Gregory D. Alles
Slow Translation and the Study of Religions: Promise and Perils
Religions 360°
Five world-renowned professors come to the Religions360 Congress in Bucharest
Between 20 and 25 September, Bucharest hosts one of the largest international gatherings dedicated to the study of religions. The event brings together more than 700 papers, presented by researchers from 58 countries across six continents, representing over 300 academic and research institutions.
Among the congress's distinguished guests are five of the field's most important international voices — Gregory D. Alles, Carole M. Cusack, Almut-Barbara Renger, Jens Schlieter and Michael Stausberg — who will offer keynote lectures on themes that raise cardinal questions in the history of religions, perennial or innovative, with the Religions360 perspective.
From the myths of Antiquity and religions inspired by pop culture to Buddhism, sacrifice, violence and the value of human life, the Religions360 programme explores the transformations of religion and the ways it continues to shape culture and society. Through its international scope and the diversity of its themes, the congress offers a wide-angle perspective on religion in the contemporary world and on how it is researched, interpreted and understood today.
The presence of the five keynote speakers makes Religions360 an academic event of international standing and offers the Romanian public the chance to meet, in person, researchers who are helping redefine how we understand religion in the twenty-first century.
Carole M. Cusack
Huizinga and Goffman Walk into a Bar: Play and Performance in the Creation of Religion
Almut-Barbara Renger
A 360° View of Mindfulness: Religious Concepts in Motion
Jens Schlieter
The Carnism School: Animal Sacrifice, Vegetarianism, and the Justification of Violence in the Study of Religion
Michael Stausberg
The values of human lives: Chips from a history of human sacrifice
Five perspectives. One dialogue on the history of religions at the centre of twenty-first-century societies.
By bringing these five researchers together, Religions360 offers a truly “360°” perspective on historical and contemporary religions. From the myths of Antiquity to the invented religions of pop culture, from Indian, Asian and global Buddhism and contemporary ethical questions to sacrifice, violence and modern theories of religion, the congress's themes cross epochs, continents and academic disciplines. Three professors from Europe, joined by one from Australia and another from the United States, attest to the Congress's global character — all five names dominating the contemporary publishing landscape.
Religions360 does not aim merely to present religion in its isolated historical coordinates, but to ask decisive questions about religious transformations, about the generalist and comparative interpretation of religions and the strategies for interpreting them — and about what these tell us about the society we live in.