RE-ENVISAGING CATHOLICISM IN LATE MODERNITY
50th ANNIVERSARY OF THE INSTITUTE FOR CATHOLIC CHURCH STATISTICS
ONLINE CONFERENCE
Catholicism embodies specific forms of religious experience that emerge in the relationship between individuals and ‘strong’ normative institutions. Cultural transformations including democratization, social emancipation, globalization, feminism, and new communication technologies present the Church with new challenges in late modernity, at the intersection of formal institutions and human subjectivity. Catalysed by transformations at the turn of the 20th century and crystallized by Vatican II (1962-65), the Catholic Church has been adapting a new logic for the relationship between human persons and an authoritative religious institution that goes beyond Western horizons. Pope Francis stimulates this evolution as he encourages the Catholic Church to ‘rise to the challenge of envisaging a new humanity’ (Fratelli tutti 2020: 127).
Celebrating the 50th anniversary of establishing the Institute for Catholic Church Statistics (ISKK) – an independent scientific organization founded in Poland to understand the relationship between Catholicism and society – and in cooperation with our international partners: Catholic University of America, ZAP Ruhr-University Bochum, Benedict XVI Centre for Religion and Society, St Mary’s University, Initiative for the Study of Asian Catholics, and CARA at Georgetown University, we welcome scholars to discuss myriad ways Catholicism is lived out in modern cultures.
We invite studies that implement a rigorous quantitative or qualitative research approach. We especially encourage papers that stimulate new avenues of research and highlight innovative theoretical and methodological insights. Potential topics include but are not limited to:
- The relationship between Catholicism, demography, sexuality, and family life
- The ‘greening’ of Catholicism
- Catholicism in polarized political and social contexts
- The shifting role of Catholicism in personal identities
Date: 6-7 June 2022
Keynote Speakers: Roberta Ricucci (University of Turin) and Tricia Bruce (University of Notre Dame)
Program Chairs: Wojciech Sadlon and Marcin Jewdokimow
This conference aims to discuss contemporary global Catholicism amid the twin dynamics of agency and incarnation. We encourage scholars to present original research demonstrating Catholicism’s emergence as a lived (and contested) reality within arenas including family, ecology, materiality, identity, the environment, and more. We are particularly interested in studies that attend to how lived Catholicism reshapes the ways that individuals and communities engage with and practice religion.
Presenting authors will be selectively invited to contribute chapters for an edited volume in the book series “Studies in Global Catholicism” (Brill).
DEADLINES: Paper abstract (200 words) submissions: 15th April 2022
All submissions should be made online: https://forms.gle/kxGBQ6im5Ru7T5pT6
Online conference registration fees: 50 Euro. Participants are expected to register for the meeting by 30th May 2022.
For questions, please contact: Karol Leszczyński (k.leszczynski@iskk.pl) or Karol Kamiński (k.kaminski@iskk.pl).