orsan Senalp, Mitu Sengupta, Carlos Sevilla, Richard Seymour, Alpa Shah, Greg Sharzer, Steven Shaviro, Ahmed Shawki, Omar Shehabi, Stuart Shields, Pritam Singh, Marina Sitrin, John Smith, Martin Smith, Panagiotis Sotiris, Kerstin Stakemeier, Luke Stobart, Angela Stoutenburgh, Brigitte Studer, Rianne Subijanto, Matthew Swagler, Dan Swain, Abdel Takriti, Stefanie Tan, Daniela Tavasci, Owen Taylor, Rodrigo Alves Teixeira, Tzuchien Tho, Peter D. Thomas, Elise Thorburn, Tad Tietze, Oxana Timofeeva, Massimiliano Tomba, Stavros Tombazos, Samo Tomsic, Jan Toporowski, Alberto Toscano, Reiner Tosstorff, Alan Tuckman, Asuman Turkun, Nils Turnbull, Lori Turner, Alexej Ulbricht, Martin Upchurch, Miguel Urban, Elif Uzgoren, Marco Vanzulli, James M. Vaughn, Leandro Vergara-Camus, Giovanna Vertova, Matt Vidal, Marina Vishmidt, Jan Voelker, Hilary Wainwright, Gavin Walker, Jeffrey Webber, John Weeks, Daniel Whittall, Florian Wilde, Evan Calder Williams, Steve Wright, Veli Yadirgi, Deniz Yildirim, Christian Zeller, Rafeef Ziadah, Nadya Zimmerman, Roger van Zwannenberg

Provisional Programme online at: http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/conferences/8annual/HM2011Grid.pdf/view

Jonathan Lowe (Durham)

The topic of his lecture will be

Substance Causation, Powers, and Human Agency.

Thursday, 24 November 2011, 16:00 – 18:00

Aula, Academiegebouw, Domplein 29, Utrecht.

For details see here:

http://zenolectures.phil.uu.nl/?p=271

Attendance is free and no registration is required.

Abstract:

The powers of individual substances may, I believe, be distinguished in at least the following two ways. First, some of these powers are causal powers, while others are non-causal powers. Second, some of these powers are active powers, while others are passive powers. But all powers, as we shall see, are individuated by their manifestation types, that is, by the characteristic types of activity that constitute their exercise. A causal power is one whose exercise consists in the bearer of the power acting on one or more substances to bring about a change in them. A passive power is one whose exercise is always caused by one or more substances acting upon the bearer of the power. This classification of powers leaves open the possibility of there being a type of power that is at once active and non-causal: a power whose exercise is (1) not caused by any substance acting upon its bearer and (2) does not consist in its bearer bringing about a change in any substance. Such a power may be called a spontaneous power. It seems clear that such powers do exist in nature, the power of a radium atom to undergo radioactive decay being an example. This fact shows that there need be nothing anti-naturalistic, or incompatible with current physical science, in supposing that the human will, as it is exercised in episodes of voluntary action, is another such power. In saying that the will is a non-causal power, it is not being implied that the will is causally inefficacious, only that its exercise does not consist in the agent’s bringing about any sort of effect. Agent causalists who suppose that agents cause their own volitions by exercising agent-causal powers are, I believe, mistaken in this regard and mistaken too if they think that their view explains the special sense in which free agents have control over their voluntary actions. What, in my view, distinguishes the will from any other kind of spontaneous power is (1) that it is a two-way power — a power either to will or not to will a particular course of action — and (2) that it can be exercised rationally, that is, ‘in the light of reason’. The possession of such a power would, I believe, give human agents all the control that they could need or want over their voluntary actions. And very arguably, as we shall see, we cannot — on pain of undermining our entitlement to regard ourselves as rational beings — deny that we have such a power.

Keynote talks include:

• Effing the ineffable, Professor Roger Scruton
• In the Beginning, There Was Improvisation: Responding to the Call, Professor Bruce Ellis Benson
• Music and the Beyond: A Millennium of Witness, Professor Christopher Page

Details of the short papers sessions, evening concert, and registration can be found at:

http://musicandtranscendence.ferdiastone-davis.com

Registration closes on November 22 2011.

