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XXth IAHR Quinquennial World Congress | 15-21 augustus 2010 |
Theme: Religion - a Human Phenomenon
The World Congresses constitute the primary public event sponsored by the International Association of the History of Religions. Originally held every four years, World Congresses are now organized quinquennially and bring together scholars interested in the academic and scientific study of religions to share the results of their research and to engage in discussion and debate of the major issues and concerns in the field. Workshops, panels, and symposia, as well as the presentation of individual papers, will provide ample opportunity for this kind of engagement of various new developments in the study of religion in diverse venues around the world.
Religion: A Human Phenomenon - the theme for the Congress has been chosen to encourage discussion of religions and religious phenomena across traditional geographical and temporal boundaries. Its broad scope is an invitation to scholars in various fields with diverse interests to present the results of their research on religion in history, society, and the life of the individual. Although broad in scope, the theme is nevertheless also meant to place constraints on the discussion by focusing attention on religions insofar as they are "publicly available" to the research tools and techniques of the historical, social, and natural sciences; this will allow for the emergence of a common scholarly/scientific framework within which discussion, debate, and testing of scholarly claims and scientific hypotheses can take place. The structure of the academic program has been devised to complement the objectives of the Congress theme. Although participants will be free to submit proposals for working groups, seminars, and colloquia, we seek to avoid the traditional program structures of sections on particular traditions, a regional classification of religions, a historical periodization of religions, or some combination of such sections. The structure adopted here, we believe, will facilitate a bridging of traditional specializations in the field by encouraging scholars to present their research in an academic framework of well-defined methodological approaches.
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