Call for Papers Hegel, Religion and Politics Issues and Actuality
Oct 02, 2015 → Apr 18, 2016
Call for Papers
Hegel, Religion and Politics
Issues and Actuality
In the preface to the Phenomenology of Spirit (1807), G.W. F. Hegel stresses that his time is one of deep transformations affecting the very principles, beliefs and, more generally, the “worldview” (Weltanschauung) which have shaped the whole set of institutions constituting the Western world. Among those transformations, the ones altering religion and politics appeared to him as crucially important. It is therefore no surprise that, from his early theological writings to his late systematic works, Hegel wrote extensively about the disruptions that were profoundly transforming the manner in which his contemporaries understood the relationship between church and state, the divine and the human, and the sacred and the secular.
Certainly, more than two centuries have elapsed since Hegel explored the religious and political transformations that shook Europe in the aftermath of the French Revolution. However, in the last decades, several thinkers and philosophers have defended the relevance of Hegel’s religious and political philosophy. Indeed, although it has often been argued that Hegel’s religious and political thought appeared to be outdated by Marxism or by political liberalism, many philosophers now propose that it contains the conceptual resources needed to best understand the complexity of the diverse transformations that are affecting the relationship between politics and religion in the contemporary world.
The conference Hegel, Religion and Politics: Issues and Actuality is organized by the Research Center in Public Ethics and Governance at Saint Paul University (Ottawa, Ontario) and will take place on April 15th and 16th. Proposals (in either English or French) must be submitted by email to Prof. Martin Thibodeau Thibodeau and Prof. Sophie Cloutier Cloutier before December 31, 2015. Proposals must be 300 words long and accompanied by a short CV. Selected writers will be notified by January 15th, 2016, and will be asked to submit a 30 minute-presentation by March 15th, 2016.