To be held at Nottingham Contemporary [link]

Presentation by Conor Cunningham

Wednesday 14 December
7pm
Free

The Space
Weber’s Shape of the Ape considers Darwin’s theory of evolution and man’s relationship to nature. In his talk Dr Conor Cunningham will trace the history of man’s humiliating relationship to nature from Copernicus to Newton, before discussing the impact of Darwin’s theory of evolution. More recently, Daniel Dennet’s characterisation of Darwin’s theory as a “dangerous idea”, sheds new light on The Origin of Species, likening it to a universal acid that eats through everything, leaving in its wake a post-apocalyptic landscape. Dr Cunningham will ask if Darwin’s idea could be pious rather than dangerous.

Conor Cunningham lectures at Nottingham University. He is the writer and presenter of the award-winning BBC2 documentary – Did Darwin Kill God? and author of the prize winning book – Darwin’s Pious Idea, which is being translated into many languages.

Nottingham Contemporary’s public programme is jointly funded by Nottingham Trent University and The University of Nottingham.

This event is at Nottingham Contemporary
Weekday Cross
Nottingham
NG1 1HB

http://www.nottinghamcontemporary.org/event/conor-cunningham

Dr Patrick Madigan, SJ
Editor of the Heythrop Journal of Philosophy and Religion

‘Jesus and Lucifer: Rival Sons of the Father’

October 26 2011
12:00pm – 1:30pm

Gainesville State College
Georgia, USA
CE Auditorium 108

 Admission is free and open to the public.

For more information, contact:

Daniel Haynes
Gainesville State College
dhaynes@gsc.edu

Monday, 31 October

16:00-18:00

‘Beside myself with Indignation: Hegel, Marx and Heidegger on Alienation’

Marx’s understanding of alienation has increasingly become a key not only for understanding his own work, but also for certain self-presentations of the work of the social sciences overall. Although there have been a number of important investigations of Marx’s use of the terms ‘Entfremdung’ and ‘Entäußerung’, acknowledging Marx’s indebtedness to Hegel, I argue that insufficient attention has been paid to how exactly Marx took over Hegel’s central metaphysical thought. This lecture re-examines Hegel’s influence on Marx, by asking again what Marx and Hegel meant by alienation, and asking how Marx concretised and revolutionised Hegel’s term as a central understanding of the meaning of transcendence, by returning to other interpreters of Hegel, notably Heidegger, to shed new light on Marx’s use of Hegel’s terms.

Venue: Russell Square, Stewart House, University of London, room STB 5.

More information about the German Philosophy Seminar on: http://igrs.sas.ac.uk/events/seminars/german-philosophy-seminar.html

Every Monday at the Upper Room of the Mitre on High Street // 7pm for 7.30pm

• 01 | 10 Oct – Dr. Conor Cunningham: ‘Dawkins the Neanderthal, and Darwin’s Pious Idea’ (at University Church, High Street)
• 02 | 17 Oct – Fr. Richard Finn OP: ‘St. Augustine: Philosophical and Pastoral Theologian’
• 03 | 24 Oct – Joel Harrison: ‘Jedi Is The New Religion: Three Problems with Religious Freedom’
• 04 | 31 Oct – Fr. Andrew Pinsent: ‘Autism and the Second-person Perspective on Grace’
• 05 | 07 Nov – Jane Williams: ‘Reading The Bible: From St. Paul to Us’
• 06 | 14 Nov – Social
• 07 | 21 Nov – Student Discussion Panel | To Be Announced
• 08 | 28 Nov – Prof. John Wyatt | To Be Announced

 ‘Philosophy and Classics’

These will be held in the Autumn term at the University of Roehampton (see details below for location and maps).
Lectures are free to attend and all are welcome. Refreshments will be served.

