Between Secularisation and Reform: Religion in the Enlightenment

The 17th-18th attempts at a reform of religion can be traced back to as different movements and milieus as the followers of Spinoza, deists, neologians and rationalists, including Immanuel Kant, and the Catholic enlighteners (e.g. Claude Yvon). What these diverse reformers share is a programme of rationalising religious faith, manifest, for instance, in new interpretations of Christian Scriptures: as a book which contains a universal moral doctrine justifiable within the limits of reason alone or even a book which encourages the identification of reason and the divine. But how should we understand these attempts at reforming religion by rationalising its core contents? In light of what we know about religions nowadays, is it even a plausible enterprise? Are the arguments of rationalists with regard to religion philosophically coherent or do they consist in eclectic combinations of mismatching elements? Can relations between reason and religion be construed in such a way that the former would avoid the accusation of encroaching on the domain of the latter? Can there be a thing like rational religion, given that, for many apologists and critics of religion alike, faith is not compatible with reason? We intend to discuss these and related questions in a workshop following the plenary lecture by Prof. Jeffrey D. Burson.

The events will be organised through Microsoft Teams. After registration on the project website (the link is on the top right of this page), you will receive a confirmation email, and the invitation link to the event(s) will be sent to your mailbox in advance of the date of the event(s).

The program of the workshop is as follows:

Please note that all times are in Central European Time (GMT +1)

8 Oct 2020:

16-18 Plenary lecture by Prof. Jeffrey D. Burson (Georgia Southern University): The Theological Revolution of the Enlightenment

19- Potluck Dinner (online)

9 Oct 2020:

13-13:15 Welcome and introduction

13:15-14:15 Andrea Vestrucci: Luther and Kant: Engaging and Overcoming the Aporia

14:30-15:30  Wojciech Kozyra: Kant and Marcionism

15:30-16:30  Siesta

16:30-17:30 Íñigo Ongay de Felipe: The Ring of Nathan the Wise and the Distinction between Natural and Positive Theology

17:45-18:45  Eveline Groot: Freedom of Religion as a Foundation for Progress: Religion in the Liberal Theory of Germaine de Staël

19-20 Mark Boespflug: Locke’s Pioneering Case for the Rationality of Faith and Hume’s Critique

20- Potluck Dinner (online)