Love: Contemporary Perspectives in Literature, Philosophy, and TheologyUiT-The Arctic University, Tromsø, Norway: September 5-7, 2019

What is love? Why is it so important in our lives? And why should we think about it? The subject of love is of enormous importance to our daily lives, as love sustains us and gives meaning to existence. Yet, love seems to be a theme that is underdeveloped in contemporary research. Whatever the reason for that is, love remains one of the central concepts in the history of Western thought. Not only does philosophy literally mean “love for wisdom,” but the discussion of the theme of love has been part philosophy’s inheritance since the time of Plato’sSymposium. Certainly, the love of God is central to theological reflection, and Biblical as well as philosophical impulses have led to discussions of love within theology, not least in the tradition from Augustine to Kierkegaard. As for literature, the very act of reading seems to rely on a love for stories, and the stories told are very much the occupied with love as it figures in the complicated weave of human lives. 

 

We are happy to have keynote speakers in this conference that have done significant work on love in a contemporary perspective: Jean-Luc Marion, Werner Jeanrond, and Kevin Hart.Assuming that there is still more work to be done to understand love, this conference will focus on new research being done on love and disseminate this research across disciplinary boundaries. We welcome scholars from any discipline, particularly philosophy, literature and theology. Suggested topic for papers are:

 

-          Love and philosophy (essence of love, philosophy as love, love and existence, community, morality) 

-          Love and theology (God of love, love and faith, desire, spirituality, the body)

-          Love and literature (love of reading, portraying love, ethics of reading/love of others)

-          Love across disciplines (politics of love/friendship, loving beyond the human, aesthetics of love)

 

 

We invite abstracts of 300 words. The deadline for submission is April 1, 2019. Please send abstracts, along with name and affiliation to Cassandra Falke:cassandra.falke@uit.no.

 

Paper presentations will be 20-minutes long, followed by 10 minutes of discussion.