Past Events
Religion Seminar 2024 Series Program
Fridays 10am to 12noon | 7 speakers | March, May – October
Dr Rosemary Hancock, Notre Dame University, Institute for Ethics and Society
Attendance by Zoom.
ABSTRACT: The apocalyptic future of the climate crisis looms large in the cultural imagination: news reports, opinion pieces, dystopian fictions - all project to a not-too-distant future where human civilisation collapses, or the world-as-we-know-it ends. Such future-oriented disaster begs comparison with the religious concept of apocalypse; and some sociological research points to a kind of climate-millenarianism in certain Christian communities. Yet there is another concept, also drawn from the study of religion, relevant to the climate crisis: one that points us not towards the future - but rather the past. This paper will explore the utility of the concept ‘fundamentalism’ in understanding the social effects of climate change. Whilst acknowledging its limitations as a descriptive category, scholarship on ‘fundamentalism’ nonetheless identified a key fault line in 20th century society - reaction against the destabilising trends of modernity. In the 21st century, climate change is fast displacing modernity as the destabilising force. This paper considers what we can learn from fundamentalism about identifying emerging social fault lines and conflicts in the era of climate change.
BIO: Rosemary Hancock is a sociologist of religion and is Assistant Director of the Institute for Ethics and Society at the University of Notre Dame Australia. She convenes the Institute’s Religion, Culture and Society research focus area. Rosemary’s research explores the dynamics of religion and politics in contemporary society, with a particular focus on environmentalism and nature. Her first book, Islamic Environmentalism: Activism in the United States and Great Britain was published by Routledge in 2018, and her research has appeared in Journals such as CITY, Social Movement Studies, and Journal of Sociology. She is Co-Editor of Journal for the Academic Study of Religion and co-hosts the popular sociology podcast, Uncommon Sense.
Professor Erik Tonning, Department of Foreign Languages, University of Bergen
*Special time 10am-11.15am Sydney Time (ONLINE event: attendance via Zoom)
ABSTRACT: The idea that human language is an inherently inadequate instrument for grasping reality is widespread in modernist literature. While the ‘radical nominalism’ of this position has been recognised, this article argues that a genealogical understanding of its theological roots in medieval nominalism can highlight how modernist writers like Samuel Beckett and Wallace Stevens still wrestle with a voluntarist God of absolute and arbitrary power. By contrast, for a writer like David Jones, the historical choice of nominalism amounts to a theological mistake, and the modern artist needs to rediscover a God who consecrates and redeems the human capacity for sign-making.
BIO: Erik Tonning is Professor of British Literature and Culture in the University of Bergen (from 2015). In 2011-2014 he was Research Director of the ‘Modernism and Christianity’ project funded by the Bergen Research Foundation/Trond Mohn Foundation. He completed an undergraduate degree at Bergen (1999) and an MA at Oslo (2001), before going on to the University of Oxford for his DPhil (2006). He has held a Norwegian Research Council postdoctoral grant (2006-2009) for a project on ‘Samuel Beckett and Christianity’, and has also been affiliated with the Oxford Centre for Christianity and Culture at Regent’s Park College (2005-2010). In 2010, he held a Tutorial Fellowship at Regent’s Park College, Oxford. He has published two monographs, Samuel Beckett’s Abstract Drama: Works for Stage and Screen 1962-1985 (2007), and Modernism and Christianity (2014). He has also published several co-edited volumes including Samuel Beckett: Debts and Legacies (Samuel Beckett Today/Aujourd’hui 22, 2010), Broadcasting in the Modernist Era (2014) and Modernism, Christianity and Apocalypse (2015). He is Series Editor (with Prof. Matthew Feldman) of the two book series Historicizing Modernism and Modernist Archives from Bloomsbury Academic.
Professor Wendy Mayer, University of Divinity
Attendance by Zoom.
