Call for Papers
1st Global Conference
Sunday 18th March – Tuesday 20th March 2012
Prague, Czech Republic
In 2008, Archbishop Girotti triggered a heated public discussion when he identified new types of sins that wreak the modern world. The traditional list of the Church Fathers was unofficially updated to include social sins prevalent in what he called the era of “unstoppable globalisation”. and not necessarily embracing Christians only. Thus, apart from the familiar, but Christianity specific: Pride, Envy, Gluttony, Lust, Anger, Greed, Sloth, which individuals were to test their conscience for, the Church now cautions the whole of humanity inter alia about: Genetic modification and human experimentations; Polluting the environment; Social injustice; Causing poverty; Paedophilia, contraception, abortion; Taking drugs; and Financial gluttony. Not only are the ‘new sins’ not necessarily Christian in nature but they seem inter- and transcultural, disregarding religious persuasion. It seems no longer the matter of individual transgression that has spiritual repercussions, but rather the sin whose subject is the entire, global society.
Are we then to talk about a completely new hamartiology, new schematization, or are we just are revising, or adapting the Seven Deadly Sins to fit the secularized world of the 21st century? What are the real changes between medieval, originally Christian hamartiology and today’s religious/moral doctrines preached across the modern world? And what about non-Christian cultures with different categories of religious/spiritual transgressions. May one actually still talk about ‘sin’ at all or is it an obsolete word in a multicultural world? Is the concept of religious transgression being secularised as well? Are all Western sins and virtues other cultures’ vices too?
This interdisciplinary conference seeks a new, provocative, intercultural perspective on some enduring truths concerning virtues and vices, sins and transgressions. Do we need a new list of moral commandments in the globalised, multicultural 21st century? Should they be religious or secular in nature? What are the foundations behind morality of the ‘modern (wo)man’. And, finally, is it possible, reaching back to the origins of humanity, to find common denominators between religious/spiritual definitions of vices and virtues of all belief systems?
Papers, reports, work-in-progress, workshops and pre-formed panels are invited on issues related to the following themes:
- The genealogy of the idea of sin or religious transgression in Christian and non-Christian cultures
- Sinful/Transgressive actions and evil thoughts in Christian and non-Christian cultures
- Lexicon of sinfulness/transgression and virtuousness in Christian and non-Christian cultures
- Social functions of sins and virtues
- Modern sins and vices: Individual and social; religious and secular; intercultural
- Social sins: ‘Institutional’ and ‘structural’; their social ramifications
- Communal versus individual sins/transgressions: Do societies sin?
- The concept of sin or spiritual transgression/deviation and philosophy
- Sins and vices on the political arena (secular morality or no morality)
- Psychology of sin (‘sinful’ or ‘abnormal’?; the concept of sin after Darwin, Nietzsche and Freud)
- Representation of sins and sinners, vices, transgressions and virtues in art, literature, movies in Christian and non-Christian cultures
- Genderization of sins, vices and virtues in Christian and non-Christian cultures
- Ideology of sin/religious transgression and technological progress: G/god or the Machine; ‘sins’ of productive necessity
- Sins/Vices and/in the Media (ie adveritising)
- Medieval crusades and modern (holy) wars
- Sinless, non-transgressive life in 21st century: Possibility or wishful thinking?
- Fear of the confessional or ‘McDonald-isation’ of spiritual life; is confession needed at all?
- Penitential practices across the ages and cultures
- Punishment for sin/transgression and rewarding virtue across the ages and cultures: individual and collective
- Visions of Hell and Paradise across cultures
- Virtues in the modern times; virtues in a modern man
Papers will be accepted which deal with related areas and themes. Papers will also be considered on any related theme. 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 30th September 2011. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper of no more than 3000 words should be submitted by Friday 27th january 2012. Abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:
a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract
E-mails should be entitled: Sins and Virtues Abstract Submission.
Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). Please note that a Book of Abstracts is planned for the end of the year.
All accepted abstracts will be included in this publication. We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.
Organising Chairs
Katarzyna Bronk
Independent Scholar,
Poznan,
Poland
E-mail: Katarzyna Bronk
Dr Rob Fisher
Inter-Disciplinary.Net
Priory House, Wroslyn Road,
Freeland, Oxfordshire OX29 8HR
Email: Rob Fisher
The conference is part of the At the Interface series of research projects. The aim of the conference is to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and exciting. All papers accepted for and presented at this conference are eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be invited to go forward for development into a themed ISBN hard copy volume.
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