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H-ASIA
Nov 18 2009
Conference on “Trading Religions” Religious Formation, Transformation and
Cross-Cultural Exchange between East and West
***********************************
From: Volker Rabens <volker.rabens@rub.de>
Conference of the International Consortium for Research in the Humanities
“Trading Religions” Religious Formation, Transformation and Cross-Cultural
Exchange between East and West
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 I: 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@rub.de
www.ikgf-religions.de
*Fees*
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.
***********************************************************************
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