11/07/2025 08:30
- 15:00
HALL: Erika Weinzierl Hall
Proponent:
Mügge C.,
Schlenker C.
Chair:
Schlenker C.,
Stoppel H.
Speaker:
Balázs J.,
Baron G.B.,
Durgun Badat A.N.,
Harmsen M.,
Jäger S.,
Mügge C.,
Schlenker C.,
Stoppel H.
The International Working Group on Religion and Utopia proposes a panel that engages with the descriptive and normative potentials of religious imaginaries and utopias that help shape both our understanding of the environment and our vision for environmental transformation.
Although no unified concept of « utopia » exists, it always blends critical and constructive aspects by envisioning alternative futures. It can trace its roots from literature to critical theory to eschatological imagination. The duality of critique and construction gains weight in times of environmental urgency.
Many religious traditions even offer visions of a harmonious (eschatological) future with nature, be it the metaphor of the heavenly Garden or images of human-animal-peace. These and other religious imaginaries can either hinder social transformation, critiqued famously by Karl Marx as the opioid of the people, or drive its liberation, as seen in movements such as feminist theology, liberation theology, religious socialism and ecotheology. At the same time, conservative religious movements may reject transformative efforts as dangerously « utopian » or unrealistic.
Utopian thinking offers tools to analyze how these imaginaries shape contemporary understandings of the environment. Through critique and reimagination they might help to configure transformative action, breaking open seemingly closed pathways.
By examining the intersections of religion, utopia, and environmental transformation, this panel aims to illuminate the profound influence of eco(theo)logical imaginaries on transformative action today.
We invite scholars from any discipline to contribute theoretical reflections on utopian thinking or explore its practical applications in addressing current ecological and environmental challenges.