**CALL FOR PAPERS (by 17th May please)** Conference: Religious Dynamics in Contemporary Conflicts

Religious Dynamics in Contemporary Conflicts

The Armed Forces’ Chaplaincy Centre, Beckett House, Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, Faringdon Road, Shrivenham, Swindon, SN6 8LA

The annual Religion and Defence conference is sponsored by the Armed Forces’ Chaplaincy Centre (AFCC), part of the UK Defence Academy, and is hosted at Beckett House within the Defence Academy’s Shrivenham campus. The conference is organised in conjunction with the International Network for the Study of War and Religion in the Modern World, which was established to promote greater communication and collaboration among academics, practitioners, and military professionals working in the field of war and religion.

The conference programme will consist of plenary addresses, panel discussions, and the presentation of papers from delegates. Each year the organisers identify themes of topical interest within Defence and academia and we encourage participants to reflect on these in relation to their submissions and contributions throughout the conference.

Download the information here: 19-21 June 2024 Conference CFP

Plenary Addresses:

• Chaplain Rostyslav Vysochan (Armed Forces of Ukraine), ‘Chaplaincy in a time of total War– lessons identified’
• Dr Lidiya Lozova (University of Exeter), ‘When Icons Speak of War: social ethos of iconography and the Russian aggression against Ukraine’

Discussion Panels:

• ‘Religion, War and Politics’
• ‘Contemporary Just War Considerations: Ethics, Weapons, and Decision Making at the Technological Edge’
• ‘Moral Injury’
• ‘The Role of Chaplaincy’

Key participants

• Revd Nicola Frail, Royal Army Chaplains’ Department
• Dr Alastair Lockhart, Churchill College, University of Cambridge
• Dr Gina Palmer, US Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island
• Dr Maria Power, Blackfriars Hall, University of Oxford
• Dr Brian Powers, International Centre for Moral Injury, Durham University
• Canon Professor Michael Snape, Durham University

The conference will be hosted by the Principal and staff of the Armed Forces’ Chaplaincy Centre.

Call for Papers

The conference encourages scholarly discussion of all subjects that can illuminate the conceptual, ethical, pastoral, and historical aspects of the relationship between religion and war. Irrespective of their format, the Conference invites presentations which engage with religious and spiritual traditions understood in the widest sense, and scholars of all relevant disciplines –and of all faiths and worldviews, including Humanism– are warmly invited to contribute. There is no constraint on geographical or national range. 

There are two different options for the presentation of papers by conference delegates. There is the opportunity for twenty-minute main papers (c. 2500 words, plus ten minutes of discussion) and five-minute ‘lightning papers’ (c. 750 words, plus five minutes of discussion) which focus on items held by the Royal Army Chaplains’ Museum – Faith in the Forces (Note: for ‘lightning papers’ a select catalogue of the Museum’s collection can be obtained from the Museum Curator, Mr David Blake: David.Blake@da.mod.uk).

It will be possible for main speakers to deliver their papers remotely. Paper proposals and abstracts (300 words for twenty-minute papers, 150 words for ‘lightning papers’), should be submitted by Friday 17 May 2024 via https://tinyurl.com/rel-dyn-conflicts