ABSTRACT: In 2023 I was challenged by a postdoctoral researcher at Radboud University to think through what John Chrysostom’s approach to disability might contribute to contemporary public and religious thought about the disabled person. John is a late fourth century CE cleric from the Syrian city of Antioch, whose thought on the human person is deeply influenced by earlier Greek and Roman medicine and natural philosophy. In this paper, I will summarise in brief my findings about his approach to the question of disability thus far and then seek to extend them further, especially in the areas of permanent cognitive and sensory disability. How did he theorise both human and divine responses?
BIO: Wendy Mayer (https://divinity.academia.edu/WendyMayerFAHA) is Emeritus Professor at the University of Divinity, where from 2020-2022 she served as Dean of Research Strategy. From 2019-2021 she served as Head of the Religion Section of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. Her primary area of research is the life and thought of the late ancient cleric John Chrysostom, whose prolific writings and preaching reveal a keen interest in ancient Graeco-Roman medicine and ethical philosophy. Another stream of her research concerns the interrelationship between religion, rhetoric, and radicalisation.
Dr Steven Drakeley, Western Sydney University
Attendance by Zoom.
ABSTRACT: While researching the history of a famous/infamous ‘hippy’ commune at Glenfield Farm near Liverpool (Sydney) it emerged, unexpectedly, that it had some strong Christian roots. It turned out that members of the Society of Friends (Quakers) were intimately involved in its foundation in 1972 and the early years of its existence. Moreover, it also emerged that its two principal founders had explicitly drawn on their knowledge of two contemporary radical Christian communes to serve as inspiration and example, one in the United States and the other in New Zealand. This paper draws out some of this background to this case. It also makes the (very) tentative suggestion that while this particular instance might be quite atypical, perhaps there is a ‘radical’ Christian thread to be found more generally within the weave of the 1970s hippy-commune movement.
BIO: Dr Steven Drakeley is a former hippie turned semi-straight historian specialising in the political history of Indonesia. Following an illustriously mediocre career of teaching and scholarship, mostly at Western Sydney University, he has retired to an ocean view which provides a very fine excuse for getting only a little research and writing done.
Dr Rachel Davies, Australian Catholic University, Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry
(ONLINE event: attendance via Zoom)
ABSTRACT: It has become common in popular spaces to speak of our disconnection from the natural world, from each other, and even from our own selves. This paper will explore the contemporary experience of disconnection using mystical itineraries penned by two late medieval luminaries: the Franciscan Bonaventure of Bagnoregio and the lay Dominican Catherine of Siena. As representatives of an important pre-modern literary genre, Bonaventure and Catherine use landscapes and landmarks from the natural world to show how Christian salvation involves healing our relationships with ourselves and others, including non-human creatures. The paper will suggest some nature-based contemplative practices that may assist in our collective healing, drawing on the speaker’s own experience as a certified forest therapy guide.
BIO: As a scholar of late medieval and early modern Christian spirituality, Rachel’s work explores questions around suffering and what it means to participate in Christ’s dying and rising (the paschal mystery). Her monograph, Bonaventure, the Body, and the Aesthetics of Salvation (2020) looks at the Franciscan experience of suffering and its transformations, especially as played out in the human body. Rachel’s newest project considers how landscapes (e.g. deserts, gardens, forests, mountains, seas) function in premodern itineraries of the soul, and she is using this literature to develop contemplative practices aimed at healing the self’s relationship with suffering ecosystems, especially here in Australia. She is an INFTA-certified forest therapy guide, and leads walks in Victoria’s Dandenong Ranges, partnering with Forest Therapy Victoria and MGA Counselling Services.
Rev Dr Mel Macarthur
Attendance by Zoom.
