Globalizing Philosophy of Religion

The Munich Colloquium in Philosophy of Religion is a forum for early career philosophers (PhD students and PostDocs) from all fields and backgrounds working on issues in philosophy of religion. It offers an open space to present and discuss the participants’ current projects. The colloquium is organized jointly by the chair for philosophy of religion (Sebastian Gäb) and the Romano Guardini chair (Ana Honnacker).

In recent years, philosophy of religion has more and more been confronted with the charge of having reached a dead end. Critics argue that as a discipline, philosophy of religion is preoccupied with Western theism in its most scholastic version, and that it ignores non-Western and non-theist forms of religion. Instead of studying just one particular religion, it is argued, philosophers of religion should rather devote their attention to the phenomenon of religion itself, in all its different manifestations. Consequently, traditional philosophy of religion should be replaced with a new, globalized philosophy of religion, as e.g. Victoria Harrison, or Yujin Nagasawa have argued.

The colloquium will focus on all issues in connection with the concept of a globalized philosophy of religion, for example: what methods should philosophers of religion use when engaging with non-Western religions? Can the concept of religion be applied globally? How can it be distinguished from cognate concepts like philosophy, dharma, or dao? What does ‘religion’ mean anyway? How could philosophers of religion cooperate fruitfully with researchers from other fields like religious studies or cultural studies? Are there examples of a successful global approach to particular problems in philosophy of religion?