(Ir)Rationality and \;Religiosity During Pandemics: Phenomenological Criticism
\nSupplemental \; Research Webinar (online workshop only) \;of the Society for the Phenomenology of Religious Experience \;
\n\nSeptember 16-17\, 2020
\nHosted by the Department of Philosophy\, University of Vienna\, Austria
\nKeynote talks: Bruce Benson (University of St. Andrews)
\nIn the context of the current COVID 19-crisis\, the vexed relationship between religion\, intuition\, discursive reason\, and instrumental rationality has become ever more complicated. \;Given resurgent appeals to the transformative (purifying\, redemptive\, liberating\, etc.) force of religious resources in times of crisis&ndash\;both manipulating and hopeful&mdash\;we invite papers which explicate \;the involved aspects of (ir)rationality\, on a societal\, social\, communal\, \;and personal scale. Our working hypothesis is that the by now apparent lapses and discontents of secular reason contributed\, if not lead to\, the COVID19 \;pandemics. \; With the toll of deaths exceeding 100\,000 in mid-April 2020\, and industrial countries such as the United States \;leading the numbers\, what does it tell us about the status of knowledge\, consciousness and its relationships with the power networks ? \; Given the astounding denials of both trivial-ontic-empirical \; and scientific facts of epidemics and the gripping realities of global misinformation\, the relationship between the reason&mdash\;in action\, politics\, press\, local decision-making&mdash\;and the subjective dimension of religiosity \; stand out \; in this new light\, calling for phenomenological reporting and reflection\, which must precede the care and the cure. \; While religious experience has been shown to have emancipatory \;value and enhance resilience and decrease stress\, we'd like to clarify if this assessment still stands in this new situation. \;
\nWe invite submissions \;of papers of about 3000 words\, which would correspond to 20 min of reading maximum. Please also provide up to \;300 words synopsis of your talk\, in a separate Word document formatted for anonymous review. Please submit both to viennaweb2020@sophere.org \; \; \; \;Deadline for submission is July 15\, 2020\, with notifications of acceptance by August \;1. The workshop is free of charge\, as a contribution to healing the pandemic (donations to Sophere are of course welcome). Best papers will be recommended for a free of charge publication in a special issue of Open Theology (De Gruyter)\, prepared in cooperation with the workshop.
\nWorksop Directors:
\nJason Alvis J.WESLEY.ALVIS@gmail.com
\nMichael Staudigl michael.staudigl@univie.ac.
\nOlga Louchakova-Schwartz \; olouchakova@gmail.com
ORGANIZER;CN=Jason Alvis;CN=Olga Louchakova-Schwartz;CN=Michael Staudigl: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR