* Call for Papers *

*Care Ethics, Religion and Spiritual Traditions*

Feminist Care Ethics has received extensive attention in a variety of
fields over the past quarter century including political science,
philosophy, education, social work, sociology and more.  Surprisingly given
that virtually all mainstream religions hold care and compassion as a major
tenet, there has been relatively little discussion of Care Ethics in the
field of Religious Studies.  *Care Ethics and Religion *will be a volume of
original essays that fills this intellectual gap.  Editors  Maurice
Hamington, Carlo Leget, Inge van Nistelrooij, and Maureen Sander-Staudt
invite papers on the topic of Care Ethics and religious teachings,
traditions, identities, practices, practitioners, as well as atheism and
humanist spiritual traditions.  All contributions should engage feminist
Care Ethics as exemplified by scholars such as Marian Barnes, Carol
Gilligan, Nel Noddings, and Joan Tronto. Prospective contributors should
submit a 500 word abstract to [log in to unmask] by April 15, 2019.


*Description*

Care Ethics is a moral theory and interdisciplinary field of studies/enquiry,
rooted in relations of interdependency and universal human needs for care.  The
ethic departs from moral theories such as Utilitarianism, Kantianism, and
Neo-Liberalism in critiquing their individualistic, rationalistic, and
abstract elements as distortions of lived human lives.  Care Ethics
postulates that humans are universally born in need of embodied and
social-psychological care, making care ontologically prior to moral
concerns such as justice.  Despite the universal need for care which makes
care-giving an essential practice without which human life would cease, the
ethic situates care giving practices in particular places, times, and
identities.  Given the extent to which care giving overlaps with richly
diverse religious and spiritual identities, beliefs, rituals, and
traditions, this volume seeks to expand the field of Care Ethics to
consider how religion, construed for global religious and secular
audiences, potentially enhances but can also destabilize the goals of care.


The editors of this anthology invite critical commentary and analysis on
how religion, both organized and less formally arranged, may facilitate or
erode the normative goals associated with Care Ethics.  To the extent that
many religions recognize the human and embodied need for care, and valorize
the moral obligation to give and take care as having a divine component, it
is sometimes the case that religious practices enrich care.  At the same
time, as a feminist ethic, Care Ethics is well situated to uniquely
critique and question a wide variety of religious motifs, practices, and
teachings in light of how well they do and do not succeed in completing the
goals of care in ways that are competent and just.  This volume seeks to
initiate discussion of the possible affinities and strains between Care
Ethics and religion, broadly construed, and to indicate areas in need of
future study.


*Possible questions/topics may include but are not limited to*:

   - How does religion contribute to caring identity and practice?
   - Care as a gendered and intersectional religious theme
   - Queering care ethics and religion
   - Spiritual violence and care
   - Care, religion and sexuality
   - Care as a marginalized, disenfranchised, and appropriated concept in
   religion
   - Care and religion as slave moralities
   - Are caring virtues also religious virtues, and the converse?
   - Ideal syntheses of care ethics and religion/spirituality
   - Care-ethical and religious perspectives on precarity and compassion
   - Care as a religious motif
   - Care ethics, atheism and secular humanism
   - Care ethics and non-supernatural spiritual traditions (e.g. Buddhism,
   Taoism)
   - Care, religion, and anthropocentrism/relations with the natural world
   - Care as instrument of religious colonialism and oppression
   - Religion as catalyst for care completion and social equity
   - Care ethics and theology on love and compassion
   - Care ethics as a critique of religious theory and practice
   - Coping with suffering, death, and loss
   - The role of embodiment in religion and care
   - Contested concepts: care, love, compassion in religion
   - Care and God; the divine; good/evil; heaven/hell; the afterlife

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