CALL FOR PAPERS
SOPHERE: Session 1
Phenomenology and Hermeneutics of Sacred Scripture
January 15-18, 2024
Sheraton, New York City, Times Square
The Society for the Phenomenology of Religious Experience (SOPHERE) will sponsor two affiliated group panel sessions at the APA Eastern Meeting in New York City from January 15-18. 2024. The first session is centered on the phenomenology and hermeneutics of sacred scripture. Submissions on any of the scriptures from the world’s major religions (Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, Christianity, etc.) would be welcome. There are two main requirements: first, that the paper be significantly rooted in the texts and methods of phenomenology and hermeneutics broadly construed (Jacques Derrida, Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Edith Stein, Emmanuel Levinas, Thich Nhat Hahn, etc.)–that is a substantial portion of the paper should detail how phenomenology (or phenomenologically informed hermeneutics–Dilthey, Gadamer, etc) are useful to developing a treatment of the scripture. And second, the author of the paper should submit a brief funding plan for the travel associated with the paper (especially for authors from abroad who may be waiting on institutional grants). The goal of this panel is to do non-ideologically based work on new readings of sacred scripture that indicate how one might promote religious experience within the reading and interpretation of sacred scripture. How can reading scripture open religious experience into new directions (as in the work of Jack Caputo, Jen-Luc Marion, and others)? Full abstracts are due by July 30, 2023 to Peter Costello at dr.petercostello@gmail.com. Please contact Peter Costello at the same email address with any questions. Paper submissions will be acknowledged promptly, and decisions will be made by August 1, 2023.
SOPHERE: Session 2
Husserl and Religious Experience
January 15-18, 2024
Sheraton, New York City, Times Square
The Society for the Phenomenology of Religious Experience (SOPHERE) will sponsor two affiliated group panel sessions at the APA Eastern Meeting in New York City from January 15-18. 2024. The second session is centered on the work of Edmund Husserl as it applies to a phenomenological account of religious experience. Submissions should center on Husserl’s work and its applicability to the careful interpretation of religious practice, sacred scripture, or the ontological and epistemological issues within religion considered more widely. There are two main requirements: first, that the paper be rooted in the work of Edmund Husserl, either one or multiple texts from the corpus. And, second, the author of the paper should submit a brief funding plan for the travel associated with the paper (especially for authors from abroad who may be waiting on institutional grants). For suggestions as to the kind of paper we are looking for, please consider the work of Jim Hart, Olga Louchakova Schwartz, Martin Nitsche, Felix O Murchadha, and Neal DeRoo. The goal of the panel is to expand Husserl scholarship into the area of religious experience by way of phenomenological analysis. Full abstracts are due by July 30, 2023 to Peter Costello at dr.petercostello@gmail.com. Please contact Peter Costello at the same email address with any questions. Paper submissions will be acknowledged promptly, and decisions will be made by August 1, 2023.