Phenomenology and Revelation
Seminar and Conference 2023

Welcome to the Phenomenology and Revelation
Seminars and Conference 2023

Conference Registration

August 16-19, 2023

Phenomenology and Revelation 2023 is hosting a Seminar and Conference at the Retreat & Conference Center at the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception in New York.

The problem of ascertaining whether a particular experience or event is revelatory—given by the divine—is a crucial issue in both theology and philosophy of religion. Can experiences of God be distinguished from other sorts of “transcendent” or elevating phenomena (e.g., aesthetic ones), and what might be the characteristics of such experiences? Is God revealed or manifested in a particular way that can be identified? Is revelation a specific and unique experience that has a certain shape or identifiable structures? Various hermeneutic and phenomenological approaches raise such questions in new ways that challenge and broaden the propositional accounts of revelation given by much contemporary religious epistemology and theology. Phenomenology, in particular, examines the structures of understanding and experience in order to unfold their particular nature or kind (Wesen), explicating their distinct characteristics, and distinguishing them from other kinds of phenomena. Bringing hermeneutic and phenomenological insights to bear on discussions in contemporary religious epistemology and theology enriches and widens narrow conceptions of revelation and presents new opportunities for unfolding how God is manifested.

The larger project on hermeneutics and phenomenology of revelation is designed to foster a collaborative community of scholars across traditional disciplinary boundary lines and to invest in the formation of younger scholars to contribute actively and collaboratively to the study of religious experience and phenomena of revelation, thereby widening the horizons of current theological approaches and bringing new perspectives to bear on it.

To contribute to this broader project, the University of Munich last year (August 2022) hosted summer seminars and a conference on the topic “Hermeneutics of Revelation.” This year (August 2023), Fordham University is hosting two similar events in New York on the topic Phenomenology and Revelation. The intensive seminar for a select group of 10-12 junior scholars will be followed by a larger conference open to scholars from any background or discipline.

The mornings of the seminars will feature “masterclasses,” taught by senior scholars in the discipline, followed by afternoon discussions of the papers prepared by the seminar participants.

For more information, please contact:  gschwandtner@fordham.edu.