Pragmatism and Empiricism in American Religious Thought Print

Call for Proposals

This Group particularly solicits papers on the following themes:

  • Intersections, conflicts, and affinities between pragmatism, nationalism, and American exceptionalism
  • Pragmatism and gender; i.e., what are the implications of discourses of gender in the tradition and for the tradition?
  • Discussions of pragmatism, politics, and grassroots democratic movements
  • The relationship between pragmatism and the work of Reinhold and/or H. Richard Niebuhr
  • The roots of pragmatism in late ninteenth century Chicago progressivism — such papers might include, but need not be limited to, Jane Addams’s work at Hull House, Dewey, Tufts, and Mead at the University of Chicago
  • Pragmatist and feminist discourses as paradigms for doing ethnography
  • Pragmatism, empiricism, and religious naturalism

Panel proposals are also welcome.

Mission

To foster the advancement and understanding of the pragmatic and empiricist traditions in American religious thought, as well as the intersections of those traditions with other methodologies, intellectual figures, artistic movements, communities, and issues. This Group is concerned with critically interrogating, evaluating, and developing the insights and relevance of the pragmatic and empiricist traditions of American thought, broadly construed, for the study of religion and theology, with attention both to historical interpretation of ideas and contemporary developments within this critical sphere of philosophical and theological reflection. Recent areas of interest include pragmatism and democracy, the continued relevance of empiricism to the revival of pragmatism, multidisciplinary aspects of the tradition (intersections with other fields of inquiry), overlaps with cultural criticism and analyses of gender and race, and the application of pragmatic and empiricist analyses to contemporary problems.

Anonymity of Review Process

Proposer names are visible to Chairs but anonymous to steering committee members.

Questions?

Beth Eddy
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
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William David Hart
University of North Carolina, Greensboro
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Method of Submission