Religionswissenschaft info

Conference of the International Consortium for Research in the Humanities

25–27 January 2010, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany

This conference of the BOCHUM INTERNATIONAL CONSORTIUM FOR RESEARCH IN THE HUMANITIES “Dynamics in the History of Religions between Asia and Europe” investigates the process of formation and transformation of eastern and western religions during the time of their emergence. In the dynamics of this process, trade plays an important role. Along national and international routes of trade different cultures and religions are brought into contact with one another. In this context, various ideas and religious “commodities” are exchanged – “offered”, “negotiated” and “bought”. This leads to expansion and densification as well as amalgamation of religions.

The conference “Trading Religions” aims at providing new avenues into the world of religious dynamics by focusing on four elements or “commodities” of religious interchange. The first section of the conference will look at the Topology of Religious Space. A “topology” of religious spaces and places encompasses a wide spectrum of both real and imagined geographies and cosmologies which have developed at sites of cross-cultural exchange between East and West (e.g. temples and wayside shrines; supramundane realms of heavens and hells). The second section concentrates on Religious Symbol Systems which make a religion visible, different and identifiable. One of the main factors in densification is the establishment and the reproduction of religious symbols as the media of religious beliefs. Religious symbol systems are shaped gradually in cultural exchanges and encounters by various forms of adaptation and transformation. This also holds true for Religious Knowledge, the topic of the third section. When religious knowledge travels to a new environment, a dynamic reaction is put into motion whereby former wisdom is challenged by the new unfamiliar knowledge. At the same time it is itself transformed and reappraised in its new religious, social or cultural surroundings. As all three elements have an effect on religious-ethical living, the last section will give attention to Religious-Ethical Ways of Life. Individual expressions of spiritual life, ethical convictions and other forms of prescribed conduct are formed and transformed in dialogue with differing religious and ethical traditions. A plenary discussion at the end of the conference will draw upon all four elements in order to point forward to a fresh perspective on the dynamics of the formation and transformation of religions.

Monday, 25 January 2010

• 13.30 h: Conference Registration
• 14.15 h: Welcome, Volker Rabens, Conference Organiser, Bochum, Germany
• 14.20 h: Address, Volkhard Krech, Comparative Religion, Bochum, Germany
• 14.30 h: Introduction, Peter Wick, New Testament, Bochum, Germany
• 15.00 h: Section 1: Topology of Religious Space (Chair: Jörg Plassen, East Asian Religions, Bochum, Germany), Transformation of a Ritual Site: Udayagiri and the Gupta Kings, Michael Willis, South Asian Art History, London, U.K.
• 15.35 h: Mapping the ‘Buddhakshetra’ of Gotama at Sacred Bodhgaya, Abhishek Singh Amar, South Asian Religions, London, U.K.
• 16.10 h: Coffee Break
• 16.45 h: The Greek Buddhists of Asia: A Case Study in Reciprocal Assimilation, Georgios Halkias, Oriental Studies, Oxford, U.K.
• 17.10 h: Localizing the Buddha’s Presence at Wayside Shrines: Stūpa Images, Donative Inscriptions, and Buddhist Narratives in Northern Pakistan, Jason Neelis, South Asian Buddhism, Gainesville, Florida, USA
• 17.55 h: Buddhist Influence on Spatial Concepts in Thirteenth-Century Korea: Focusing on Samguk yusa (Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms), Myoungin Yu, Korean Studies, Bochum, Germany
• 18.30 h: Discussion
• 19.15 h: Dinner
• 20.15 h: Keynote Lecture: Together with the Grain Came the Gods from the Orient to Rome, Christoph Auffarth, Comparative Religion, Bremen, Germany

