Munich Colloquium for Philosophy of Religion 2026: Philosophy of Religion in the Anthropocene

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 LMU’s Center for Religion and Philosophy, the Chair for Philosophy of Religion (Sebastian Gäb) and the Romano Guardini Chair (Ana Honnacker).

For roughly a quarter of a century, the idea of the Anthropocene – the ‘age of humankind’ – has shaped discourse across the sciences, the humanities, and the arts. Although the concept originated in geoscience, it functions not only as a diagnosis of the planet’s current geophysical condition (often used synonymously with the various ecological crises) but has also triggered significant shifts in how concepts such as nature, history, and agency are understood. The term Anthropocene has thus become a catalyst for reflection on the relationship between human and non-human nature and a prompt to reconsider fundamental philosophical categories. While areas such as environmental philosophy, religious studies, and theology have taken up this challenge and explored topics like the role of religious traditions in ecological issues, or proposed alternative anthropologies, the philosophy of religion appears to have been only marginally affected by these developments.

The colloquium invites contributions that seek to bring the discourse on the Anthropocene into dialogue with the philosophy of religion and to explore possible reconfigurations, both in terms of subject matter and methodological approach. It shall address questions like: Which concepts and frameworks from the philosophy of religion could enrich or refine our ways of speaking about the Anthropocene? How does, or should, the discourse on the Anthropocene transform the ways we reflect on religion? Should traditional religious cosmologies be revised in light of the Anthropocene? How might religious conceptions of the relationship between humans and the world, or between humans and God, be reshaped by it? What resources can religious and spiritual traditions offer for coping with life in the Anthropocene? And finally, how does the fact that, in the Anthropocene, humans themselves have become a major cause of suffering alter our understanding of the problem of evil?