Ngā Wāhi Tapu/Sacred Place: Continuity and Change
at: University of Auckland – visit conference website: http://www.nzasr.ac.nz/conference/index.php/annual/2018
November 29, 2018 – November 30, 2018
The third Joint Conference of the New Zealand Association for the Study of Religions (NZASR) and the Australian Association for the Study of Religions (AASR) will be hosted by the University of Auckland 29-30 November 2018. The plenary sessions of the conference this year will be held in the Waipapa Marae and the Maclaurin Chapel, two sacred sites on the University of Auckland campus, which reveal both continuity and change in this particular context.
The study of sacred place has been receiving renewed attention in the interdisciplinary study of religion. It includes a consideration of familiar institutions—temples, shrines, and churches—but also extends to less visible sites that ground everyday life in ritual practices in the home or in public spaces that are outside the boundaries of “official” religion. In spite of the evidence for secularization, the renewal and revitalization of sacred places is occurring in contemporary societies and transforming many urban areas such as Auckland, Sydney, and Melbourne. This is due in part to recent patterns of immigration and the growth in religious diversity with the arrival of new religious traditions and the flourishing of diaspora communities. The movement of peoples and the increase in interreligious encounters is creating a dynamic situation of mutual transformation and contributing to both de/re-territorialization of religion as some sacred sites are appropriated by new actors and groups representing alternatives to established religious institutions.