PolyphonicThinking about the Divine

A Symposium in Honour of Dr. Maurice Boutin(McConnell Emeritus Professor of Philosophy of Religion, McGill University)

About Maurice Boutin

Since 1991, Maurice Boutin has been John W. McConnell Professor of

Philosophy of Religion at McGill University. Dr. Boutin taught Philosophical Theology at the University of Montreal from 1972 on. He received a State Ph.D. from the University of Munich, Germany, with a dissertation published in 1974 in the series Beiträge zur evangelischen Theologie with the title Relationalität als Verstehensprinzip bei Rudolf Bultmann (Munich: Chr. Kaiser

Verlag – Relationality as Understanding Principle in R. Bultmann’s Thought). Since 1975, he has been a member of the International Colloquiums on Hermeneutics (Rome, Italy) founded by Enrico Castelli. From 1981 to 1987, he has been President of the Canadian Corporation for Studies in Religion. Dr. Boutin has published articles in German, French, Swiss, American, and

Canadian journals and chapters in books in Germany, Italy, France, Canada, and the US. Since June 1st 2010, he is John W. McConnell Professor Emeritus of Philosophy of Religion, McGill University.

Sponsored by:THE  FACULTY  OF  RELIGIOUS  STUDIES

CREORMcGILL  CENTRE  FOR  RESEARCH  ON  RELIGION  

CENTRE  DE  RECHERCHE  SUR  LA  RELIGION

Philosophy of religion, once a monolithic and seemingly rigid discipline of analyzing topics such as God’s existence, the problem of evil, religious language and experience, has become far more diversi!ed in character and in scope. Polyphonic is the catchall of this form of thinking, which may be more accurately described in terms of ‘polygraphic’ in deference to Derrida and the tradition critical of ontotheology.

Continental re"ection is tropical in nature, interrupting the tendency to straightjacket thought by the otherwise excellent heritage of the Enlightenment. The desire to siphon insight into manageable packets of information, propositions, is subverted in the name of historicality and !nitude. A polyphonic, then, is variegated; it is, discontinuous, too, in the sense not of being simply erratic but of marking a break with a tradition that desires diachrony, continuity, and uni!cation.

November 12 5:00 p.m.November 13 9:00 a.m.

12 November 5:00 p.m.

Gabriel Vahanian Professor Emeritus, Université de Strasbourg and Syracuse University

Hard to Soft:The Fallacy of Identity Pegged on Shifting Grounds fromReligious to Would-Be Neutered Cultural Obscurantism

13 November 9:00–10:30 a.m.Joseph C. McLelland

McConnell Professor Emeritus of Philosophy of Religion, McGill UniversityDivine Impotence

Michelle RebidouxMemorial University

A Sense of the Other: Intelligibility and Carnality in Levinas’ Ethics

James Mark ShieldsBucknell UniversityZange and Sorge:

Models of ‘Concern’ in Comparative Philosophy and Religion

13 November 10:45–12:15Scott A. Halse

Centennial CollegeMethod and Interpretation in the Study of Religion:

The Case of Bernard Lonergan

Arvind SharmaBirk’s Professor of Comparative Religion, McGill University

Can We Continue to Use the Word `Religion' with Impunity?

Jim KanarisMcGill University

Enekstasis: A Disposition for our Times?

13 November 1:30–3:00

Richard R. WalkerWilfred Laurier University

The Owl of Minerva in Chains:Critical Thinking in Post-Secondary Education

David KoloszycMcGill University

On Relations without Relations: Religion and the Labor of Meaning

Nathan LoewenVanier College

Doing Philosophy of Religion as Glocal Losers

13 November 3:15–5:30Douglas John Hall

Professor Emeritus of Christian TheologyReligion and Faith in Barth, Bonhoeffer, and Tillich

Herb GruningCanisius College

Religion and Science: Thinking Divine Action

Christian Saint-GermainUniversité du Québec à Montréal

Devoir la vie: survivre à son père?

Sylvain DestrempesInstitut de Formation Théologique de Montréal

Deictics and the Relation to God

WINE RECEPTION 5:30 p.m.

Polyphonic Thinking about the Divine