July 9-14, 2017, The Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies, Amman, Jordan

The purpose of this conference is to provide a forum for philosophical and theological work by Muslim and Christian philosophy or theology graduate students and early career professors.

Sponsors

• The Kaufman Interfaith Institute
• The Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies

Workshop Leaders

• Kelly James Clark, “God and the Brain” Kaufman Interfaith Institute, Grand Valley State University, USA
• Nidhal Guessoum, “Science and Theism”, American University of Sharjah, UAE

Call for Papers

Submissions are restricted to Muslim graduate students and early career professors from any middle eastern country as well as from Morocco, Egypt, Algeria, Turkey, Pakistan and India. Papers must be in English and have philosophical or philosophical-theological (as opposed to, say, purely historical or scientific or exegetical) content (suggested topics below). Electronic submissions (.doc or pdf) are required and should be sent as an attachment to Sue Spears at spearss@gvsu.edu. Submissions should include both the paper and an abstract of 100-200 words. Papers should be 2500-3000 words and prepared for anonymous review. Please include the following in the body of the email:

1. Author’s name
2. Paper’s title
3. Institutional affiliation (if any)
4. Word count

Submission deadline is May 31, 2017. Papers will be reviewed by the conference planning committee. Notification of acceptance will be made via email by June 7. We will cover both travel and conference expenses for all accepted presenters.

Suggested Topics

We are aiming more for critical reflection than historical or exegetical constructions of the following issues.

Issues in theism: theistic arguments, rationality and religious belief, the problem of evil, God and morality, the metaphysics of theism (omnipotence, omniscience, immutability, etc), divine authority, free will, human nature, mind-body, miracles, realism/anti-realism, religious experience

Issues in Islamic theology: revelation, the afterlife, the revealed attributes of God, prayer, natural and revealed law, mysticism, the nature of itjihad, faith, philosophy of language, justice, religious diversity

Issues in science and religion: evolution-creation, free will, cognitive science of religion, fine-tuning, the soul, divine action, scientific and religious explanations, human nature, randomness and providence

For further information, contact Professor Kelly James Clark at clarkell@gvsu.edu.

Workshop Schedule

July 9

Dinner

July 10

Morning workshop: Kelly James Clark, “God and the Brain: the science of the mind and the rationality of belief/unbelief

Afternoon: presentations by accepted participants

Evening: banquet

July 11

Morning workshop: Kelly James Clark, “God and the Brain: the science of the mind and the rationality of belief/unbelief

Afternoon: presentations by accepted participants

Evening: banquet

Public Evening Lecture: Nidhal Guessoum, “Was the Universe Created for Humans?”

July 12

Morning workshop: Nidhal Guessoum, “Cosmology and Theism”

Afternoon: presentations by accepted participants

Public Evening Lecture: Kelly James Clark, “Strangers, Neighbors, Friends: Muslim and Christian reflections on compassion and peace”

July 13

Morning workshop: Nidhal Guession, “Evolution and Theism”

Afternoon: presentations by accepted participants

Evening: Closing banquet

July 14

Departures

Speakers’ biography

Kelly James Clark

Kelly James Clark is Senior Research Fellow at the Kaufman Interfaith Institute at GrandValleyStateUniversity. Kelly has taught at Oxford University, the University of St. Andrews and the University of Notre Dame. He is the author, editor, or co-author of more than twenty books and author of over fifty articles. Most relevant to this project are his Abraham’s Children: Liberty and Tolerance in an Age of Religious Conflict (Yale University Press) and Religion and the Sciences of Origins (Palgrave-Macmillan). He writes a blog for the Huffington Post on issues at the intersection of religion and politics and on issues in science and religion.

Nidhal Guessoum

Nidhal Guessoum is an astrophysicist. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of California at San Diego and spent several extended periods as a researcher at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. He is currently Professor at the American University of Sharjah, UAE. In addition to his technical papers, Prof. Guessoum has published many articles on issues related to science, education, the Arab world, and Islam, and authored or co-authored several books, including: The Story of the Universe – from primitive conceptions to the Big Bang (in Arabic, 4 editions) and Islam’s Quantum Question – Reconciling Muslim Tradition and Modern Science (IB Tauris, 2011).