The Future of Religion and Conflict

301 E Orange St,Tempe AZ 85281

19 January, 2023

Description

What have we learned about religion and conflict over the last 20 years, and what does the future hold? As the Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict begins its 20th anniversary year, John Carlson reflects on these questions. Using two important timestamps—September 11, 2001 and January 6, 2021—he considers how the assumptions and conclusions that emerged in relation to the terrorist attacks of 9/11 have been replicated—yet also upended—by the 1/6 attack upon the U.S. Capitol. Both events raise deep and significant questions about the presumed dangers of religion and its threat to democracy, in the United States and beyond it. Charting several features of the topography of religion and conflict, Carlson assesses whether our conceptual frameworks, civic vocabularies, and scholarly tools are adequate to the challenges we now face. In anticipation of another momentous event—the 60th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, delivered on August 28, 1963—Carlson offers a proposal for moving some of the tortured legacies too often associated with the landscape known as “religion and conflict.” About the SpeakerJohn Carlson is director of the Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict and associate professor in the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies at ASU. A scholar of religious ethics, his research explores how religious and moral inquiry informs and invigorates our understanding of political life. Carlson has written on issues of war and peace, religion and violence, justice and human rights, democracy and civic life, and a variety of social and political issues, domestic and international. The coeditor of three books, his most recent volume is “From Jeremiad to Jihad: Religion, Violence, and America.” He has served as principal and co-principal investigator on projects funded by the Henry Luce Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the American Council on Learned Societies, and other agencies. He is currently co-director (with Tracy Fessenden) of Recovering Truth: Religion, Journalism and Democracy in a Post-Truth Era, and co-produces a podcast of the same name. This event will take place in the Memorial Union Alumni Lounge (MU 202), ASU Tempe campus, and will be live-streamed through the Center's YouTube channel and ASU Live.