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ACADEMIC CONFERENCE
GREENING THE GODS: ECOLOGY AND THEOLOGY IN THE ANCIENT WORLD
18th-19th March 2014
CALL FOR PAPERS
A seismic shift in thinking about the environment from the 1960s onwards
can blind us to the fact that inhabitants of the ancient world (c. 800 BCE
- 400 CE) were also acutely aware that they existed as part of an
ecological system. Yet for these thinkers it was not rapidly melting
icecaps which made examining their relationship with the environment so
urgent, but the theological questions it raised. This conference will
embrace pagan, Jewish and Christian thinking about the intersection of
theology and ecology, whether expressed in sources we might now label
philosophy, scripture, natural history, science, liturgy or folklore. How
did these thinkers understand their natural environment to stand in
relation to the divine? And how did this understanding condition human
interaction with the natural world? By bringing together biblical
scholars, classicists, philosophers and theologians the first aim of this
conference is to paint a cohesive and multi-disciplinary picture of the
theological sophistication of ancient thinking about nature.
At the same time, the conference will not lose sight of our current
ecological crisis. What impact, if any, should ancient thinking about the
environment have on our own ecological thinking? While individual advances
have been made in theorising how ancient thinking might inform modern
responses to ecological issues, there is still vital need for
cross-disciplinary discussion of the impact of such thinking on relatively
new disciplines such as environmental philosophy and eco-theology, and on
contemporary calls to environmental action. As such this conference aims,
in a mutually reinforcing process, to shape both our knowledge of the
ancient world and the work of those who are writing the theology,
philosophy and ethics of the twenty-first century.
The conference is sponsored jointly by the Classics Faculty, University of
Cambridge and the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion and will be
held in St Edmund’s College, Cambridge. Plenary speakers include Prof
Robin Attfield (Cardiff), Prof Melissa Lane (Princeton), Dr Hilary Marlow
(Cambridge), Prof Richard Seaford (Exeter), Prof David Sedley (Cambridge)
and Dr Edward Adams (KCL-tbc). The conference organisers, Dr Ailsa Hunt
and Dr Hilary Marlow, invite short papers that examine any aspect of how
ecology and theology intersect in the ancient world, and how such
interplay impacts on contemporary thinking about the environment. Papers
may include, but are not restricted to, those areas outlined below:
· textual, theological and philosophical perspectives on human
relationships with nature in the ancient world
· visions for nature in prophetic, apocalyptic and eschatological
literature
· the influence of Stoicism or other philosophical systems on
ancient attitudes towards the natural world, and their significance in
modern environmental philosophy
· the theological thinking behind ancient attitudes to issues such
as deforestation, mining, dams, pollution, vegetarianism, sacrifice or
vivisection
· philosophical ideals of self sufficiency and their impact on
ancient thinking about nature
· the intersection of theological and ecological thinking in
ancient philosophical debate about the perishability of the world /
periodic cataclysms in which civilisation is erased
· the identification and interpretation of natural disasters and
portents
· (ab)uses of ancient thinking about nature in neopagan
environmental movements
It is anticipated that the allocated time for each paper will be 20
minutes, with additional time for questions/discussion. If you are
interested in presenting a paper, please send a title and abstract (200
words max) to Dr Ailsa Hunt at [log in to unmask] before 31st October 2013.
A booking form will be available in due course from the conference
organisers and on the websites of the Faculty of Classics
(www.classics.cam.ac.uk) and the Faraday Institute
(www.faraday-institute.org). Presenters and delegates (apart from invited
plenary speakers) will be responsible for their own accommodation in
Cambridge and a list of options will be provided. For further enquiries
please contact either of the organisers on [log in to unmask] or
[log in to unmask] It is hoped that selected papers from the conference will
be published in a volume edited by Dr Hunt and Dr Marlow.
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