Concepts of God in Underrepresented Religious Traditions

CONCEPTS OF GOD IN UNDERREPRESENTED RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS

Nord Luxxor Tambaú Hotel, João Pessoa, Brazil

February 12-14, 2025

Deadline: October 15, 2025

Website: https://www.god-and-consciousness.com/jp-conference

Submission of abstract: [email protected]

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KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

- Purushottama Bilimoria, San Francisco State University (USA)

- Leah Kalmanson, University of North Texas (USA)

- José Eduardo Porcher, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)

- Jorge Sanchez-Perez, University of Alberta (Canada)

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

- Benedikt Paul Göcke, Ruhr University Bochum (Germany)

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THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

Although the debates concerning concepts of God have regained considerable momentum in Western philosophy of religion since the 1960s, they mainly focus on concepts of God emerging out of the Abrahamic religions and the philosophical traditions informed by Western theology. The recipe for these debates is best described as being firmly focused on approaches involving divine attributes. On this view, a concept of God is first related to a variety of exegetically discovered or philosophically justified attributes apparently worthy of the divine—such as perfection, omniscience, omnipotence, eternity, aseity, etc. Then, these attributes, taken individually or collectively, are assessed for their adequacy and consistency within a concept of God inasmuch as it can hold up to exegetical or philosophical scrutiny.

There is a growing awareness nowadays that such an approach might conceal and prohibit a culturally sensitive and philosophically adequate appreciation of the numerous concepts of God found in religious traditions outside of the Abrahamic domain. This increasing awareness, which is part of the motivation beyond what has become known as cross-cultural and global philosophy of religion, encompasses both the need for and the encouragement of new dialogues between Western philosophy of religion and so-called underrepresented religious traditions.

By "underrepresented religious traditions," we mean religious traditions that have been largely excluded from the philosophical debate on God throughout the history of philosophy, especially in the past few decades within analytic philosophy of religion. These traditions include, but are not limited to: Indian religious traditions, Confucianism, Taoism and Zoroastrianism, Afro-Brazilian and African religions, and Amerindian and Australian Aboriginal religions. 

Regarding the concepts of God or divinity found in these underrepresented religious traditions, the following questions might be posed:

- Can the concepts of Divine of such traditions be regarded monotheistic in the Western sense of the term? Or are they closer to panentheism, pantheism, henotheism or polytheism? 

- What divine properties do the traditions ascribe to their respective divinity or sets of divinity? 

- Can the corresponding concepts of God be described in a consistent way? And Is it sensible to presuppose that they should be describable in such a way? 

- Do any of these concepts of God possess an advantage over Western philosophical accounts of God?

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SUBMISSION

We invite submissions of contributed papers that address the above questions in relation to specific underrepresented religious traditions. Abstracts must have a maximum of 3000 characters and be written in English. They must be submitted by October 15, 2024, through the e-mail [email protected], with the subject “Submission to the Joao Pessoa Conference”. In the body of the message, the author should state whether the paper will be presented in-person or online (preference will be given to in-person presentations). Notification of acceptance will be released on October 21, 2024.

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THE CONFERENCE

This the second conference of the project “Concepts of God and the Variety of Theisms in Indian Traditions: Towards a Theistic Theory of Consciousness”, hosted by the Brazilian Association for the Philosophy of Religion and supported by funding totalling $260,000 from the John Templeton Foundation. 

https://www.god-and-consciousness.com

It will be hosted by the Federal University of Campina Grande and will take place at the Nord Luxxor Tambaú Hotel.

https://www.nordhoteis.com.br/hotel-nord_luxxor_tambau-273.html?l=8

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PUBLICATIONS

Selected papers presented at the conference will be published in a special issue on "Concepts of God in Underrepresented Religious Traditions" of Sophia: International Journal of Philosophy and Traditions, to be published in 2026.

https://link.springer.com/journal/11841

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ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITEE

- Ricardo Sousa Silvestre, Federal University of Campina Grande, Brazil 

- Dilip Loundo, University of Juiz de Fora, Brazil

- Gabriel Reis de Oliveira, Saint Louis University, USA

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SCIENTIFIC COMMITEE

- Anand Vaidya, State University of San Jose, USA

- Ananya Barua, University of Delhi, India

- Benedikt Paul Göcke, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany

- Joanna Leidenhag, University of Leeds, UK

- Monima Chadha, Monash University, Australia

- Rodrigo de Azeredo Grünewald, Federal University of Campina Grande, Brazil 

- Swami Medhananda, UCLA and University of Southern California, USA

- Timothy O'Connor, Indiana University, USA

- Yujin Nagasawa, University of Birmingham, UK