International Conferece on Cultural, Political, Socio-Economic, Artistic and Architectural Expressions of Religion aims at debating the religious phenomena from a plural perspective in the framework of humanities, social sciences, art and architecture. The focus of the conference is therefore not religion as theology, but religion as a multifaceted and plural social phenomenon. Places is used in a multi-semantic way, encompassing conceptual constructions, social structures, artifacts, and the actual physical places of human architecture.
Religion and its constructions – Places – are fundamental for the understanding of human societies. It is even possible to argue that no known human organised group is (or has ever been) "immune" to the religious phenomenon. Human knowledge and human understanding of “nature” (physical nature, spiritual nature, human-body nature) was, and is, oftentimes done via religious discourses and markers, which will all be named ‘places’ of religion in this conference. Places, in this sense, is applicable both to material and intangible constructions, to objects, buildings and ideas.
All those testimony a common and intertwined human religious heritage and therefore are worth common analysis. Because religion and its expression is a complex process, Places of Faith 2018 aims at including a broad range of perspectives on the theme: from faith itself, to social, political, economic, cultural, artistic and architectural constructions having the religious phenomenon as key-factor. Scientific events gathering scholars, researchers and academics with on-going work on religion are privileged moments for sharing experiences, problems, questions and conclusions. Places of Faith 2018 aims at building a rightful place among those events.
Places of Faith 2018 intends to keep the discussion within the academic realm introducing the following as main topics: 1- Religious phenomena as expressions of faith; 2 - Religious equity; 3 - Religion an social structures; 4 - Religion and Politics; 5 - Religion and economics; 6 - Religion and tourism; 7 - Religious heritage; 8 - Sacred Art, Music and Literature; 9 - Sacred architectural spaces: their meaning, evolution, transformation and adaptation. Authors intending to submit papers to Places of Faith 2018 are encouraged to address one of the topics of the Conference by providing evidence of research achievements or ongoing research work. The Conference will welcome papers and presentations on field work, case studies and theoretical approaches to any of the above-mentioned topics.
