———————– Last Call for Papers ———————–
INDIAN RELIGIONS AND THE CONCEPT OF GOD
Special Issue of SOPHIA: International Journal of Philosophy and Traditions
Guest editors: Ricardo Silvestre, Alan Herbert and Purushottama Bilimoria
Deadline for Submission: November 30, 2022
https://www.logicandreligion.
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Although Western philosophy of religion has developed many useful exegetical and philosophical tools for evaluating Abrahamitic conceptions of God as they apply to respective philosophical traditions, there is a growing awareness that such monotheistic Western approaches might conceal and prohibit a culturally sensitive and philosophically adequate appreciation of the numerous concepts of God found in religious traditions outside of the Western hemisphere. This awareness, which is part of the motivation beyond what is known as cross-cultural philosophy of religion, encompasses both the need for and the encouragement of new dialogues between Western philosophy of religion and non-Western traditions as a means to foster a deeper mutual understanding of the variety of concepts of God or the divine developed in the history of humankind.
Divinity in some Indian religions, such as Vaiṣṇavism, Śaivism and Śak
Accepting that there are different conceptions of divinity among the Indian religious and philosophical traditions, we are then behoved to pose this question: how can these concepts of God be philosophically characterized? What divine properties does any given tradition ascribe to its divinity? Can this divinity be described in a consistent way? Or is it a contradictory concept? If the concept is contradictory, how would this affect its intelligibility? Does any of those concepts of God have some advantage over traditional philosophical accounts of God? How do they relate to well-known accounts of God, such as those of classical theism, pantheism, panentheism, process theism, open theism, etc.? And what are the difficulties peculiar to these Indian concepts of God?
This special issue of Sophia: International Journal of Philosophy and Traditions (https://www.springer.com/
– God in Indian religious traditions.
– Divine attributes and Indian concepts of divinity.
– Indian concepts of divinity vs. western concepts of God.
– Atheistic or agnostic arguments against the coherence of Indian concepts of God.
– Vaiṣṇavism/Śaivism/Śaktism: monotheistic, panentheistic or what?
– Language and God in Indian traditions.
– Divinity and Hindu deities.
– Relation of the divine with the world: creation and difference/non-difference.
– Consciousness and Indian concepts of divinity: cosmopsyshism, panenpsychism or what?
Papers should be submitted through Sophia’s Editorial Manager (https://www.springer.com/
The special issue will be guest-edited by Ricardo Silvestre, Alan Herbert and Purushottama Bilimoria. It is scheduled to be launched in the beginning of 2024. There will be an online conference on March 2023 related to the special issue. Authors who want to make sure their papers fit into the special issue might send an extended abstract (no more than 900 words) to ricardoss@ufcg.edu.br or al
The special issue is one of the outcomes of the project “Philosophical Approaches to the Vaiṣṇava Concept of God”, funded by the John Templeton Foundation via the Global Philosophy of Religion Project (https://www.logicandreligion.