• Tuesday Oct 18th 2011, 5 – 6.30 pm:
  Dr Katie Fleming (Queen Mary, University of London)
  ‘Heidegger’s Antigone: Ethics and Politics’
  Duchesne Building, Main Campus, Room 001, Ground Floor
• Tuesday Nov 1st 2011, 5 – 6.30 pm:
  Prof. Anne Sheppard (Royal Holloway, University of London)
  ‘Imagination in Ancient Aesthetics’
  Grove House Main Campus, Terrace Room Ground Floor  (Please note different venue from other lectures)
• Tuesday Nov 22nd 2011, 5 – 6.30 pm:
  Prof. Catherine Osborne (University of East Anglia)
  ‘Some things you thought you knew about Plato and his Republic, and why it is not so’
  Duchesne Building, Main Campus, Room 001, Ground Floor
• Tuesday Dec 6th 2011, 5 – 6.30 pm:
  Prof. Christopher Rowe (University of Durham)
  ‘Socrates and the Good Life’
  Duchesne Building, Main Campus, Room 001, Ground Floor

All enquiries: Kathryn Tempest k.tempest@roehampton.ac.uk or Raj Sehgal r.sehgal@roehampton.ac.uk

Maps and Directions can be found at: http://www.roehampton.ac.uk/about/location/directions/index.asp http://www.roehampton.ac.uk/about/location/directions/campus-map.pdf

Leeds Trinity University College, in conjunction with the Centre for Catholic Studies, Durham University, calls for papers for presentation at the conference Vatican II 50 Years On: The New Evangelization on 26-29 June 2012.

The Second Vatican Council was a seminal event which had a profound impact on the life of the Catholic Church and believers, on her relations with other Christians and other faiths, and on the world at large through the renewed sense of mission which it generated. In particular, the Council began an engagement with the modern and secularized world through a renewed proclamation of the Gospel. Blessed John Paul II described this as the ‘new evangelization’, and in 2010, Pope Benedict XVI confirmed this priority by creating the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization.

From the first Constitution promulgated by the Council, Sacrosanctum concilium (1963) on the Sacred Liturgy to the last, Gaudium et spes (1965) the documents produced by the Council signalled a concern to re-express the Good News of Jesus Christ in dialogue with the modern world. This was to be through revivification of people’s participation in Communion (Lumen gentium, 1963) and growing reverence for the word of God (Dei verbum, 1965). Pope Paul VI carried forward the stress on proclaiming the Gospel in the modern world when he defined the meaning of evangelization today (Evangelii nuntiandi, 1975), and in the encyclical Redemptoris missio (1990), Blessed John Paul II stressed that evangelization is the responsibility of all Christians and churches. John Paul II repeatedly called attention to the need for re-evangelization or ‘New Evangelization’, especially in countries with Christian roots but where many ‘live a life far removed from Christ’. His successor Pope Benedict XVI has a particular concern for the crisis of faith in secularized societies and in 2010 established the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization to ‘re-propose the perennial truth of the Gospel’.

The fiftieth anniversary of the beginning of the Council provides a unique occasion to revisit it and consider its outcomes from different perspectives. The international Catholic theological conference at Leeds Trinity University College on 26-29 June 2012 will provide an opportunity to engage with the history and documents of Vatican II and its impact and legacy. Focus on ‘the New Evangelization’ is especially appropriate ahead of the Synod on ‘The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith’ to be held in October 2012.

The theme of the Leeds Trinity conference ‘Vatican II 50 Years On: The New Evangelization’ suggests consideration of the interpretation and impact of the Council, and the impetus to the new evangelization in particular, in the following ways:

• Analysis of Council documents and their significance for understanding the Council and/or for application in church and society today.
• The interpretation and historiography of Vatican II, especially with respect to the New Evangelization.
• The nature of the New Evangelization, its links with Vatican II, and the challenges and opportunities for a ‘re-proposal of the perennial truth of the Gospel’ today.
• Contemporary theological issues in light of the Council such as education, inculturation, social ethics, marriage and family, ecumenical and interfaith relations.
• External perceptions of the Roman Catholic Church, its agenda of evangelization, and its role in local and global affairs since Vatican II.

Papers are invited which relate to the themes of the conference as outlined above, and especially on the topics identified. Paper presenters should be active researchers, whether new or established scholars, who have an interest in the topic and are planning to attend the conference. It is not necessary to be a Catholic or to speak from the perspective of Catholic theology; any scholarly paper related to the themes will be considered.

