21-23 October 2026: International Conference "Experimenting Philosophy of Religion"
What it is about
Actual problems and critical situations – such as ecological crisis and political disruption – have more and more shown the need for a thought that can be effective, but nonetheless not all-encompassing. This conference proposes "experimenting philosophy of religion" as field, method and a performative mode of exchange: a practice of inquiry that acknowledges precarity and embraces provisional possibilities of thinking. We treat "experiment" in its full sense: trial, risk, and iterative testing, where concepts are articulated, confronted, and, when necessary, allowed to fail. Experimentation is not external to philosophy of religion but constitutive of it, insofar as the field opens possibilities for creating what is other – new conceptual and practical configurations – while attending to how these emerge within existing disciplines. We convene multiperspective approaches to pressing questions in politics, ecology, and aesthetics: What perspectives does the philosophy of religion offer on the climate crisis? How can these insights inform political and social practice? How do aesthetic experiences and approaches reflect philosophical-religious research, and vice versa?
For registration or questions, please contact xphilrel.2026(at)univie.ac.at:
Program
Day 1 - 21.10.2026
17.00 Public Keynote Lecture by Sebastian Gäb (Munich): “Now what? Philosophy of Religion at the Crossroads”
18.30 Podium Discussion with Jakob Deibl, Sandra Lehmann, Moritz Maurer, Miriam Metze and Christoph Rogers on “Issues, challenges and perspectives of Philosophy of Religion”
20.00 Performance by Noemi Call (Vienna): A Guest in Con-fusio: A Performance on Staying with Uncertainty in Philosophy of Religion
Place: Dean‘s Hall of the Faculty of Catholic Theology, Main Building of the University of Vienna, 2nd Floor, 2nd Staircase
Day 2 - 22.10.2026
9.00 Panel 1 - Politics & Society with Ida Simonsson (Stockholm)
9.15 Emil Lusser (Vienna): When Religious Language Fails Well: Neurodiversity as an Experiment in Philosophy of Religion
9.50 Yinuo Sheng (London): Arendt’s Augustinian Experiment: The Stranger and the Limits of Theology
10.25 Break
10.40 Daniel Lazar (New York City): An Eschatology of Peace: Weak Messianic Ethics Against Elimination
11.15 Konstantin Schmidtbauer (Rome): Indwelling, Petrified, Covenantal, Abdicated: Divine Withdrawal and Delegated Sovereignity in Franz Janowitz‘s Poetry
11.50 Malwina A. Tkacz (Trnava): Affliction Before Rights: Simone Weil and the Religious Foundations of Ecological Justice
12.30 Lunch Break
13.30 Panel 2 - Ecology & Nature with Ana Honnacker (Hildesheim)
13.45 Miriam Rafai (Vienna): From Creation to Redemption – a Jewish Approach towards Environmental Responsibility
14.20 Francesco Scagliusi (Freiburg): How Do Climate Activists Experience Time? A Philosophical Analysis from the Perspective of Heidegger’s Reading of St. Paul
14.55 Break
15.10 Rolando Vitali (Vienna): Agency of matter and Pantheism: Thomistic Debates and Contemporary Problems
15.45 Jan Andres Hartmann (Berlin): Hybrid Playgrounds. Myth, Mixture, and the Problem of Mediation
16.20 Nina Braccini (Torino): Re-semanticising Nature: Ecological Imaginaries and Religious Vocabulary in Hindu Traditions
16.55 Break
17.15 Theresa Gavin (Munich): Chat Church - Who knows and who believes? Faith for every Player
Place: Dean‘s Hall of the Faculty of Catholic Theology, Main Building of the University of Vienna, 2nd Floor, 2nd Staircase
Day 3 - 23.10.2026
9.30 Sebastian Seidl (Vienna) & Johanna Schön (Leipzig): Hospitality as the Taste of Shared Worlds. What does hospitality taste like when it becomes political, ecological, or aesthetic?
12.30 Lunch Break
13.00 Panel 3 - Arts & Aesthetics with Labinot Kelmendi (Prishtina)
13.15 Laura Fumagalli (Zürich): Wonder in the Age of Climate Change: Between Aesthetic and Religious Experience
13.50 Zella Ludolph (Amsterdam): Crucified Meat: The Material Spirituality of Gilles Deleuze
14.25 Break
14.40 Miranda Bonfil (Berlin): Cosmophagic Variations on Christian Temporality
15.15 Maria Calabretto (Toulouse): Is the Image still capable of creating a Liturgical Experience?
15.50 Sofiia Kungurtseva (Vienna): “Wisdom Hath Built Her House” (Prov. 9:1): Sophiology in Orthodox Iconography and Theological Thought
16.25 Max Heirens (Vienna): Veiling Truth: Semblance and Nakedness in Walter Benjamin’s Goethes Wahlverwandtschaften
Place: Elise-Richter Saal, Main Building of the University of Vienna, First Floor
We especially thank Sam Geiger, Miriam Metze, Leka Salihu, Peter Schneider, and Sebastian Seidl for organizational help and their scientific support!
Poster designed by: Sigmund Hutter
Artwork by: Eliška Jahelková
The conference is organized with the support of the Vienna Doctoral School of Theology and Research on Religion (VDTR), the Research Center “Religion and Transformation” (RaT) and the “Austrian Research Association” (ÖFG) and in cooperation with the “Deutsche Gesellschaft für Religionsphilosophie” (DGR).