Saving the Sacred in a Secular Age:
Conference Program

All sessions will be held in the Symposium Room (INTS 1113). Note that some of the papers are available for download.

Friday

  • 10:00–10:30 Coffee and bagels in the Symposium Room
  • 10:30–10:45 Welcome and introductory remarks
  • 10:45–11:45 Session 1: Howard Wettstein, “The Significance of Religious Experience”
  • 11:45-1:00 Buffet Lunch in the Round Lab
  • 1:00–2:00 Session 2: Craig Calhoun, “Rethinking Secularism”
  • 2:00–2:15 Break in the Round Lab
  • 2:15–3:15 Session 3: Iain Thomson, “Taylor, Heidegger, Nietzsche: Transcendence and the Problem of Otherworldly Nihilism”
  • 3:15–3:30 Break in the Round Lab
  • 3:30–5:30 Keynote Address: Charles Taylor, “Modes of the Sacred in the Post-Axial Age”
  • 5:30–6:00 Reception in the Media Lab
  • 6:00–7:30 Dinner at Arroyo Vista
  • 8:00–9:30 Being in the World in the Screening Room (INTS 1128)

Saturday

  • 11:00–11:30 Coffee and bagels in the Symposium Room
  • 11:30–12:30 Session 4: Hubert Dreyfus and Sean Kelly, “Luring Back the Gods” and “Lives Worth Living in a Secular Age”
  • 12:30–1:45 Buffet Lunch
  • 1:45–2:45 Session 5: Albert Borgmann, “The Sacred and the Person”
  • 2:45–3:00 Break in the Round Lab
  • 3:00–4:00 Session 6: Peter Gordon, “Must the Sacred Be Transcendent?” [See also this review, which touches briefly on the themes addressed in the presentation.]
  • 4:00–4:15 Break in the Round Lab
  • 4:15–5:15 Session 7: Tu Weiming, “Confucianism as Spiritual Humanism”
  • 5:15–5:30 Break in the Round Lab
  • 5:30–6:30 Session 8: Ivan Strenski, “Religion, Civil Society, and the Secular Study of Religion”
  • 6:30–7:00 Reception in the Media Lab