CFP: Between Rawls and Religion: Liberalism in a Postsecular World

International conference "Between Rawls and Religion: Liberalism in a Postsecular World" of the International Research Network on Religion and Democracy (IRNRD), LUISS Guido Carli University, and John Cabot University, Rome, Italy, 16-18 December 2010

Call for papers

The conference will bring together scholars in philosophy, sociology, political theory, legal theory, religious studies, and theology to discuss the problematic relationship between religion and politics in contemporary public life. It will focus particularly on John Rawls' influential treatment of liberalism in pluralist societies and on the challenges posed to such a treatment by the re-emergence of religions in public life and the development of what some have called a postsecular world.

The conference will thus consider such topics as: Religion in Rawls; Political liberalism in a postsecular world; Religious doctrines and the idea of public reason; Religions and overlapping consensus; Liberalism and political theology; The philosophical and political foundations of postsecular pluralism; Redefining the relations and boundaries between religion and public life; Accommodating religious identities in liberal societies

Speakers include: Alessandro Ferrara (University of Rome "Tor Vergata"); Andrew March (Yale, tbc); David Rasmussen (Boston College); Johannes van der Ven (Radboud University); Maeve Cooke (University College Dublin); Paul Weithman (University of Notre Dame); Peter Jonkers (Tilburg University); Samuele Sangalli (Gregoriana); Sebastiano Maffettone (LUISS Guido Carli University); Stephen Macedo (Princeton); Tariq Modood (University of Bristol, tbc); Theo de Wit (Tilburg University)

Scholars and graduate students wishing to present papers on these or related topics are invited to submit abstracts to the organizing committee. A paper suitable for presentation in 20 minutes and a 500-word abstract, both prepared for blind review, should be sent to: infophd@luiss.it

Deadline: 1 October 2010

Notice of acceptance will be provided by 15 October 2010. Selected papers will be considered for publication.

Registration fee (includes conference dinner, lunches, and refreshments): Faculty €100, Students €50.

CONF: Rawlsian Liberalism in Context(s)

Symposium "Rawlsian Liberalism in Context(s)", at the University of Tennessee, Baker Center for Public Policy, Toyota Auditorium, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA, 26-27 February 2010

Over a period of fifty years, John Rawls developed and gave voice to the most powerful and systematic moral theory of constitutional liberal democracy since John Stuart Mill's work a century earlier. The recent publication of Rawls' undergraduate thesis, "A Brief Inquiry into the Meaning of Sin and Faith", has encouraged a profitable re-reading of his political philosophy in the context and light of his personal and scholarly engagement with theological ethics and political theology in general and Christianity in particular.

Building on this development, "Rawlsian Liberalism in Context(s)" aims to shed further light on Rawls' work by situating it within multiple disciplinary contexts. Symposium speakers will address the relationships between Rawls' thought and twentieth-century developments in economics and political economy, in analytic philosophy, in American pragmatist thought, in normative theorizing of American foreign policy and international relations, and in theological ethics and political theology.

Symposium speakers, each an expert on Rawls' work, include:
- Jerry Gaus (James E. Rogers Professor of Philosophy, University of Arizona)
- Richard Miller (Professor of Philosophy, Cornell University)
- David Reidy (Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Tennessee)
- Robert Talisse (Associate Professor of Philosophy and Political Science, Vanderbilt University)
- Paul Weithman (Professor of Philosophy, Notre Dame University)

Sessions are free and open to the public. Schedule details will be available late fall 2009. For further information, please contact David Reidy: dreidy@utk.edu

The Symposium is sponsored by the Office of Research, the School of Law, the Baker Center for Public Policy, the departments of Philosophy and Political Science, and the American Studies programme, all at the University of Tennessee.