India Religions and the Concept of God

INDIAN RELIGIONS AND THE CONCEPT OF GOD

An Online Workshop

Feb 13, 9:00-10:30am CET and 3:00-4:30pm CET. 

Feb 14, 3:00-4:30pm CET

https://www.logicandreligion.com/vaishnava-concept-of-god

The purpose of the online workshop INDIAN RELIGIONS AND THE CONCEPT OF GOD is to explore Indian concepts of God from a global philosophical perspective. Accepting that there are different conceptions of divinity among the Indian religious and philosophical traditions, we might pose the following questions: How can these concepts of God be philosophically characterized?  Are the Indian traditions’ concepts of God really monotheistic in the Western sense of the term? Or are they closer to panentheism, henotheism or polytheism? What divine properties do the traditions ascribe to their respective divinity? What is their relationship with Western philosophical accounts of God? Each speaker in the workshop will explore a concept of God in one of the main Indian traditions or texts.

The workshop will be held on Zoom. There will be no fee for participation. Registration however will be required (via www.logicandreligion.com/vaishnava-concept-of-god).

The workshop is part of “A Philosophical Approach to the Vaiṣṇava Concept of God,” a project funded by the John Templeton Foundation through the Global Philosophy of Religion Project, hosted by the University of Birmingham (https://www.global-philosophy.org).

List of Talks:

Feb 13, 2023 (Monday) – 9am CET

09:00 am CET (Berlin) | midnight PST (Los Angeles) | 05:00 am UTC-3 (Brasília) | 08:00 am UTC (London) | 01:30 pm IST (New Delhi)

Jessica Frazier (Oxford University, UK)

Beyond Theism: Vedantic Images and Arguments for a God Beyond Being 

Bindu Puri (Jawaharlal Nehru University, India)

Gandhi on God:Debating the purva paksa

Ithamar Theodor (Zefat Academic College, Israel)

Concept of God in the Bhagavad-gita: a Personalistic approach

Feb 13, 2023 (Monday) – 3pm CET

03:00 pm CET (Berlin) | 06:00 am PST (Los Angeles) | 11:00 am UTC-3 (Brasília) | 02:00 pm UTC (London) | 07:30 pm IST (New Delhi)

Purushottama Bilimoria (Purushottama Centre for Indian Philosophy & Culture, XX)

Gods and Godless Divinity: polyphony of panenpsychic omniscience, effervescent and hermaphrodite devatās, in Indian philosophy of religion

Jonathan Edelmann (University of Florida, USA)

Happiness and the Hierarchy of Being: Jīva Gosvāmin and Aquinas on the Ultimate Goal

Sthaneshwar Timalsina (San Diego State University, USA)

God, Isvara and the Brahman

Feb 14, 2023 (Tuesday) – 3pm CET
03:00 pm CET (Berlin) | 06:00 am PST (Los Angeles) | 11:00 am UTC-3 (Brasília) | 02:00 pm UTC (London) | 07:30 pm IST (New Delhi)

David Lawrence (The University of North Dakota, USA)

The Philosophical Concept of God in Late Nondual Kashmiri Śaivism

Christopher Chapple (Loyola Marymount University, USA)

Panentheism in the Bhagavad Gita

Alan Herbert (Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, UK)

Characterising the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava Concept of God as the Possessor of Śaktis

Organizational Committee:

·  Alan Herbert (Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, UK)

·  Ricardo Sousa Silvestre (Federal University of Campina Grande, Brazil) 

·  Gabriel Reis de Oliveira (Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil)