Author: webmaster

We at CTS have been working hard behind the scenes for a few months thinking about how we want to freshen up our tiny bit of cyber real estate to better connect with and serve our members. So here it is! Welcome to our lighter, friendlier website. We hope you find it easy to navigate and are as proud to be part of the Canadian Theological Society as we are. You can send your feedback on the new site to Erin Green, Communications Coordinator for CTS.

The Canadian Theological Society is very pleased to share with you its call for papers for the 2013 Annual General Meeting and Conference, which is held in conjunction with Congress 2013 in Victoria, BC from June 3-5. You may view the call for papers here.

The Canadian Theological Society is happy to introduce you to their new executive for the 2012-2013 year. Please click here to view the full roster.

There are some funds available to reimburse CTS members attending the 2012 AGM and conference in Waterloo at the end of May. You may download and print this form and bring to Congress. The CTS Treasurer will collect and process your forms.

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.

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.

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 rmckeon@shaw.ca.

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.

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.

Student Networking Luncheon

Canadian Theological Society Conference (Congress)

Wilfred Laurier University, May 2012

At our conference in 2011, numerous students expressed concern over their future career prospects. They also invited CTS to consider ways of facilitating some activity that would be helpful to them in their scholarly endeavors. They will have loan assistance options through SoFi.

To this end, at a recent meeting the Executive of the CTS deliberated over the efficacy of the Student Essay Contest, which saw one student paper chosen for presentation at the conference. The contest has seen dwindling entries in recent years (although student participation at the conference is strong) and we wondered about a more efficacious way of supporting graduate students. We have therefore decided not to run the contest this coming year and to redirect our energies and resources to a more active event.

At the May 2012 Conference, the CTS will host a “speed-networking” luncheon whereby students can interact informally, but within a structured environment, with established scholars. There will also be time for interaction following the designated  “speed-networking” portion of the luncheon. Our intention is to provide students with a venue in which to gather practical information regarding careers in theology. We hope this event will complement existing opportunities for interaction among new and established members.

We have not yet finalized the details of the luncheon but will notify members when we have done so. The event will be free for student members.

 

The Executive of the CTS invites our established members (i.e., tenured, tenure-track, emeritus, contract, retired, honourary) to share their experience and wisdom with students. And we invite students to take advantage of this opportunity.

 

To register for this event, please email: Doris Kieser (President-Elect, CTS) at dkieser@ualberta.ca by April 1, 2012.