Papers presented in parallel sessions should be delivered in a maximum of 20 minutes and should be no more than 2000 words in length.

To apply to present a paper, the following information is needed:

• Your name and institution (if applicable)
• Title of the proposed paper
• Brief abstract (about 200 words)

Applications should be sent to Professor Kirsteen Kim k.kim@leedstrinity.ac.uk by 30 November 2011. Successful contributors will be notified by 31 January 2012.

A limited number of partial bursaries is available.

For further information about the event and to book a place, see www.leedstrinity.ac.uk/VaticanIIConference. For enquiries, email k.stenton@leedstrinity.ac.uk or phone +44 (0)113 2837102.

The 201

Recent PhDs and current graduate students are invited to apply to participate in the 2012 St. Thomas Summer Seminar in Philosophy of Religion and Philosophical Theology, a three-week long seminar organized by Dean Zimmerman (Rutgers) and Michael Rota (University of St. Thomas). The seminar will be held at the University of St. Thomas, in St. Paul, Minnesota, from June 17^th to July 6^th, 2012. Participants will receive a stipend of $3000, as well as room and board.

http://www.stthomas.edu/philosophy/templeton/project.html

Topics and speakers:

Dualism and Materialism

• Chris Hill (Brown)
• Hud Hudson (Western Washington)
• Dean Zimmerman (Rutgers)

Freedom and Foreknowledge

• Linda Zagzebski (Oklahoma)
• David Hunt (Whittier)

The Atonement

• Eleonore Stump (Saint Louis University)
• Michael Rea (Notre Dame)

Resurrection

• Timothy O’Connor (Indiana)

Pascal’s Wager

• Thomas Kelly (Princeton)
• Michael Rota (St. Thomas)

 Neuroscience and Philosophy

• Hans Halvorson (Princeton)
• Jeffrey Schwartz (UCLA School of Medicine)

The deadline for receipt of applications is December 1, 2011.

For more information, including information on how to apply, go to http://www.stthomas.edu/philosophy/templeton/project.html

This seminar program is funded by a generous grant from the John Templeton Foundation.

Sociology of Religion Study Group (SOCREL) Annual Conference:

Religion and (In)Equalities

University of Chester, UK
28 – 30 March 2012

Plenary Speakers:

• Professor Tariq Modood (University of Bristol)
• Professor Elaine Graham (University of Chester)
• Professor Sean McCloud (University of North Carolina)

Also featuring, a roundtable discussion with…

• Professor Linda Woodhead and Dr Rebecca Catto (Lancaster University)
• Professor Kim Knott (University of Leeds)
•  Professor Hugh McLeod (University of Birmingham)
• Professor Gordon Lynch (University of Kent)
•  Dr Shuruq Naguib (Lancaster University)

*       Dr Karen Jochelson and Dr David Perfect (Equality and Human Rights Commission)

This interdisciplinary conference gathers academics and practitioners to discuss the complex ways religion interacts with systems of power and/or categories of difference that affect experiences of equality and/or inequality in individuals, groups and spaces. The intersections of gender, race and class are typically part of the mutually constitutive ’matrix’ of social categories that contribute to identities and power relations, however religion is often overlooked. Such oversight can only result in limited analyses and leaves pathways to social inclusion and exclusion concealed. Through this conference we seek to bring together research that explores the ways religious beliefs, identities, practices, communities and institutions can contribute to both experiences of belonging and marginalization.

Abstracts are invited on the conference theme, especially on the interaction of religious beliefs, traditions, practices and identities with:

• Class
• Gender
• Economics
• Multicultural politics
• Education
• Social justice
• Race
• Dis/abilities
• Public policy
• Healthcare and well-being
• Sexuality

Please submit abstracts by 28 October 2011 to Dr Dawn Llewellyn (University of Chester) and Dr Sonya Sharma (Durham University) at: religionandinequalities@gmail.com

Abstracts for 20 minute papers (300 words max.), panel proposals (750 words max.) and alternative formats (750 words max.) are welcomed.

SOCREL is the British Sociological Association’s study group on Religion. For more details about the study group and conference please visit www.socrel.org.uk.