ABSTRACT: Can a viable, long-distance pilgrim route, capable of attracting domestic and international pilgrims be established in Australia? This proposal had its origins in a conversation between Mel Macarthur and a Lutheran cleric at the conclusion of this author’s pilgrimage along St Olavs Way from Oslo to Nidaros Cathedral in Norway. A question was raised by the Lutheran Clergyman about whether there was an established long-distance pilgrim route in Australia. I did not know for sure but thought not. I sought to verify whether my suspicion was correct and if so, why was this so. Drawing on a long experience of walking and cycling pilgrimages in Europe and of remote area walking in Australia I developed the hypothesis that the two hundred and forty kilometre Larapinta Trail in Central Australia could be developed as a viable pilgrim route. This proposal for a dissertation seeks to justify this assertion, and more ambitiously, to establish the Larapinta Trail as a recognized pilgrim route. The methodology will be strongly informed by Smith and Dean’s concept of the Iterative Cyclic Web as enunciated in their publication Practice-led Research, Research-led Practice in the Creative Arts. Field work will involve a full traverse (or two) of the Larapinta Trail and possibly the Camino Frances. A publication A Pilgrim Guide to the Larapinta Trail is envisioned.
BIO: Rev Dr Mel Macarthur is an ordained minister (1994) of the Uniting Church in Australia. He has made human powered pilgrimages to Jerusalem, the Camino Frances to Santiago de Compostella (twice), St Olavs Way to Nidaros Cathedral in Norway and the Larapinta Trail to Mount Sonder, Central Australia. He holds doctorates from the University of Sydney, Sydney College of Divinity and Western Sydney University.
Associate Professor Mark GE Kelly, Western Sydney University
(ONLINE event: attendance via Zoom)
ABSTRACT: A familiar national myth in Australia combines obvious symbols (flag, crown, national days of celebration) around a mythicised history that romanticises colonisation. Contrary to its own self-understanding, and indeed the understanding of many of its critics, this national myth is an invention of recent date. It has moreover become increasingly contested in recent years, which seems to beckon its imminent replacement. Yet, a new national mythos apparently struggles to be born: the exact coordinates it might have remain tenebrous. In this paper I will explore possible directions for the production of a new national myth in Australia, while being critical of these tendencies for recapitulating the tendentiousness and anachronism of existing national myths, raising in doing so the question of whether national myths are necessary or desirable today.
BIO: Mark G. E. Kelly is Associate Professor and Area Convenor of Philosophy at Western Sydney University. He is the author of six books, all relating to the thought of Michel Foucault, including most recently Normal Now: Individualism as Conformity (Polity, 2022). He is a member of the editorial board of and a frequent contributor to the US-based critical theory journal Telos.
2023 Inaugural Seminar Series
The Religion Seminar: An initiative of the Humanities Religious Studies Research Collective
To launch the Religious Studies Collective, we are inviting members of staff and postgraduates to our inaugural seminar series. The focus is broadly on the study of religion, narrowed only by our presenters' specialisation. The general aim of the seminar is for presentations to demonstrate the importance of humanities research in the study of religion as contributing to the understanding of religion in our world. We take “religion” in the widest sense and invite discussions concerning either specific traditions, practices, interpretations, new manifestations or theorisations, or conceptualisations of religion in broader discourse. The Humanities Religious Studies Research Collective, based in the School of Humanities and Communication Arts, represents scholarly research on religion from multi-disciplinary approaches.
Milad Milani Seminar 1 (24 March 2023) "Heidegger and the Study of Islam"
Purushottama Bilimoria "Panenpsychism: The meeting of the minds of Jaina, Spinoza, Galen, Strawson, Putnam, and Searle"
Peter Mauch "The Emperor, the Pope, and the War, 1921–1945
Sarah Bacaller "Contingency, necessity, compassion: Hegel meets the New York Times bestsellers"
Vassilios Adrahtas "Reflections of Indigeneity in Australian Christian Art"
Daniele Fulvi "The Immanent Made Transcendent: Schelling’s Immanent Ontology.”
Diego Bubbio "Secularisation, emancipation, and kenosis in the thought of Gianni Vattimo"