religion

Since the turn of the millennium, migration to Europe has significantly increased. Individuals have come to this continent often fleeing conflict and political instability as well as seeking improved social and economic wellbeing. For migrants, engagement in religious practice is a key resource in the post-migration period. Religious activities and infrastructure offer practical and spiritual support, as well as being a source of social belonging for newly arriving migrants. These factors often help individuals navigate structural inequalities, for example, facilitating access to social services.

What roles do ‘hierarchy’ and ‘egality’, as values and practices, play in the everyday lives of South Asian traditions? Hierarchy as a value in the social life of Hinduism has been much discussed. Scholarship has tended to contrast a transhistorical Hindu hierarchy with egalitarian elements of Muslim, Christian, Buddhist and Sikh thought in South Asia, framing ubiquitous caste-like social forms among the latter traditions as anomalous. Yet careful studies of everyday life in the religious traditions of South Asia suggest that a far more heterogeneous set of social imaginaries and a far more complex entanglement of hierarchy and egality are, in fact, shaping the trajectory of both inter-caste and inter-religious relations and practices.

International Symposium: SDGs through Hindu Worldviews – Spiritual Care in a VUCA–BANI World
February 25–26, 2026 | IIT (BHU), Varanasi | Hybrid (Online + Offline)

Beginning with Jonathan Hickman’s House of X/Powers of X limited series, the Krakoan Age X-Men stories occur against the backdrop of the establishment of a post-scarcity and post-mortality mutant homeland on the living island of Krakoa. The Krakoan Age ran from 2019 and 2024 and included more than 500 issues spread across 80 different comic titles. Within this vast body of text, a dizzying plurality of story-types are explored, ranging from gritty police procedurals, to sprawling war stories, to cozy slice-of-life tales. The Krakoan Age stories are also notable in their creative and interesting engagement with religious stories and themes, particularly in series such as Way of X, Legion of X and The Onslaught Revelation.

The Charlotte Perkins Gilman Society will host two panels at the 37th Annual American Literature Association Conference, May 20-23, 2026 in Chicago. We invite proposals for presentations on any aspect of Gilman’s life and work.

Possible topics include but are by no means limited to:

• Gilman and the Female Gothic

• Gilman and Xenofeminism

• Gilman and First Wave Feminism

• Gilman and Medicine / the Health Humanities

• Gilman and Utopianism

• Gilman and Evolutionary Science

• Gilman and Religion

• Gilman and Queer Culture

Beauty and the Revival of Faith will take place on 8-10 May, 2026, at the Archbishop’s Palace, Southwell, Nottingham, U.K. 

The 1st Symposium on the Chinese Translation of the Greek Septuagint
（第一屆中文七十士譯本翻譯學術研討會）

Hong Kong, 22-24 April 2026 (Wed to Fri)

CALL FOR PAPERS

Theme: Towards a Chinese Translation of the Greek Septuagint: Opportunity and Challenge   

The conference aims to explore both opportunities and complexities involved in rendering the Greek Septuagint into Chinese. Participants are encouraged to present research on the following themes:

How do we mark transitions, generate transformational visions, and model alternate ways of being in a world imploding around us? How do we find joy while surrounded by brokenness? How do we heal when systems are structured against us? What rituals or practices can restore us, even speak to our souls? The next issue of Rejoinder explores the theme of ritual, healing, and world-making. Submissions (including essays, commentary, criticism, fiction, poetry, and artwork) should address this theme from feminist, queer, and social justice-inspired perspectives. We particularly welcome contributions at the intersection of scholarship and activism.

The historical relationship between Muslims and Christians dates back to the seventh century C.E., when Islam began to spread throughout the Middle East, Africa, and the Indian subcontinent; by the early eighth century, parts of Europe were under Muslim control. Consequently, this Special Issue seeks to understand Christian–Muslim interactions over the centuries. Recent studies of Syriac texts reveal early interactions between Christians and Muslims, the beginning of centuries of Christian–Muslim dialogues, debates, and perspectives that continue into the present day.

Plant Lives: Sacred Interdependencies in the Arts of the Americas

A planting event and conference hosted by the Yale Institute of Sacred Music

April 11, 2026

In 1831, the preacher Nat Turner testified that hieroglyphics had appeared to him on leaves and corn stalks in a field. These hieroglyphics, he said, relayed divine messages that inspired him to lead a rebellion of enslaved Virginians. The starting point for this one-day conference is the many capacities of plants to transmit divine insights across time. This event at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music will explore the ways in which plants perform, evoke, and embody sacred relations throughout the Americas.

Lolly Willowes at 100: Sylvia Townsend Warner, Religion, and the Supernatural

IAS Common Ground, University College London, 29-30 May 2026

FOR LANCELOT ANDREWES

September 25th 2026 marks the 400th anniversary of Lancelot Andrewes’ death. It also marks the 100th anniversary of an essay by T. S. Eliot which appeared first in the TLS and was later collected into the volume named after it: For Lancelot Andrewes. This essay instigated modern critical interest in Andrewes’ intellectual and imaginative legacy, and is a significant event not just for sermon studies but for the conjunction of modernism and early modernism, and the influence of the renaissance period on the poets and thinkers of the twentieth century and beyond.

Call for papers – Series of Workshops on Sacred Writing Traditions

The HaZen (Handschriftenzentrum) project, based at the Institute for Jewish Studies at Freie Universität Berlin, would like to invite international researchers to three workshops in Berlin.

Dear Colleagues,

The Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at The Ohio State University is pleased to announce an upcoming conference as part of our biannual celebration of Popular Culture and the Deep Past (PCDP) in 2026. We warmly invite abstracts exploring topics related to medieval and Renaissance astrology and astronomy.Call for PapersStar Gazing: Astrology and Astronomy in the Medieval and Renaissance ImaginationPopular Culture and the Deep Past 2026

 April 10-11, 2026

Online via Zoom & Ohio Union - The Ohio State University

The submission deadline for abstracts and panel proposals is December 19, 2025.