Notre Dame Summer Seminars in Philosophy of Religion
Project Summary
Analytic philosophy of religion has flourished and matured in recent decades, fostering original research drawing on metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, mind, and language, while also cultivating the new discipline of "analytic theology." Philosophers of religion have contributed to a flowering of scholarship in these areas, founding new peer-reviewed journals, publishing numerous academic books, impacting the academy, ministry, and lay readers, and building deep connections with work in theology and the sciences as well as philosophy. Yet most PhD students in philosophy have little opportunity to study recent work in philosophy of religion in their graduate programs, and early career faculty often find little support for pursuing scholarly research in these areas. The Notre Dame Summer Seminars in Philosophy of Religion, funded in part by a three-year, $1.4 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation, aim to fill this gap. First, they will bring together graduate students and early career scholars for intensive study of contemporary topics in philosophy of religion taught by leading figures in philosophy and related disciplines. And second, they create an extended mentorship program for all participants to work with senior philosophers of religion to advance their writing and receive guidance in their early years in the profession. The seminars will run for 2 weeks over three summers (2027, 2028, and 2029) on the campus of the University of Notre Dame, and are led by Prof. Michael Rea (PI), along with Prof. Laura Frances Callahan, Prof. Brian Cutter, and Seminar Fellow Matthew Benton.
Summer 2027 Theme: "Disagreement, Humility, and Polarization"
Religion is often political and divisive. Should this matter, for how we think about God or, indeed, the propriety of religious belief? How could we know God or have faith in a world where religious traditions disagree sharply about what God is like - and where those divisions themselves contribute to unrest and hatred? How do particular theological traditions encode prescriptions for engaging with disagreement? How do these recommendations fare when evaluated for epistemic and practical rationality, or their compatibility with just political systems? Is something like humility sufficient to save us from fueling religious division, and if so, what is humility like and how could we cultivate it at scale? Would a humbler approach to religion favor certain spiritual or theological traditions over others - for example, is there a relationship between humility and agnosticism or apophaticism? How shall we understand the character traits of humility, empathy, and love for others given polarizing issues of politics or doctrine? What insights are there from sociology and psychology on religious communities, belonging, and changing values in a polarized era?
Confirmed speakers: Yuval Avnur (Scripps College), Olivia Bailey (University of California, Berkeley), Nathan Ballantyne (Arizona State University), Emily Dumler-Winckler (Theology, Saint Louis University), Amy Floweree (Texas Tech University), Sandy Goldberg (Northwestern University), Megan Haggard (Psychology, Francis Marion University), Tom Kelly (Princeton University), Ruth Mayo (Psychology, Hebrew University, Jerusalem), and Tenelle Porter (Psychology, Rowan University).