Conference Schedule & Abstracts – Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences in Waterloo, May 2012

The Canadian Theological Society has finalized conference schedule and proceedings. This includes room bookings and a complete roster of abstracts for all the great papers that you can hear at Congress this year!

To see a PDF version of the Conference programme, please click here.
To see a PDF version of the Conference programme with abstracts, please click here.

Newman Lecture: Is the ‘Intelligibility of Religious Language’ Debate Dead?

Professor William Sweet of St. Francis Xavier University has sent along the title and abstract for his Newman Lecture, which will be offered during the 2012 AGM in Waterloo, ON at the end of May. We are very much looking forward to a busy few days at Congress and Professor Sweet’s talk will no doubt be a highlight of our time together. Hope to see you there!

Is the ‘Intelligibility of Religious Language’ Debate Dead?

One standard argument in Anglo-American philosophy of religion of the last half century is that religious language is unintelligible or not cognitively meaningful. Many have regarded such an argument as problematic, but the current status of the debate is not clear. Arguably this is, in part, because relatively little consideration has been given to explaining how religious language is intelligible. I review some of the history of this philosophical debate, note some contributions from recent discussion in theology on this question, and propose how one might defend the intelligibility of religious language.

Travel Subsidies

Each year the Canadian Theological Society receives funding from SSHRC to assist with travel and campus accommodation expenses at our Annual CTS Conference at the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences. Presenters, especially students, are a high priority for the allocation of these funds. Generally, in past years, CTS has been able to cover at least half of the eligible travel and accommodation expenses for students presenting papers at CTS who have for applied to CTS for this assistance. Travel subsidy forms will be available this year at the conference. Only CTS members are eligible for travel subsidies. For further information, please contact Bob McKeon, CTS Treasurer, by email at < email hidden; JavaScript is required >.

2012 CTS Programme

The CTS annual conference and meetings is taking place in Waterloo, Ontario as part of Congress 2012. Please click here to see a draft schedule of the conference papers, panel presentation, meetings and social events for 2012.

Jay Newman Memorial Lecture

The Canadian Theological Society is happy to announce that Professor William Sweet is confirmed for the 2012 edition of the Jay Newman Lecture in the Philosophy of Religion. Sweet is Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Centre for Philosophy, Theology and Cultural Traditions at St Francis Xavier University, Nova Scotia, Canada. He is a member of the Faculty of Graduate Studies at the University of Ottawa, and an Adjunct Professor in the graduate programmes at Saint Paul University, the Dominican University College (Ottawa), and at the University of New Brunswick.

He is a Past President of the Canadian Philosophical Association, the Canadian Society of Christian Philosophers, and the Canadian Jacques Maritain Association. He currently serves as President of the World Union of Catholic Philosophical Societies, as President of the Istituto Internazionale Jacques Maritain (Rome), and as a member of the Steering Committee of the Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie.

Jay Newman was former president and long time member of CTS. He was a prominent Canadian scholar with a keen interest in the philosophy of religion. He authored 11 books, seven of which related to religion or the religious life. He was a member of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Guelph from 1971 until his death on June 17, 2007. Professor Newman left a bequest to CTS for the purpose of endowing an annual lecture in the Philosophy of Religion. It is his generosity that enables us to sponsor this annual lecture.