Risk and Rapture: Apocalyptic Imagination in Late Modernity

Centre for Faiths and Public Policy, University of Chester

Wednesday 11^th September 2013

Keynote Speaker: Professor Scott Lash(Goldsmiths College, University of London)

Apocalypse captivates the human imagination. Once synonymous with ‘end of the world’ scenarios and confined largely to the religious, the term is part of vernacular language in the West and is used to describe a myriad of events from the fiscal difficulties of the Eurozone to nuclear war, from environmental disaster to the dangers of digital technology.

The advancement of science and technology has assisted in expediting anxiety with regard to apocalyptic catastrophe because such ‘progress’ has produced unforeseen hazards and risks. Critical theories of risk have been developed that harness and organise responses to scientific developments in an attempt to provide solutions to possible catastrophe. It is suggested that in order to prevent global catastrophe, modern society must be reflexive. Moreover, the advent of such hazards has served as a recruiting sergeant for fundamentalist religious groups who have clear and explicit eschatologies. Rather than viewing possible risks and hazards as by-products of late modernity—‘signs of the times’, they are re-interpreted as ‘signs of the end times’. Consequently, one strand that runs through the above is the political implications of apocalyptic ideology and theories of risk. Whether this is the focus some Christian dispensationalist groups put on the role of the state of Israel in the Middle East, or the so-called catastrophic acceleration of global-warming, decisions based on interpretations of these inevitably have political ramifications.

The purpose of this inter-disciplinary conference is to investigate and evaluate some of the variety of apocalyptic discourse that exists in contemporary popular western culture along with critical theories of risk. Papers are invited that explore both the secular and religio-political dimensions of apocalyptic language in contemporary society and include, but not restricted to, the following themes:

• · Secular interpretations of apocalypse;
• · Religio-political apocalyptic discourse;
• · Critical theories that seek solutions to contemporary notions of risk;
• · Correlations between critical theories of risk and apocalyptic ideology;
• · The growth of fundamentalisms as a reaction to risk culture(s).

Proposals for short papers are invited on any aspects or themes related to the above. Papers will be 20 minutes in length with an additional 10 minutes discussion. Applications to submit a paper should include:

• Proposer’s name and affiliation;
• · Title of the paper;
• · 250-word abstract;
• · Details of any audio-visual equipment you will need to deliver your paper.

Short paper proposals should be submitted toRiskraptureconf@chester.ac.uk by no later than 4pm on Monday 22nd April 2013.

Conference costs: £50 (£25 unwaged and students) inclusive of lunch and refreshments.

Conference registration will open in due course.

Disbelief in Antiquity: an Interdisciplinary Conference

22-24 June 2013

Al-Jaber auditorium, Corpus Christi College, Oxford.

Online booking: http://www.oxforduniversitystores.co.uk/ (search for ‘Disbelief’ or follow Conferences and Events > Classics > Classics Events)

We plan to have a number of shorter, TED-style papers (10 minutes + 5 minutes of discussion) at 5.00 on 23^rd June). If you have an idea for one of these, please send a short abstract (200 words maximum) to tim.whitmarsh@ccc.ox.ac.uk. Unfortunately we cannot guarantee financial support for these speakers.

Were there ancient versions of atheism? Who were the religious disbelievers in antiquity? What did they question? When and why did ancient religions allow dissent? This conference brings together some of the top names of Egyptology, Classics, Biblical Studies, the Ancient Near East and East Asia to address these questions.

22^nd June

12.45 pm arrivals, registration, lunch

2.00 pm Cliff Ando (Chicago) ‘Disbelief and cognate concepts in Roman antiquity’

3.15 pm Teresa Morgan (Oxford) ‘Is divine-human (dis)belief analogous to intra-human (dis)belief?’

