“Abrahamic Religions and Religious Others” – Call for Papers
International Network for Interreligious Research and Education |
Date: July 21–25, 2024
Location: Katholische Akademie Berlin
Deadline for papers 20th January 2025
Boundaries that identify an “us” also demarcate a “them.” Identity is a key component to belonging, and faith is often marbled into group identity. Religion can promote cohesion, foster community, and facilitate cooperation. However, group cohesion often comes at the expense of those deemed on the outside. The harmful and destructive potential of religion is well-known and has been the subject of past INIRE conferences. This seventh annual INIRE conference and summer school (https://sites.duke.edu/inire/), hosted by The Catholic Academy in Berlin, will focus on religious attitudes toward the other, primarily within and between the Abrahamic religions. Our approach will be interreligious, interdisciplinary, and global, as in previous gatherings.
Although scholarship has traditionally underlined intolerance, hate, and persecution among the Abrahamic religions, we wish to paint a more variegated and nuanced picture. A complicated assessment of religion is crucial not only for understanding the past but also for comprehending the present and providing resources for building a better future. This conference will explore the development of ideas of toleration within religious traditions, in particular, how religious adherents promote toleration within their own religion in ways that do not undermine it. We aim to examine various theoretical and theological conceptions of “toleration,” how that toleration is extended to outsiders, and when tolerance reaches its limits.
Religious approaches to “the other” are informed by collective memory, religious texts, interpretive traditions, cultural practices, and religious identity. Yet, religious identity itself is shaped through interactions with “the other.” This conference explores theories and practices that foster capacious attitudes and policies towards outsiders. We seek to highlight religious ideas and traditions that may serve to cultivate religious tolerance and hospitality towards those of other faiths.
Among the event’s the topics are:
· Historical studies of interreligious relationships.
· Key religious texts on “the other” and the reception history of these texts.
· Classical and modern theologians on religious others.
· Religious identity in relation to other religions.
· Collective religious memory and “the other” throughout the ages.
· Educational approaches that foster religious tolerance.
· Surveys of conceptions of religious tolerance.
· Cultural practices that bridge Abrahamic communities.
Send title, a short abstract (150 words), and a 4-line bio-blurb to Steiner@katholische-akademie-berlin.de and cc serena.elliott@duke.edu by 1/20/2025. Acceptance letters will be sent out by 3/1/2025.
The organizing committee:
Prof. Peter Casarella (Duke University)
Prof. Rocío Cortés Rodríguez (Pontifical Catholic University of Chile)
Prof. Malachi Hacohen (Duke University)
Prof. Yemima Hadad (Leipzig University)
Prof. Zohar Maor (Bar Ilan University)
Prof. Matthew Rowley (Fairfield University)
Prof. Stephan Steiner (Catholic Academy, Berlin)