'evolutions': a two-day international conference hosted by the School
of Literatures, Languages and Cultures at the University of Edinburgh,
22-23 September 2006.

CFP Panel:Panel Call: Intelligent/Divine: Religion versus Rationality?

The focus of this panel is inspired at least in part by the growing pressure
from various religious groups to teach creationism and/or intelligent design
as opposed to Evolution in schools and universities. Is this a cultural
phenomenon, or an anachronism? Are religious groups forming and
strengthening their collective identities based on their responses to
evolution? What, if anything, does the Catholic/Protestant divide regarding
this issue reveal about Catholic and Protestant traditions of responses to
scientific and general academic scholarship? And what is the relationship
between literal, as opposed to allegorical biblical interpretation, faith
justified by logic, and biblical infallibility; and possible definitions of
religious fundamentalism?

In more general terms the panel seeks papers which challenge or support the
notion that to declare oneself to be religious is to declare oneself to be
in some way irrational; through exploration of literary, cultural, and
historical responses to the faith/reason divide. To what extent can Darwin
be seen as the beginning of this divide? Where does literature represent
personal journeys of faith and episodes of transcendence and do these offer
justifications of religion?

Applicants who are interested in submitting a paper for this panel should
send a title and abstract of no more than 300 words accompanied by a short
CV to <evolutions.conference_at_ed.ac.uk>, specifying the panel in the
message body. The deadline for submission is 15 July, and speakers whose
proposals have been accepted will be notified shortly after that. Papers
delivered at the conference are expected to be approximately 20 minutes
long. Selected papers from the conference will be collected and published
in a special issue of Forum, Postgraduate Journal of Culture and the Arts,
University of Edinburgh.

For more information please visit the conference website at
<http://forum.llc.ed.ac.uk/evolutions/>. If you have any questions
concerning this panel, please contact Sally Henderson at the following
e-mail address: sallypat_henderson_at_hotmail.co.uk

This conference is being generously co-sponsored by Forum and the University
of Edinburgh.

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Received on Sat Jul 01 2006 - 07:14:09 EDT