CFP: Identity and Alterity. Religion in the Global Society

Probably the greatest opportunity, and in an equal manner, the challenge of the 21st century society is represented by cultural, religious, social interaction facilitated by the new technological developments related to communication, by the dynamics of globalization and by the phenomenon of migration. The identitary values are presented out of their original context and are being launched in a plan of visibility and interaction with other values. This interaction approximates cultures, religions, social mentalities in a dialogical relationship, thus creating the premises of an architectural constructive paradigm of approaching the “other”.

The problem debated here is of regulating the relation between different religious identities, of the rights that every religion has to express in the public or private area its own faith structures, cult, teaching. The major risk that derives from this relation is the minimization of identity and promoting a relativizing diversity. In this sense, the way in which we relate to the other may generate a series of challenges that require as many solutions as these: What are the capable measures to leading to the avoidance of religious fanaticism in contact with other religious identities and affirming a religious tolerance? How may one exercise religious freedom without attempting to the allogenic values of the other who belongs to a different cultural-religious area? Is multiculturalism a viable paradigm of the contemporary society? What are the paradigmatic frames of the relation between politics and religion in respecting the democratic right of a religious choice?

It is noted that the identity-alterity relation is placed in a secular society, in which the postmodern reinterpretation of religion generates a continuous dissolution of identity and a lack of awareness of the allegiance toward acknowledged religious values. This new reality sustained by moral relativism, that proliferates in a consumerist society in which the existential fact of “being” is hijacked with the necessity of “to have”, has permitted the shaping of a lack of horizon in approaching other religious identities.

The conference aims to define an theological, philosophical and sociological common effort for a correct, realistic and constructive reception of the interaction between religions in the contemporary society.

Subthemes:

- identity and alterity: philosophical and theological perspectives

- religious freedom and human rights: political and theological analysis

- religious fundamentalism: theological, sociological and political analysis

- tolerance/intolerance in Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism, Taoism

- interreligious dialogue and peace in a pluralistic society

- faith, reason and secular mentality

- religion and globalization: challenges and opportunities