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Invitation to an International conference
Religion,
Value, and a Secular Culture
with
University of Kwazulu-Natal
Durban, South Africa
November 5-6, 2012
Theme
By the term "secular culture" is meant one which
problematizes the foundations for the various religious
beliefs that make up the traditions of that society. The
public order may not be founded on any particular expression
in those traditions. The shift from a premodern culture is
characterized by two central changes: (i) the greater degree
of individual freedom. This is recognized as a key value in
changing societies and is given expression in the democratic
institution of universal suffrage; and (ii) the emergence
and prestige of the sciences and of scientific method as the
default paradigm of human knowledge.
As the major religious traditions acquired their canonical
expression in premodern culture, they do not to any great
extent deal with a thought-out response to the major factors
or key values which characterize contemporary culture. Thus
the first factor challenges the traditions to re-think
attitudes to women, to moral rules and values, and to
hierarchy; the second factor calls upon religious thinkers
and leaders to be involved in dialogue with the sciences and
knowledge acquired thereby.
One response to these changed conditions of society has been
to remove religion and religious beliefs altogether from
public debate. This is then framed solely in terms of
individual human rights and the values of equality and
tolerance. However, in the absence of any foundation for
these rights and values, this framework might itself seem
arbitrary and imposed, in particular in a global situation
of the interaction of more developed with still developing
cultures and economies. A purely procedural democracy and
ethical framework might disallow real dialogue on
substantive values or with persons.
Papers are invited from any discipline whether
philosophical, theological-religious, sociological,
psychological, legal, political, and on any issue arising
out of these intellectual challenges:
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Developments
within religious traditions in response to secularity
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Conflicts and
divisions within religious traditions in meeting the new
conditions for religious beliefs
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Differing
political frameworks for regulating interaction between
state and religion
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Legal matters
arising from separation of church and state
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Religious
traditions as challenging dominant models of secular
ethics, in particular a possible bias towards
individualism
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The problems of
building human community and countering fragmentation in
conditions of a secular culture
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Fundamentalism as
response and resistance to secularity; recourse to
violence
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Secularisation in
relation to neo-colonialism
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Responses of
particular countries in the face of secularism - South
Africa, Turkey, United States, and others
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Secularism
depicted and problematized in fiction ? Pamu's Snow,
Dastgir's A Small Fortune
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Secularism and
particular religious traditions - Islam, Christianity,
Hinduism, for example
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Romantic love as a
theme in religious responses to secular changes - Pamuk,
Dastgir, Neale's Conversion, for example
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Transcendence in a
framework of immanence in the religious traditions
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African
traditional thought and response to secularism
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Debates between
science and religion - open and closed versions of
neo-Darwinism
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Studies of a
contemporary writer on these theological themes: Karen
Armstrong; Keith Ward; Mustafa Akyol; Mark Johnston; or
on the ethical themes: Alisdair MacIntyre, Herbert
McCabe, Marilynn Robinson
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Philosophical
frameworks for fruitful dialogue between secular culture
and religious traditions: B. Lonergan; Charles Taylor;
and others
Venue and Accomodation
The conference will be held at the
Glenmore Pastoral Centre, 10 Donlene Crescent, Glenmore. The
centre is situated in Durban opposite the Howard College
campus of the University of Kwazulu-Natal, and 20 minutes
from the beachfront.
Accommodation is available for up to 60 people in double
room or single rooms. Cost of accommodation and three meals,
plus teas, is at the very reasonable rate of R806 per person
per day (approx. $100).
Visit the website of the centre,
www.glenmorecentre.co.za
Abstracts and Papers
If you want to participate, please
send abstracts by mid-August. You will be notified of
acceptance of your abstract by end of August. Full papers
must be submitted by September 30, 2012.
Contact:
Professor Patrick Giddy
University of Kwazulu-Natal
Durban, South Africa
Giddyj@ukzn.ac.za
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