2017
- July 10-21: The Cultural Dimensions of Christian Spirituality, University Sant’Anselmo, Rome
- July 27-28: Conference on Trauma and the Spirituality of Children and Youth; University of South Africa, Muckleneuk Campus, Pretoria, South Africa
- November 12-15: 2nd International Conference on the Evolution of Religion; Santa Ana Pueblo, New Mexico
- June 13-14: Down Town / Down Soul: Early
Modern Mysticism and the Political; Radboud University, Nijmegen, The
Netherlands.
Call for papers deadline: November 30, 2017
Summer School: The Cultural Dimensions of Christian Spirituality
Date Monday 10 July 2017 until Friday 21 July 2017
University Sant’Anselmo, Rome (Italy)
Monastic Institute
The following questions of this sort will be addressed in the academic programme:
· The Bible and its reception
· Early Christian theology and literature (and in particular the Rule of St. Benedict) in which the roots of later spiritualties can be uncovered
· The particular mental horizons of the 21st century
· The concrete ritual forms spirituality can assume
· The comparison between the spirituality of different religions and denominations
In July 2014 we launched a new short formation programme (60 European transferable credits). It is entitled Cultural Dimensions of Christian Spirituality.
The Master programme is aimed at members of monastic communities, clergy (ministers), oblates, professionals in religious or social areas, scholars, etc. Applicants are welcome from those who want to earn European Credits, as well as for personal formation or further education.
The courses are run in English in a two-year cycle, requiring presence in Rome for two weeks in each year. New enrolments are possible and welcome in every year.
Students will be accommodated (full board) in the Benedictine College of Sant’Anselmo.
Online registration
Prof. Dr. Matthias Skeb OSB, Coordinator of CDCS
Pontificio Ateneo Sant'Anselmo
Piazza Cavalieri di Malta, 5
00153 Roma
ITALY
Tel. +39 06 5791 323, Fax: +39 06 5791 409
CDCS 2016 photos.
University of South Africa, Muckleneuk Campus, Pretoria, South Africa
July 27-28, 2017
Trauma can impact children and youth on a physical, emotional, social and spiritual level, causing distress in all of these areas. However, not enough emphasis has been placed on the spiritual consequence of trauma on children and youth. This conference will aim to bring together scholars from various disciplines in order to present research, encourage conversations and critically reflect on the impact of trauma on the spirituality of children and youth. We invite papers from multiple disciplines, addressing the spiritual trauma children and youth can experience when faced with adversities such as violence and crime, the death of a loved one, accidents, life-threatening and life-limiting illnesses and other healthcare experiences, bullying and cyber bullying, abuse and sexual abuse and pornography.
Registration Deadline: July 12. Registration and Program information are available here.
For further information or assistance you are welcome to contact Dr Soula Apostolides – aposta1@unisa.ac.za or Dr Annemarie Oberholzer – oberhae@unisa.ac.za.
The 2nd International Conference on the Evolution of Religion
November 12-15, 2017
Tamaya Hyatt Regency Resort, Santa Ana Pueblo, New Mexico
The theme of this conference, "religious evolution between biology, psychology, and culture," will offer the occasion to conjoin biological, psychological, evolutionary, cognitive, neurological, anthropological, philosophical, and historical strands in that common endeavor to better understand this complex human feature. The transdisciplinary exchange expected at the conference should ensure a better view and an enriching academic experience.
More information about the conference, a call for papers, and registration is available.
Call for Papers
Down Town / Down Soul: Early Modern Mysticism & The Political
In the beginning of the seventeenth century, René Descartes coined the human Self as man’s unique source of certainty beyond any possible doubt. This was, according to many, the birth of Modernity and the modern subject. Yet, that same century was not without counter-movements putting this self-assured subject thoroughly into question. One of those movements was the mystical wave that went over France and Western Europe. The so-called ‘spirituality of the inner life’ (‘spiritualité de la vie intérieure’) was as much focussed on the human Self as Descartes was, but not in order to establish its self-assured position, but to analyse the position of that newly acquired modern Self and to lay bare the abyss on which it was built. In this spiritual literature we find a genuine “science of the subject” or “anatomy of the soul”. To the construction of the modern subject, these authors added, so to speak, its ‘deconstruction’. In a paradigmatic way this movement shows how modernity is bound to theories and formations of subjectivity in an era marked by confessionalisation and the emergence of a variety of models for piety and faith in different contexts – France, Spain, England, Germany, the Low Countries.
This construction/deconstruction of the modern subject that took place in the milieus of early modern mysticism was not without a socio-political dimension. It had an impact on both the way the citizen understood himself as subject of the new political order, and the way political power understood itself. The struggle in and with the individual’s inner Self resonates in the political struggle in which the individual citizen establishes his Self within a state which conceived itself as a Self as well. The inner struggle of the early modern mystical Self must be examined in its relation to the struggle in the heart of the political Self.
The Titus Brandsma Institute is a Research Center for Christian Spirituality and Mysticism. In 2018 it celebrates its 50th anniversary. One of the events that year is a two-day international conference, entitled “Down Town / Down Soul: Early Modern Mysticism and the Political”, organized by the Titus Brandsma Insitute, in collaboration with the Oblate School for Theology San Antonio, Texas, US. The conference will take place at the Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands, on Wednesday 13 and Thursday 14 June 2018.
The theme of the conference is twofold:
1. The impact of early modern mysticism on the formation of the modern subject: In what sense can the “science of the subject”, present in early modern ‘spiritualité’ authors, be read as ‘deconstructing’ the upcoming modern subject?
2. The relation of early modern mysticism to the politics of its time; and, more specifically, the influence of the early modern mystical subject on the emerging political subject, and vice versa.
Proposals (max. 300 words) and short CV can be sent to Marc De Kesel (Marc.deKesel@titusbrandsmainstituut.nl) before November 30th, 2017.
6/12/17