4.30 pm Tea and coffee

5.00 Xinzhong Yao (King’s London) ‘The tension between belief and disbelief in early Confucianism’

6.15 Opening reception

7.15 Dinner in College

23^rd June

9.00 am Richard Parkinson (British Museum) ‘Is he asleep? Scepticism and disbelief in Middle Kingdom elite culture’

10.15 am Jan Assmann (Heidelberg) ‘Egyptian disbelief in the promises of eternity’

11.30 am Coffee

11.45 am Marianna Shakhnovich (St Petersburg) ‘The origin and transformation of disbelief in shamanism’

1.00 pm Lunch

2.00 pm Herbert Niehr (Tübingen), ‘Some aspects of ‘disbelief’ according to the sources from Late Bronze Age Ugarit’

3.15 pm Francesca Stavrakopoulou (Exeter) ‘Let sleeping gods lie: atheism, skepticism and religious reality within and without the Hebrew Bible’

4.30 pm Tea and coffee

5.00-6.30 shorter papers

7.15 Conference dinner in College

24^th June

9.00 am Sarah Hitch and Emily Kearns (Oxford) ‘Atheism as literary criticism: the case of Greek poetry’

10.15 am Jim Porter (Irvine) ‘What’s the matter with God? Natural philosophy, materialism, and the sublime in Greece and Rome’

11.30 Coffee

11.45 Tim Whitmarsh (Oxford) ‘Atheism and polytheism’

1.00 Lunch

Please note that accommodation is limited at Corpus Christi. Rooms can also be booked via http://www.oxfordrooms.co.uk/. Hotels close to Corpus Christi include the Eastgate (http://www.mercure.com/gb/hotel-6668-mercure-oxford-eastgate-hotel/index.shtml) and the Old Bank (www.oldbank-hotel.co.uk/).

Organisers: Sarah Hitch (sarah.hitch@classics.ox.ac.uk), Tim Whitmarsh (tim.whitmarsh@classics.ox.ac.uk). Please contact Sarah if you would like to be considered for a student bursary.

http://www.classics.ox.ac.uk/event-reader/events/disbeliefinantiquity.html

http://www.ccc.ox.ac.uk/Forthcoming-Events/

The BSPR’s Tenth Conference: Atheisms

11th-13th September 2013 

Oriel College, University of Oxford

Keynote Speakers:

Dr. Pamela Anderson (Oxford)

Professor Stephen R. L. Clark (Liverpool)

Professor Owen Flanagan (Duke)

Professor Robin Le Poidevin (Leeds)

Call for Papers:

Buddhists, Epicureans, Christians, Pantheists, Materialists, Liberal Humanists, Transhumanists, Nietszcheans and Idolaters have all at different times been content to be called “atheists”, and even the most ardent of “New Atheists” will insist that they need have no “positive” beliefs, except to reject whatever God or notion of God it is that they oppose. There need therefore be no one doctrine or way of life identified as “Atheism”. The question is rather what forms of life and thought are to be reckoned “atheistical” and why they might (or might not) seem attractive. 

Nor need the rejection of whatever God or Gods are in question always be a matter of intellectual conviction rather than politics (as anti-clericalism) or broadly “spiritual” practice (requiring the rejection of any authority superior to the individual’s own will, or to the State’s judgement).

If you would like to present a paper, please send an abstract of a maximum of 250 words to me (andrew.moore@theology.ox.ac.uk) by the end of March, 2013. Unfortunately, it will not be possible to consider abstracts that exceed the word limit or that are submitted after the closing date (allowance being made to colleagues in other time zones). The plural form “ATHEISMS” is to be noted: papers solely directed to refutations of (and refutations of those refutations of) “the Five Ways” (for example) are discouraged, as are papers directed solely to proving the non-existence of one particular deity, without regard to the alternatives.

Papers need not be on the theme of the conference, although a preference may be shown towards selecting those that are, other things being equal. Time and space at the conference will be limited, so we shall have to be selective, even allowing for the fact that we plan to run parallel sessions and request people presenting papers to keep to half-hour slots.

In order to keep to the tight timetabling required to permit participants to hear (the whole of) as many papers as possible, papers should take ideally fifteen minutes and an absolute maximum twenty minutes to deliver, leaving ten minutes or so for discussion.

Andrew Moore
Hon. Sec. BSPR

Registration Information: TBA