CEU Interdepartmental Forum on Religion

CEU Interdepartmental Forum on Religion

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Central European University
Budapest

Born of a desire to address the lack of a forum for bringing together intersecting themes of religion and scientific understanding and addressing concerns recurrent in research and teaching experiences, the Interdepartmental Forum was founded to foster discussion of the “overt or covert religious, theological and spiritual implications” of the work of a group of academics in philosophy, medieval studies, history, social anthropology, political science, philosophy of science, and others. Combining discussion, public lectures, academic events and open reading groups, the Forum reaches out to practitioners of science of various denominations, students, graduate students, and the interested public. The effort utilizes the expertise of researchers of established projects along with distinguished visiting speakers and scientific practitioners to explore ways in which “scientific theory draws implicitly or explicitly on resources of allegedly “non-scientific” ideas and backgrounds. Some of the topics include rationality and belief, humanity’s common good and belief, and the normativity of religion and science. The group also supports the development of a library and publication of printed versions of contributions to the program, and seeks the possibility of a university-wide doctoral seminar combining practitioners, students, and experts in fields of science and religion. Matching funds are provided by the Central European University Humanities Center.