2016
A New Book (co-edited) by Jim Cox
This volume, in the series Vitality of Indigenous Religions, edited by Graham Harvey, Afeosemime Adogame & Ines Talamantez, offers a significant contribution to the new and strongly emerging field of non-religion and secularity studies. That field that has mainly been developed in the last decade for secularising Europe and North America, but hardly yet for the rest of the world. Religion and Non-Religion among Australian Aboriginal Peoples is, therefore, a pioneering study. It draws on Australian 2011 Census statistics to ask whether the indigenous Australian population, like the wider Australian society, is becoming increasingly secularised or whether there are other explanations for the surprisingly high percentage of Aboriginal people in Australia who state that they have ‘no religion’. Contributors from a range of disciplines consider three central questions: How do Aboriginal Australians understand or interpret what Westerners have called ‘religion’? Do Aboriginal Australians distinguish being ‘religious’ from being ‘non-religious’? How have modernity and Christianity affected Indigenous understandings of ‘religion’? These questions re-focus Western-dominated concerns with the decline or revival of religion, by incorporating how Indigenous Australians have responded to modernity, how modernity has affected Indigenous peoples’ religious behaviours and perceptions, and how variations of response can be found in rural and urban contexts.
The study of non-religion and secularity is as yet a virgin field in the study of the religions of Africa and its Diaspora. This volume on the rise of non-religion and secularity among indigenous peoples of Australia will likely serve as an eye-opener for students of the religions of Africa and its Diaspora
2016
Afe Adogame’s Inaugural Lecture
Afe Adogame’s Inaugural Lecture,“Mapping African Christianities within Religious Maps of the Universe”, delivered Thursday, April 28, 2016
Lecturer: Dr. Afeosemime Adogame, Maxwell M. Upson Professor of Christianity and Society, Princeton Theological Seminary
For pictures of the inaugural ritual, visit https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Byh4sNwZXd-bbHQ5TVU0YzBZNkk
2016
Christians and Muslims in Africa: Towards a Framework for the Study of Multi-Religious Settings
Christians and Muslims in Africa. Towards a Framework for the Study of Multi-Religious Settings
Summer School, ZMO, Berlin, 14-20 July 2016
Convened by Birgit Meyer (Utrecht University/ZMO), Abdoulaye Sounaye (ZMO), Marloes Janson (SOAS), Kai Kresse (Columbia University/ visiting fellow BGSMCS)
See the full Call for Applications
Persons interested to attend are required to send a letter of motivation, a cv, a writing sample (for instance a chapter of their dissertation or an article) and an abstract of the paper they intend to present. The deadline is 15 February 2016. Applicants will be notified by 1 March. Please send your application to Birgit Meyer (b.meyer@zmo.de).
2016
Call for Papers – Globalisation of African Pentecostalism: The Changing face of World Christianity
THE REDEEMED CHRISTIAN BIBLE COLLEGE (RCBC) IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE RELIGIOUS STUDIES DEPARTMENT, UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN ORGANISES
AN
International Conference on African Pentecostalism
Theme:
Globalisation of African Pentecostalism: The Changing face of World Christianity
Venue:
Redeemed Christian Bible College, KM 46 Lagos Ibadan Expressway, Redemption Camp, Mowe, Ogun State, Nigeria.
Conference dates:
Arrival: 19th of July 2016 (from 2pm). Programme commences with the welcome address by 5pm. Conference days: 20th & 21st of July 2016. Departure: 23rd of July 2016.
For more information, see: Conference Information
CALL FOR PAPERS
The twenty-first century has heralded a new dawn in the political map of Christianity with the proliferation of Pentecostalism across the globe. The shift in the centre of gravity of Christianity from the Global North to the Global South is predicated on the dynamic growth of Pentecostalism in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Consequentially, Pentecostalism has been described as the fastest growing Christian tradition in the world. The portable practices and transposable messages of the movement contributes to its appeal to its adherents across various cultural frontiers which often times resonates within the socio-cultural contexts where it is situated.
In the light of the forces of globalisation, migration and technological advancements, African Pentecostalism is no longer geographically delineated. The moral economy of corruption of African leaders, poverty, socio-economic and forced migration have paved the way for many African Pentecostal adherents to travel with their religious idiosyncrasies to various parts of the world. The declining fortunes of Christianity in the West and North America coupled with the fact that religion is consigned to the private space. This provides the missional motivation for the reconversion of former Christian heartlands to the Christian faith by African Pentecostal denominations. In the light of the associated challenges of migration and acculturation in a new cultural frontier, African Pentecostalism provides various opportunities for recreation of Africaness in Diaspora as well as identity negotiation in the host communities.
Attention has been drawn to the social, economic, political dimensions of African Pentecostalism generally. However, the urbanisation of African Pentecostalism across the globe necessitates critical engagement with respect to the changes that has taken place with the redrawing of the Political map of World Christianity. Therefore, the Redeemed Christian Bible College in collaboration with the Religious Studies Department of the University of Ibadan, have jointly organised the 2016 International Conference titled “ Globalisation of African Pentecostalism: The Changing face of World Christianity.”
2016
Call for Papers: ACLARS conference in Addis Ababa
The organizing committee of the African Consortium of Law and Relgion Studies (ACLARS) is pleased to announce the fourth conference on Law and Religion in Africa which will be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, hosted by the University of Addis Ababa and held at the African Union from Sunday, May 22, 2016 to Tuesday, May 24, 2016.
NOTE: Professor Rosalind Hackett has informed us that papers do not need to be law and religion as such, but research on religious groups or practices that has legal or rights implications.
For more information, see: http://www.iclrs.org/content/blurb/files/ACLARS%20Call%20for%20papers%202016.pdf
