Rational Theism and the Public Square

I got a request to post an ad for the following upcoming event, being held on the anniversary of Pope Benedict’s famous Regensburg lecture. Since its goals match those of this site, I’m happy to do so.

‘A reason which is deaf to the divine and which relegates religion into the realm of subcultures is incapable of entering into the dialogue of cultures,’ asserted Benedict XVI in his controversial Regensburg address of 12 September 2006. On the anniversary of that lecture, McGill University will host a forum entitled:

PLURALISM, POLITICS, & GOD? AN INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON RELIGION AND PUBLIC REASON

McGILL UNIVERSITY, MONTREAL

13-15 SEPTEMBER 2007

Papers will be presented by some 50 scholars from around the world. Debates will be held on topics such as “Religion, Rights, and the State”, “Reasonable Accommodation”, and “Religion, Sex and the City,” with distinguished panelists including Gregory Baum, David Blankenhorn, Justice David Brown, Marci Hamilton, William Gairdner, the Hon. Michael Ignatieff, the Hon. Jason Kenney, Margaret Somerville, Katherine Young, and other well-known public intellectuals from inside and outside McGill. John Witte Jr will deliver a Beatty Memorial Lecture and Nicholas Adams a Claude Ryan Memorial Lecture.

This symposium is sponsored by the Newman Centre and co-sponsored by the Faculty of Religious Studies (Pluralism, Religion and Public Policy project), with support from the Beatty Lectures Foundation and from the Faculties of Arts. For more information please visit the conference web site.