Global-Critical Philosophy of Religion Unit

Session 1 (Categories) • The Problem of Evil Pollution/Contamination in Global-Critical Philosophies of Religion • The “problem of evil” is one among many staple topics of inquiry in “western,” Euro-/Christo-centric philosophy of religion. “Evil,” however, is arguably not a stable category for cross-cultural philosophizing about religion. This panel examines the viability of the alternative category pollution/contamination by inviting papers that explore analogue concepts and “problems” in diverse religio-philosophies (ideally only one tradition per paper), drawing on them to reflect critically on the traditional problem of evil. To what extent might a “global-critical philosophy of religion” displace the problem of evil with that of pollution/contamination? • We encourage and invite papers that individually represent neglected religio-philosophies and collectively represent diverse religio-philosophies. • Concretely, we invite submissions that present such discursive explorations and, at the same time, interact with each other. For this purpose, the papers will be distributed among the panelists one month before the coming annual meeting.

Session 2 (Method) • Decentralizing the Philosophical Inquiry into Religion • The etymology of the term “philosophy” has been used to justify Eurocentric and Anglophonocentric approaches to philosophy of religion. This panel proposes to decenter the field by globalizing the method/s used in philosophy of religion and by envisioning a global-critical philosophy of religion beyond and across boundaries. The panel will engage discursive explorations of that which grounds/sustains/transcends human existence from around the world and encourage their interaction. Concretely, we invite submissions that present such discursive explorations and, at the same time, interact with each other. For this purpose, the papers will be distributed among the panelists one month before the coming annual meeting.