[ecrea] Congress in Harvard, 7-8 june 2012

WORKSHOP III: The Media and the Process of Secularization of Society
Chair: Mercedes Montero and Mónica Codina (Universidad de Navarra)
e-mail: (mmontero /at/ unav.es)

Gramsci proposed the conquest of civil society through the material
transformation of their cultural foundations. His main objective was the
creation of a new fully secularized common sense to replace the
traditional, based on religious and metaphysical content. The tools to
achieve this would be media, film, theater and educational
organizations. In these institutions, key positions would be held by
organic intellectuals, in charge of building the new culture and
introducing it to the masses. The proletarian revolution and the control
of the means of production were no longer the state’s competition. Now
it is task, was to lead the Cultural Revolution and gain the means to
produce and spread culture. Thus, from the 70's and 80's, social
democratic governments abandoned the struggle in the economic and labor
fronts to focus on the cultural conquest of society, in materialistic
code. It was important to gain an extensive and benevolent public
opinion of the new ideas they wanted to establish.
These theories of Antonio Gramsci have been the basis of some processes
of secularization developed in various countries of Europe and Latin
America. In this sense, the role played by media and leftist
intellectuals, has been critical.
This workshop invites all those researchers who would like to submit a
paper on historical examples of secularization processes led by the media.

7th. – 8th. June 2012
At Harvard University

RELIGION AND CIVIL SOCIETY: THE CHANGING FACES OF “RELIGION” AND
“SECULARITY”.
An international conference convened by the Culture and Society
Institute of the University of Navarra and to be held at Harvard
University Law School

Keynote speakers:
Mary Ann Glendon (Harvard University)
Rafael Alvira (Universidad de Navarra)
Carmelo Vigna (Università Ca Foscari de Venezia)
Allen Hertzke (University of Oklahoma)
Jan Bethke Elstain (University of Chicago)
Robert Royal (Institute for Faith&  Reason, Washington, D.C.)
Russell Hittinger (University of Tulsa)

CALL FOR PAPERS
We invite proposals for presentations (maximum length: one page), along
with a short CV (maximum length: two pages), by April 15, 2012.
Papers will have a reading time of 20 minutes. A selection of abstracts
will be made and the authors will be notified by the end of April.

WORKSHOP I: Religious Freedom in Contemporary Juridical Context
Chair: Francisca Pérez Madrid (University of Barcelona)
e-mail: (fperez_madrid /at/ ub.edu)

This Workshop invites all those researchers who would like to submit a
paper on topics related with religious freedom or with contemporary
examples or problems related to religious freedom in a particular
juridical order. Both systematic papers and those focused on one
particular author or a particular juridical context will be accepted.

WORKSHOP II: Medieval Political Theology: theory and practice.
Chair: Jaume Aurell (University of Navarra)
e-mail: (saurell /at/ unav.es)

The topics of interest to be covered in this Workshop include, but are
not limited to:1) Theory on the concept of Political Theology: Medieval,
Early Modern, Modern. 2) The practice, historical evolution and forms of
political theology in Medieval Europe: The royal symbolic space: the
court; Royal ceremonies and their symbolic value: coronations,
self-coronations and the secularization of royal power; Visual elements
of royal symbolism: emblems and royal signs; The anthropological
dimension of royalty: festivals; The contestation ofhegemonic royal
political theology: the critique of the crusades; The iconology of royal
power: the fracture of the royal seal; Royal image: political and
theological symbolism; Liturgy; The theological and symbolical power of
literary and historical discourses.

WORKSHOP III: The Media and the Process of Secularization of Society
Chair: Mercedes Montero and Mónica Codina (University of Navarra)
e-mail: (mmontero /at/ unav.es)

Gramsci proposed the conquest of civil society through the material
transformation of their cultural foundations. His main objective was the
creation of a new fully secularized common sense to replace the
traditional, based on religious and metaphysical content. The tools to
achieve this would be media, film, theater and educational
organizations. In these institutions, key positions would be held by
organic intellectuals, in charge of building the new culture and
introducing it to the masses. The proletarian revolution and the control
of the means of production were no longer the state’s competition. Now
it is task, was to lead the Cultural Revolution and gain the means to
produce and spread culture. Thus, fromthe 70's and 80's, social
democratic governments abandoned the struggle in the economic and labor
fronts to focus on the cultural conquest of society, in materialistic
code. It was important to gain an extensive and benevolent public
opinion of the new ideas they wanted to establish.
These theories of Antonio Gramsci have been the basis of some processes
of secularization developed in various countries of Europe and Latin
America. In this sense, the role played by media and leftist
intellectuals, has been critical. This workshop invites all those
researchers who would like to submit a paper on historical examples of
secularization processes led by the media.

WORKSHOP IV: Liberalism, Capitalism and Religion
Chair: Raquel Lázaro (University of Navarra)
e-mail: (rlazaro /at/ unav.es)

There are only few societies in which religion has not played a role,
even a central one. When this has been the case, however, it is easy to
see that politics tends unavoidably to assume the role proper to
religion. Taken as a social category, religion is some kind of practical
knowledge about the origins and the end, i.e. knowledge of the totality,
some kind of revelation about the ultimate meaning of things. For that
reason, the political system that does without religion and, at the same
time, pretends to rule people’s life, surreptitiously takes on the form
of a religion. Some have thus characterized Marxism, for instance.
Political liberalism and capitalism, however, did not pretend in their
beginnings to wipe off religion from social life, but to use it. The
form of capitalism which has its starting point in the 18th century with
Adam Smith attributes great importance to the presence of religion in
commercial societies. For him, the existence of religions –in plural– is
desirable and useful for society, because they reinforce morality,
without which no society can live in its optimal condition. And, on the
other hand, if there are many religions and none of them gathers the
majority of citizens, there will be no religious power that competes
with political power.Moreover, early modernity and the Enlightenment
redefined the spheres of religion and politics so that they their
objects are different and their functions tend to part more and more.
The interesting point is to find out which kind of religion a liberal
and capitalist society tolerates and also which role religion is
recognized in the social space. To speak about religion is to refer to
the existence of God. To speak about political or economical power is to
refer to the Caesar. This tension is as old as history: What must be
given to God and what to the Caesar? But it also poses the question
about God’s intervention in history: How is He present in temporal
reality? Does he rather set society in motion, and then society builds
itself alone? The idea of God is not alien to the idea of man and
society. Nowadays, the question of identity is vital and religion plays
again a fundamental role. Which answer do liberalism and capitalism give
to these basic topics? Which form did that answer take in America and
Europe? Which model did civilizations in the West adopt in the past
centuries? Have liberalism and capitalism preserved any traits of
Christianity, which inspired them? This workshop invites all those
researchers who would like to submit a paper on any of the referred
questions, or related ones. Both systematic papers and those focused on
one particular author will be accepted.

Thanks!!
Mercedes Montero


----------------
ECREA-Mailing list
----------------
This mailing list is a free service from ECREA.
---
To unsubscribe, please visit http://www.ecrea.eu/mailinglist
---
ECREA - European Communication Research and Education Association
Postal address:
ECREA
Université Libre de Bruxelles
c/o Dept. of Information and Communication Sciences
CP123, avenue F.D. Roosevelt 50, b-1050 Bruxelles, Belgium
Email: (info /at/ ecrea.eu)
URL: http://www.ecrea.eu
----------------