Call for Papers: ECPR Reykjavik 2011 (25th-27th of August)

The University of Iceland hosts the general ECPR event this year, and we have a panel titled Political Forms of Christianity in Europe accepting paper proposals up until the 1st of February:

In contemporary debates on the parallel between "politics" and "religion" the talk often focuses, especially in a European context, on the "problem of Islam". It is highly typical in today's discourse to (a) frame all interventions of religion into politics as problems often requiring a secular solution; and to (b) interpellate them on an extra-European or -Christian context, i.e. making them alien to secular Europe and european-ness.

What this discourse often conceals is historical and existential context: that religion, specifically the Christian religion in all of its varieties, has always been present in European politics -- the fact that we can talk about "European politics" to begin with is a result of ecclesiastica developments on this continent over the last two millennia. What it also conceals, often inspired by a political form of anti-theism, is the living reality that religion is more than a problem for politics. It can be, as it has been throughout the history of "European politics", a positive influence in the social life of human communities. Like all religions, Christianity is a social reality and one that, through a variety of creeds and churches, brings the authority of God to bear upon temporal matters.

This panel focuses on the political forms Christianity has taken, and takes today, in Europe. Is it even possible to talk about political Christianity in Europe? What is the role played by the churches? What policies are supported, what are opposed by christians themselves? What makes a peculiarly Christian political influence positive, and what makes it problematic? Does Christian politics have a telos, or teloi? The panel welcomes papers that approach the topic and questions such as these from local, national, and regional perspectives.

You need to submit your paper abstracts via the MyECPR-system, which is open to non-members too so anyone can sign up. Our panel ID is 536. Do check out other interesting panels in section 26: Religious/Secular Politics: Local, National and Global.

Mika

Season's Greetings!

The Laestadian-ism team wishes everyone a merry Christmas and happy new year. Yours truly already makes a promise to post more frequently in 2011, as he returns from his sabbatical from another Academy-funded project.

Mika

Between Rawls and Religion: IRNRD Annual Conference 2010

Just a heads up on the activities of the International Research Network on Religion and Democracy (IRNRD). LUISS and John Cabot University are hosting the annual event in Rome this year. It's next week and has a highly distinguished lineup of participants -- check out poster below:



Mika

LEARNING TO LIVE FREE: Minnesota Laestadian Sex Abuse Case

Apparently -- and indeed unfortunately -- laestadian abuse cases are not confined to Finland. Learning to Live Freereports of a case in the OALC in Minnesota:

Minnesota Laestadian Sex Abuse Case: "Apparently sex abuse is still happening in Laestadian circles in the United States as well, as attested to in this article regarding a case that hit the news last July involving a volunteer at the Old Apostolic Lutheran Church on Rowland Road in Minnetonka, Minnesota."

AFAIK the Finnish press has thus far failed to notice this case. Päivi Räsänen keeping the religion beat busy I suppose.

Mika

Laestadian Abuse -- Story Continues

The leading national broadsheet Helsingin Sanomat ran a story on the 29th of September reporting that an influential member of the SRK has been in custody since July on child abuse charges. Helsinki Times ran a similar report in English. Allegations of abuse were picked up by the media in the spring, but shows little signs of quieting down after the summer.

According to Kaleva the head of SRK Olavi Voittonen dissociated the accused from all of the Central Committee's activities. He also made the argument that among the laestadians there are no more paedophiles than in the rest of the society, and the current furor against the movement has been raised by the media. Voittonen firmly denies hushing down the scandal and emphasises that child abuse is not an internal matter, but all cases should be reported to the police.

The odds are this piece of news will not be going away in the short term.

Mika

New blog on the block

Hope you had a good summer! With September just around the corner it is time to get back to business.

There is a new blogger on matters laestadian: Laestadianleaks.



What is it about exactly is early to tell since the site has been up about a day or so. It does seem to emulate its namesake inasmuch the first posts out some of SRK's political connections. Interesting stuff, indeed. With posts like these the blog is likely to get noticed.

Mika.

New book on Habermas and the problems of the "post-secular" condition

Péter Losonczi & Aakash Singh (eds.): Discoursing the Post-Secular: Essays on the Habermasian Post-Secular Turn has been published by the LIT Verlag (2010, 184 pp).

"This collection of fresh and lively essays analyzes the Habermasian post-secular turn as it has been evolving over the last decade triggering intensive debates in social and political theory, but at the same time aims to situate the arising postsecular discourse(s) within the larger intellectual environment shaped by the complex influence of the alleged 'return' of religion or the religious. The volume includes studies from as diverse fields as cultural theory, social theory, political philosophy, and theory of religion, as well as theology and bioethics. Key issues such as tolerance, the nature and challenges of modernity, pluralism, knowledge and faith, human dignity, ritual, idolatry or transcendence are brought into the discussion in an inventive way, and Habermas's work is reflected upon in comparison with figures like Levinas, Vattimo, and Agnes Heller." (Publishers blurb.)

Table of contents:

Editors’ Introduction

1. John Rundell: "Multiple Modernities, Sacredness, and the Democratic Imaginary: Religion as a Stand-in Category"

2. Devrim Kabasakal: "The Relevance and the Limits of the Notion of a Post-Secular Age In Jurgen Habermas’s Theory of Toleration"

3. Patrick Loobuyck & Stefan Rummens: "Beyond secularization? Notes on Habermas’s Account of the Postsecular Society"

4. Aakash Singh: "Habermas' Postsecularism: The Penetration/Preservation of the (European) Political Public Sphere"

5. Péter Losonczi: "Habermas, Levinas and the Problem of the Sacred: Postsecular Strategies in Resonating Divergence"

6. Matthias Riedl: "The Permanence of the Eschatological: Reflections on Gianni Vattimo’s Hermeneutic Age"

7. Nicholas Adams: "Habermas on Religion: The Problem of Discursive Extraterritoriality"

8. Edmund Arens: "What is Religion, and What is Religion For? Toughts in Light of Communicative Theory and Communicative Theology"

9. Michael Hoelzl: "Towards a Thicker Description of Transcendence"

10. Gábor Viktor Orosz: "Human Dignity and Genetics in a Postsecular Age: Habermas’s Ideas Concerning Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis and Enhancement in the Context of Theological Tradition".