​​​​​​Call for Papers

The Center for the Study of Conversion and Inter-​Religious Encounters (CSoC) invites you to submit a proposal for its 2025 international conference, entitled:

Trauma and Coping with Trauma in World Religions:

Historical and Contemporary Perspectives

The study of trauma, particularly in religious contexts, has gained significant scholarly traction due to the complex ways in which trauma affects both personal and collective identities. Emp​​​​irical studies in psychology and religions have demonstrated that faith plays a significant role in helping individuals and communities cope with trauma. Through theological interpretations, personal prayer and established rites, religious traditions and religious leaders provide mechanisms to process grief, loss, and disorientation. Religious scholars provide narratives that transcend individual experiences of trauma, connecting personal suffering to larger cosmological and eschatological frameworks.

Lamentations, commemorative ceremonies, and prayer sessions allow communities to process their shared – recent or historical – trauma. They foster a sense of belonging, communal iden​​​​​tity and collective destiny in the face of suffering. On the other hand, religious interpretations and rituals may prevent thorough working-through of trauma, by offering facile solutions to pain and existential crises. Alternatively, they may command unflinching obedience to a divine will, assign the cause to a demonic agent or channel the pain into aggression towards an "other."

​Traumatic experiences can also transform religious institutions, beliefs, and practices. Historically, the impact of traumatic events such as wars, conquests, natural disasters, forced conversion and exiles has been profound in shaping religious traditions. They led to reinterpretations of sacred texts, the development of new rituals, and shifts in theological doctrines. The Babylonian exile, for instance, catalyzed a major transformation in Jewish religious thought, moving from a temple-centered religion to one that emphasized study, and synagogue worship. Trauma may precipitate mystical movements, providing an alternative spiritual pathway that offers solace and a more immediate connection with the divine, as well as messianic fervor and narratives of redemption. Trauma can lead to religious schisms and the formation of new religious movements. The Protestant Reformation, perceived as an existential crisis within the Church, for instance, splintered Christendom into multiple denominations. Forced conversions during the Spanish colonization of the Americas gave birth to complex religious syncretisms where indigenous beliefs blended with Catholicism. The massacre of Karbala (680) led to the development of Shi`i Islam, and its exorbitant commemoration.

There are instances in which believers claim to act in the name of their faith a​​​​​nd perform trauma inducing actions, such as the interrogations of the Spanish Inquisition, religiously sanctioned rape of Yazidi women by ISIS, the attacks in 9/11.

The study of trauma within world religions requires a multidisciplinary approach, drawing on history, anthropology, sociology, psychology, religious studies, conflict r​esolution, cultural studies, and literary studies. The Center for Religious Conver​​​​​sion and Interreligious Encounters (CSoC) invites scholars from diverse fields to explore the rich interplay between suffering and spirituality in the past and in the present, and how religious traditions not only respond to but are reshaped by traumatic events. The conference will be structured around the following central themes, combining historical and contemporary case studies with religious studies approaches:

• * Theological and scriptural interpretations of trauma

• * Pastoral and communal responses to trauma

• * Trauma and religious identity or dissent

• * Religious narratives, rituals, and practices in the face of collective trauma

• * The commemoration or purposeful forgetting of communal trauma

• * Religion and the infliction of trauma on “others": justifications and critique
  

•  

CSoC can assist with accommodation & board in Be'er Sheva to those that need it, between Monday May 26 and Tuesday May 27, including a thematic excursion on the second half of the last day.

The center will have limited funding for assistance with travel expenses for participants coming from abroad.

Please send sending titles, short bios and 300-500 words abstracts to Ms. Raya Even David at rayaed@bgu.ac.il. Full papers should be limited to 20 minutes.
​

For enquiries regarding academic content, please contact organizing committee members: Dr. Elad Ben David eladbd608@gmail.com, Prof. Jocelyn Cesari jcesari@hds.harvard.edu, Prof. Nimrod Hurvitz nimrod.hurvitz@gmail.com, Prof. Daniella Talmon-Heller.​​