CFP - Special Issue of Religions Journal: Religion, Science and Technology in Pantheism, Animism and Paganism

[ISHPSS]

From: Gorazd Andrejc <gora...@GMAIL.COM>
Call For Papers


Journal: Religions
 
Special Issue "Religion, Science and Technology in Pantheism, Animism and Paganism"

Deadline for submission: 30 September 2022

Link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/religions/special_issues/RSTinPAP

Guest Editor: Gorazd Andrejč (University of Groningen & SRC Koper)
Guest Editor Assistant: Victoria Dos Santos (University of Turin)

Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,

Although the trend is slowly changing, discourse on the Science and Religion—as well as its subfield, Religion and Technology—in Western philosophy of religion and theology has been largely dominated by discussions of the relationship between variants of theism and particular scientific theories or methods. While pantheism and its ‘cousins’ (panentheism, pandeism) have experienced some vibrant development in this field in recent years, modern animist and pagan perspectives have had less critical attention in the same.

This Special Issue will strengthen neglected areas in the interdisciplinary field of Religion, Science, and Technology by introducing original research on the approaches to science and technology in, or related to, pantheism, animism and paganism—especially (but not exclusively) in their ‘Western’ forms. While we especially invite essays written from philosophical and theological approaches for this Special Issue, essays written from other Religious Studies perspectives (sociology of religion, anthropology of religion, history of ideas, and others) are welcome if they can relate meaningfully and originally to questions such as those below.

The questions to be addressed include, but are not limited to, the following: Given the strong preference for immanent divine and embodied spirituality in contemporary pantheism, animism and paganism, does this give (any of) them intellectual advantage in relating to science and technology, compared to theism? Why has animism often been suspicious of, and presented as alternative to, ‘Western rationalism’ and hence, to a notable extent, Western science? If the tension between animism and science is not inevitable, what are the philosophical and discursive approaches that allow contemporary animism to combine with rigorous scientific investigation/theory? Is the 4E approach in cognitive science positively compatible with animism, paganism or pantheism? What are the arguments for adopting the so-called naturalistic paganism (or scientific paganism)? How exactly does the technology-focused paganism (technopaganism) relate to modern science and technology on the one hand, and to the more nature-focused paganism on the other? Does the immersive and boundary-transgressing phenomenology of nature, characteristic of some forms of pantheism, animism and paganism, help ground better environmental ethics than a more ‘detached’ approaches to environmental ethics (which typically also rely more explicitly on technological solutions to environmental problems)?

All articles in Religions are open access. For expressions of early interest in submitting an article for this special issue and for questions about publication fee waiver, contact the guest-editorial team, G. Andrejč and/or V. Dos Santos.

All contact and further info is on the special issue website: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/religions/special_issues/RSTinPAP 

Final submission deadline: 30 September 2022.

Dr. Gorazd Andrejč
Guest Editor
Victoria Dos Santos
Guest Editor Assistant