Studying Religion in Contemporary Society
The Repstad Seminar
With the seminar we wish to celebrate our colleague and the outstanding scholar professor Pål Repstad who is about to retire from his ordinary position at the University of Agder. We give him and ourselves this opportunity to discuss some of his main scholarly interests and perspectives. The conference concentrates on a further clarification of the social science contribution to the understanding of religiousness in late modern societies. The symposium will also discuss the relevance of social science studies of religion for other scholarly disciplines.
Program
Tuesday May 23, 2017
- 1015 Welcome
- 1025: Pål Repstad: Sociology of religion in contexts
- 1040: Linda Woodhead: The challenge of ‘No Religion’ to the sociology of religion
- 1130: Lunch
- 1215: Mia Lövheim: Mediatization and religion: reflections on the usefulness of a difficult word
- 1245: Inger Furseth: Religious complexity. Using complexity theory to understand multiple trends
- 1315: Anne Løvland: Social semiotics in the study of religion
- 1335: Break
- 1350: Ida Marie Høeg: Lived religion – a tool in theorizing varieties of religion, spirituality and non-religion? The case of new death rituals
- 1415: Jan-Olav Henriksen and Paul Leer-Salvesen: Empirically informed theology
- 1500: Coffee Break
- 1530: Former Master and PhD candidates supervised by Pål Repstad present their work (10 minutes each):
Nils Justvik: Sports among Conservative Christians - from sin to a gift from God
Irene Trysnes: Camping with God. Roles and rituals at Christian summer festivals for young people
Tomas Rasmussen: Street Religion - Faith among Romanian beggars in Kristiansand
Kristina Grundetjern: The trek and the target. A pilgrimage in Norway
Bjarte Leer-Helgesen: Preaching to Mourners
Tale Steen-Johnsen: Is anyone listening? Religious leaders building peace in times of violent conflict - 1645: Pål Repstad: Summing Up
- 1700: End of seminar
Pål Repstad has for many years been an eager collector of small commercial religious objects. After the seminar an exhibition based on his collection will open in the university library, with a brief reflection from Pål about what such objects can tell us about contemporary religious trends. After that, there will be mingling and a dinner.