CFP: Natural and Revealed Theology in the German Enlightenment

The conference aims to explore original perspectives on theological-related subjects in the German Enlightenment up to Kant, with particular focus on the Late Enlightenment. Over the last few decades, the relevance of the theology of the Enlightenment has gained unprecedented momentum among scholars of the eighteenth century, going well beyond its traditional boundaries and arenas. The rapidly growing interest in the topic is reflected in an intense editorial activity that brought attention to lesser known texts. Key issues such as secularization and re-sacralization have raised questions that touch upon a range of disciplines. It is now clear that particularly during the second half of the eighteenth century metaphysics, aesthetics, epistemology, politics, ethnology, and the arts benefitted from fruitful exchanges with theology, resulting in a range of new approaches to the relation between the human and the divine.

Confirmed invited speakers:

Paola Basso (Bucharest)

Stefanie Buchenau (Paris)

Paola Rumore (Turin)

Gideon Stiening (Munich)

Lloyd Strickland (Manchester)

Endre Szécsényi (Aberdeen/Budapest)

We welcome proposals for 30-minute papers on topics including, but not limited to:

- the relation between natural theology and revealed theology

- natural theology and physico-theology

- the relation between natural theology and other metaphysical disciplines, such as ontology, cosmology, and psychology

- the role played by theology at large in the development of the philosophical disciplines, with particular regard to aesthetics and ethics

- the relevance of the theological reflection at the Berlin Academy

- the role of feelings and emotions in revealed theology

- the significance of homiletics and theological hermeneutics in the intellectual debate

- Catholic and Lutheran perspectives on faith

- secularization and re-sacralization

- connections between religion and the idea of Enlightenment

- exchanges and transfers between German Enlightenment and the European Enlightenment

Presentation time will be 30 minutes, plus 15 minutes for discussion. The main language of the conference is English. Abstracts in French and German will be considered.

Please send an abstract of no more than 400 words as a docx. attachment to: t[email protected]

Abstracts should be prepared for double-blind review by removing any identifying details. The author’s name, institutional affiliation, contact information and the paper title should be included in the body of the e-mail.

Deadline for submitting the abstracts: 6 April 2019 

Notification of acceptance by 10 April 2019. For inquiries, please contact the organisers: Tinca Prunea-Bretonnet ([email protected]) or Alessandro Nannini ([email protected])