CFP: Maritain Engagé: Thomism Confronts the Global Challenge

This year’s conference theme is “MaritainEngagé: Thomism Confronts The Global Challenge.” 2015 marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations (in San Francisco) and the 50th anniversary of the close of Vatican II (and Paul VI’s charge to Maritain to bear the fruits of the Council to the intellectual world). With those anniversaries in mind, the Association turns its attention to the way Maritain sought to meet the greatest global challenge of the 20th century: World War II and its aftermath. 2015 also marks the 70th anniversary of his bi-lingual Pour La Justice: a book that collects his essays and addresses during and at the close of the war that confront some of the deepest challenges of his day. Pour La Justice is presently out of print but can be found at the Association’s new website: maritainassociation.com. Its essays, mainly in English, cover a variety of topics pertinent to his time: the current trial of the world, racism and anti-semitism, the soul and future of France, a contemporary humanism, Christian philosophy, communion and freedom, religion and politics. Reminding ourselves of the 70th anniversary of the United Nations, we also recall his post-war work helping to draft Unesco’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). Mindful of challenges to Thomism in our own day, we further recall Maritain’s many essays on education during this same period (for example, the four assembled in Education at the Crossroads [1943]).

0 0 1 380 2172 DeSales University 18 5 2547 14.0 Normal 0 false false false EN-US JA X-NONE/* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:8.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:107%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} The conference thus invites papers on two interrelated foci: first, the global challenges of Maritain’s own time of crisis that he sought to confront (“Maritain Engagé”); second, the light his thought then articulated continues to shed on the global challenges confronting Thomism today (“Thomism Confronts the Global Challenge”). Many of his concerns remain our own, despite the altered conditions 70 years bring. To name but a few: the continued importance of defending human rights and the dignity of the human person; the continued need to fight racism and anti-semitism; the need to establish an international authority for dealing with matters of global justice and for maintaining the peace; the need to articulate the right relation between religion and politics; the need to educate for a humanism capable of speaking to these concerns, the enduring importance of Thomism in advancing such an education, and hence its continued importance for the Church. The conference is open to papers on all such topics and, indeed, on related topics of philosophical interest.

Paper presentations at the conference should be limited to 25 minutes reading time, with 15 minutes for discussion. You can submit a proposal abstract of approximately 500 words through EasyChair.

·       Create a user account at www.EasyChair.org.

·       Go to https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=me2015.

·       Click the New Submission Menu. Enter your contact information, and upload your proposal or type it in the “Abstract” box.

·       Notice of acceptance or rejection will be sent by e-mail.

In order to receive full consideration, proposals should be completed online by no later than Friday, October 31, 2014. Submissions received by September 1st will be acted on by the end of September, to confirm participation for prospective authors so that they may apply for needed university travel funds by late September (and, for later submissions, by the end of  November). Questions on the submission of proposals should be directed to the Program Chair Fr. Justin Gable, OP, at [email protected]. In addition, the AMA extends an invitation to societies or individuals interested in organizing a satellite session for the 2014 conference. Complete details regarding the submission of satellite session proposals are available at the web address indicated above.

A special invitation is extended to graduate students. Starting this year, we will be offering a reduced conference rate for them. A stipend of $250.00 will be awarded to the outstanding graduate student paper selected by the Program Committee. In order to be considered for this award, you must submit a completed paper (not just an abstract), and name a faculty member who is sponsoring its consideration. The award recipient must be present at the conference in order to receive the stipend, which will be awarded at the AMA Awards Banquet. The deadline for submitting any completed graduate paper is December 15, 2014.

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In the event that a paper or paper proposal is approved, a contributor must still register for the conference before being put on the program. Registration instructions will be available on our website–maritainassociation.com–and registration must be made by February 1, 2015, in order to be put on the program. In accordance with our past tradition, papers are to be read at the conference by their authors, save under exceptional circumstances.