Philosophy Conferences and Calls for Papers

From the e-mail describing the event:

CALL FOR PAPERS & PANEL PROPOSALS

MINI-CONFERENCE ON
“MODELS OF GOD”

April 4-5, 2007
In conjunction with the APA Pacific Division Meeting
San Francisco, California

Deadline for submissions: September 15, 2006.
Notice of acceptance: October 2006.
Papers: 3,000 word limit. Must be accompanied by abstract of no more than 150
words.
Panel proposals: Topic and structure of panel, including panelists’
contributions, 1,000 words or less. Include panelists’ names, affiliations,
and email addresses, and whether they have assented to participating as
described.

The mini-conference will examine specific models of God - that is, accounts of
the nature or essence of the divine - both those that have arisen out of
religious contexts and those developed within philosophical debates. The
objective is to address the large question of the most philosophically
satisfying way to conceive the nature of God.

This question is vitally important in the philosophy of religion. The model of
God one assumes affects (for example) the fate of the traditional arguments for
and against the existence of God, the coherence of theistic belief, and, for
theists, the practice and tenor of the religious life. It is no surprise,
then, that in the last century, and especially in the last 25 years, there has
been an explosion of work on the topic - from Whitehead’s Process and Reality
(1929), to, for example, Joshua Hoffman and Gary Rosenkrantz’s The Divine
Attributes (2002).

But no APA conference has been devoted to this specific topic during the years
when work on it has so proliferated. The mini-conference thus will encourage
fruitful, philosophically sophisticated face-to-face exchanges between
proponents of the major models of God: classical and neo-classical theists,
open theists, process theists, pantheists, panentheists, Ground-of-being
theists, environmental theists, polytheists, theists writing from a feminist
perspective, and others.

Submission of papers, and panel proposals, is invited to address the
mini-conference’s major topic:
. What is the philosophically most satisfying way to conceive the nature of the
divine?

In particular, mini-conference organizers welcome submissions that present and
critique:

. Well-known answers to the above question from any religious or philosophical
tradition that has developed one or more models of God.

. Less familiar concepts of the divine already extant in the history of these
traditions, or less obviously implicit in the work of other philosophers, e.g.
Hegel’s Absolute or Derrida’s transcendental signifier.

. New answers to this question emerging from recent work in the philosophy of
religion.

. Discussions that offer new insight into models of God by comparing and
contrasting models across religious and philosophical traditions.

. Metatheoretical questions arising in connection with the topic, such as:
o “Is it even possible to model God?”
o “If so, is it desirable?”
o “What desiderata might govern such models and help adjudicate
between them?”
o “What difference does it make which model of God one adopts - philosophically,
theologically, socially, or, for theists, personally?”

Papers and proposals from philosophers, as well as from theologians discussing
philosophical work, are welcome. We also warmly invite individuals who would
like to be commentators or chairs to contact us at the email addresses below.

To facilitate blind review, please delete all self-identifying references and
submit paper or panel proposal as an email attachment to both Jeanine Diller at
jeanine@phoenix.ccainc.net and Philip Clayton at pclayton@cst.edu. However,
please include in the body of the email your name, phone number, email address,
and title of paper or panel. Please attach only one document (if you are
submitting a paper, please include both abstract and paper in the same file).

No more than one submission per person can be accepted. Panelists may not also
present individual papers. Papers submitted to this mini-conference may also be
submitted for the main program of the APA Pacific Division, but no paper can
appear in both programs.

The mini-conference is able to offer a travel stipend of $200 on a basis of need
to a graduate student whose paper is accepted.

Mini-Conference Organizing Committee
Jeanine Diller, Independent Scholar (Chair)
Philip Clayton, Claremont Graduate University
John Cobb, Claremont School of Theology
Edwin Curley, University of Michigan
Andrew Dell’Olio, Hope College
C. Stephen Layman, Seattle Pacific University
Parimal Patil, Harvard University
Samuel Ruhmkorff, Simon’s Rock College of Bard
Charles Taliaferro, St. Olaf College