Atheisms, Atheologies, Naturalistic Theologies, and Religious Naturalisms

Place: University of Utah (Salt Lake City)
Dates: June 20-23, 2022
Program Chairs: Dan Ott, LeRon Shults, and Demian Wheeler
Local Hosts: Jim McLachlan and Bob King
Intellectual Autobiography: Walter Gulick
Plenary Addresses: Carol Wayne White, John Shook, Nancy Frankenberry and Wesley Wildman

The theme of the 2022 IARPT meeting is atheisms, atheologies, naturalistic theologies, and religious naturalisms. Central to this theme are questions about “atheism” and its relationship to post-theistic and non-theistic traditions of American religious and philosophical thought. Questions that could be addressed include:

• How are atheologies, naturalistic theologies, and religious naturalisms expressions of philosophical atheism and/or how are they distinct from atheism?
• Is theology necessarily theistic, and is atheism necessarily anti-theistic? 
• Are “atheology” and “naturalistic theology” ultimately self-defeating positions? Has the very idea of “theology” outlived its usefulness? 
• What kind of content can the concept “God” have in a naturalistic framework? 
• Is “religious naturalism” an oxymoron? 
• What, if anything, do religious and theological naturalisms add to naturalism? 
• Is the mediating path of naturalistic theology a compelling via media between supernatural theism and secular atheism, or is it a halfway house on the road to an atheistic destination, as Nancy Frankenberry suggests? 
• Are naturalistic theologies, religious naturalisms, atheologies, and the like effective strategies for contesting our naturally evolved biases toward inferring supernatural agency and preferring supernatural ingroup norms when threatened or confused—or do they unwittingly reinforce them? 
• What contributions might pragmatism, radical empiricism, humanism, and theistic and nontheistic varieties of Whiteheadianism make to conversations about atheism?

Other topics to be considered might include:

• How atheologies, naturalistic theologies, and religious naturalisms relate to the church and other religious institutions;
• How non-classical-theist theologies such as naturalistic theism, ground-of-being theism, and pantheism relate to the natural sciences;
• How atheisms, atheologies, naturalistic theologies, and religious naturalisms might support democratic and ecological resilience and sustain movements for liberation and justice;
• How new religious movements confront the challenge of atheism and/or provide openings to naturalistic theological and religious alternatives; and
• How American religious and philosophical thought (pragmatism, empiricism, religious naturalism, process thought, etc.) intersects with and diverges from the history of radical or “death-of-God” theology.

These lists of questions and potential paper topics are intended to be suggestive, not exhaustive. Proposals pertaining to the history and promise of religious naturalism, naturalistic theology, and atheology are welcome, as are constructive or critical attempts to define or engage atheism. Moreover, as always, we will consider proposals that do not address the question of atheism but are related to the intellectual traditions that are of special interest to IARPT (e.g., empiricism, naturalism, pragmatism, process philosophy, and liberal theology).

While IARPT meetings have traditionally been structured around paper readings of approximately twenty minutes and a few longer invited keynote lectures, we invite creative approaches to conference sessions. Proposals for panels, debates, discussions, fishbowls, etc. are highly encouraged.

Proposals should contain a descriptive title and a brief (no more than 500 words) but informative and readable description of the paper to be presented, with some indication of why the proposer considers the paper to be an important contribution. Proposals should also include a brief (150-word) biographical sketch of their authors.

All proposals should be sent in Word format to the program chairs: Dan Ott (ottdj@earthlink.net), LeRon Shults (leron.shults@uia.no), and Demian Wheeler (dw2343@utsnyc.edu). The deadline for submissions was March 15, 2022.

The conference schedule is available here.

Register for the conference here. Reserve your hotel room here. Other important logistical information (conference location, maps, public transportation, restaurants, etc.) is available here.