Tuesday, 26 January 2010

• 9.00 h: Section II: Religious Symbol Systems (Chair: Christian Frevel, Old Testament, Bochum, Germany), Ancient Religions as Symbol Systems, Izak Cornelius, Ancient Studies, Stellenbosch, South Africa
• 9.45 h: Nanaja and her Symbols in East and West, Joan Goodnick Westenholz, Assyriology, Chicago, USA
• 10.30 h: Coffee Break
• 11.00 h: Snakes as Ancient Near Eastern Symbols in Cross-Cultural Contact, Rosel Pientka-Hinz, Assyriology, Marburg, Germany
• 11.45 h: Transfer and Transformation of Religious Beliefs between Iran and Central Asia during the Bronze Age, Sylvia Winkelmann, Near and Central Asian Archaeology, Halle, Germany
• 12.30 h: Discussion
• 13.15 h: Lunch (Mensa)
• 14.30 h: Section III: Religious Knowledge (Chair: Stefan Reichmuth, Islamic Studies, Bochum, Germany), Revising the Vulgate: Jerome and his Jewish Interlocutors, Görge Hasselhoff, Church History, Bochum, Germany
• 15.15 h: Zoroastrianism in the Talmud: The Case of Hannukah, Geoffrey Herman, Ancient Jewish Studies, Jerusalem, Israel
• 16.00 h: Coffee Break
• 16.30 h: The Concept of God according to Umayyah b. Abi Salt, Al Makin, Islamic Studies, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
• 17.15 h: The Place and Role of Astronomy in Sunni Kalam Works from the Tenth to the Fourteenth Centuries, Damien Janos, Islamic Studies, Bochum, Germany
• 18.00 h: Discussion
• 19.00 h: Dinner (in Bochum)

Wednesday, 27 January 2010

• 9.00 h: Section IV: Religious-Ethical Ways of Life (Chair: Peter Wick, New Testament, Bochum, Germany), The Buddhist Transformation of Daoism, Livia Kohn, Religion and East Asian Studies, Boston, USA
• 9.45 h: Hellenism as the Right Way of Life, Erich Kistler, Archaeology, Bochum, Germany
• 10.30 h: Coffee Break
• 11.00 h: Moral Reasoning between Hebrew Bible and Greek Thought: Philo of Alexandria as an Agent of Religious Transformation, Volker Rabens, New Testament, Bochum, Germany
• 11.45 h: New Testament Ethics and Jewish Tradition in Cross-Cultural Perspective, Loren Stuckenbruck, New Testament, Princeton, USA
• 12.30 h: Discussion
• 13.15 h: Lunch (Mensa)
• 14.30 h: Plenary Discussion: Religious Formation, Transformation and Cross-Cultural-Exchange (Chair: Christian Frevel, Old Testament, Bochum, Germany)
• 16.30 h: End of Conference

Conference Organisation

Dr. Volker Rabens
International Consortium for Research in the Humanities “Dynamics in the History of Religions between Asia and Europe”, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, GA 8/62; Universitätsstrasse 150, D-44780 Bochum, Tel: +49 (0)234-3228513 / -3228103 (secretariat), Email: volker (.) rabens (at) rub (.) de

Attendance of the Conference is free of charge; meals can be purchased at the University Mensa

Registration

Please register by 15 January 2010 in writing (preferably e-mail) if you wish to attend the Conference. It is also possible to attend individual sessions and days of the Conference without registering.

Accommodation

Accommodation will not be provided. Here is a suggestion of hotels that offer bed and breakfast:

• Hotel Ibis Bochum Zentrum, Universitätsstrasse 3, D-44789 Bochum, Tel: (+49)234/33311, Fax: (+49)234/3331867
• Hotel Ibis Bochum City, Kurt-Schumacher-Platz 13-15, D-44787 Bochum, Tel: (+49)234/91430, Fax: (+49)234/680778
• Hotel Aleppo, Nordring 30, D-44787 Bochum, Tel: (+49)234 58 83 80, Fax: (+49)234 5 88 38 29

Arrival

By plane or train: From Düsseldorf Airport via, or directly from, Bochum Hauptbahnhof (Central Station) take the U35 towards Bochum Querenburg (Hustadt) and get off at stop »Ruhr-Universität« (Ticket needed: Preisstufe A). The Veranstaltungszentrum is right behind the Audimax.
By car: Motorway A 43, interchange “Bochum-Witten”, exit at “Bochum-Querenburg/Universität” (exit no. 19). Universitätsstraße direction Universität/Zentrum, exit at “Uni - Mitte”, about 2 km. Free parking is signposted.