Philippine Association for the Sociology of Religion and Guimaras State College in Partnership with Up Socius and Philippine Association for the Study of Culture, History, and Religion
Revisiting Sanctity in the Age of Late Modernity: Religion as an Enabling and Constraining Social Structure
DATE: May 16-18, 2017
VENUE: Guimaras State College, McLain, Buenavista, Guimaras
The relevance of religion in the history of human civilization and the development of the social sciences cannot be denied. Regarded as the ultimate non-material social fact, religion in its various forms have served as a cultural universal that continues to influence the direction of social change in both global and local societies. This embeddedness of religion in social life has piqued the curiosities of various scholars over the centuries.
Despite earlier claims of secularization, the presence of religion can still be felt in today’s age of late modernity. The last two decades prior to the new millennium bore witness to the role of religion in political upheavals in Europe (Fall of the Berlin Wall) and Asia (EDSA People Power). Religious rhetoric and old fears of the apocalypse also spread like wildfire amongst human populations during the transitions to the new millennium, with fears of the coming Y2K being associated with religious conceptualizations of the end times. the first two decades of the new millennium further demonstrated the continued embeddedness with religion in social life. At the global level , religious extremism gained the attention of the world to religious terrorism. Specters of war pervade the climate of the current late modern society, with reports of suicide bombings and the aggressive spread of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) well-enriched in the perceptions of Reality of the typical citizen. The relationship between religion and global health has also captured international attention, with concerns of the continued reluctance of the church to ease its stance on artificial contraceptives being viewed as a potential impediment to the global fight against the HIV/AIDS pandemic. These events of recent decades point to the continued manifestation of the dynamogenic quality of religion.Religion, even in this late modern age, is still capable of eliciting from the people the capability to transcend beyond their limited individual powers and give rise to thoughts and actions greater than what they are otherwise capable of.
Debates among public personalities and intellectuals in recent years have touched on the subject of religion. Cognizant of its power over human action, Intelligence Squared hosted at least three separate debates (Europe, USA, Asia) tackling the question of whether the world would be better off without religion. In all three debates, the results of the live audience polls point to religion in a negative light, though online poll results do not always report the same the same conclusion. In the upcoming conference, the discourse would revolve around how religion can function as a structure that becomes either a catalyst a barrier/obstacle to social action and development. At the conclusion of the event, it is expected that the plenary and the panel presentations would allow the participants to have an evidence-based appreciation of the role of religion in our current society. Furthermore, the discourse that will emanate from the conference may allow government, educational, and religious institutions of today to identify potential conflicts and collaborations between current social reality and religious doctrines, Ideologies, and philosophies, and identify steps on how to respond to these challenges and issues.
In line with this, we are inviting scholars from the Philippines and abroad to present empirical papers that will enrich the discussion on this theme. Interested parties may submit papers which may fall under panel themes below. PASR is also open to new proposals of potential panel themes.
The deadline for abstract submission will be on March 30, 2017. Abstract submissions should have a maximum of 400 words. Each abstract submission should contain the empirical paper’s research questions, methods, findings,conclusions, and study implications. Please submit a soft copy in MSWord or PDF file of your abstract submissions to mmquintos@up.edu.ph with “PASR SUBMISSION” as the e-mail’s subject title.
PANEL THEMES:
- Religion and the Environment
- Religion, Sexuality, and Gender
- Religion, Science, and Education
- Religion and Economic Life
- Religion and Politics
- Dominant Religions and Indigenous Peoples
- Religion, Health, and Population
- Religion and the Family
- Religion and Local and Global Conflicts
- Religion and Media
- Religion and the Youth
- Religion and Deviance
- Emerging Religious Movements
** Interested parties may submit papers outside the scope of the abovementioned panel themes provided that the theme of religion as an enabling-constraining social structure is still salient in the study.
*** Proposals for panel themes are also accepted, provided that there are 3-5 papers which would be covered by the proposal panel theme
Back-to-back event: The conference will also serve as the venue for the formal launch of the regional chapter of PASCHR (VISAYAS REGION)