St Andrews to host one of its biggest-ever academic conferences

This summer, more than 800 leading academic minds in religion and theology from across the globe are set to visit St Andrews for what will be one of the largest academic conferences ever held in the town. 

The 2023 Annual Conference of the European Academy of Religion (EuARe), which runs from Monday 19 to Friday 23 June, is organised by the St Andrews Encyclopaedia of Theology within the University of St Andrews and hosted in partnership with Australian Catholic University.  

It will also be the first time the European Academy of Religion conference has been held in the United Kingdom. 

The theme for this year’s gathering is ‘Religion from the Inside’, discussing the difference an internal perspective makes to the study of religion. Keynote lectures on this theme will be given by Professor David Brown, Emeritus Professor at St Andrews School of Divinity; author, teacher and speaker Dr Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg; Dr John Makransky, a pioneering researcher and teacher of Buddhism;  Professor Lejla Demiri, Chair in Islamic Doctrine at the University of Tübingen; and Professor Diwakar Acharya of the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies of the University of Oxford. 

As in previous years, the conference programme will comprise panels showcasing presenters’ research and meetings of scholarly associations, as well as the presentation and critique of new significant books in the field. The week will see more than 150 academic panels and around 600 individual papers. 

Dr Brendan Wolfe, Conference Chair and Principal Editor of the St Andrews Encyclopaedia of Theology, said: “The EuARe 2023 local organising committee looks forward to welcoming delegates from around the world to this exciting gathering. Some of the world’s best scholars in religion and theology will reconfigure the discipline in their discussions and debates. We are pleased that, for the first time, scholars, students, practitioners, and other interested parties will come together in St Andrews for this important event.” 

During the week-long event, four smaller partner conferences will also take place: Music: The Most Spiritual of the Arts from 19 to 21 June; the first annual conference of the Cusanus Society UK and Ireland on 20 and 21 June; the UK Association for Buddhist Studies annual conference from 21 to 23 June; and Christoph Schwöbel: Theology in Conversation, celebrating the late Professor Schwöbel’s contributions to Christian theology, on 22 and 23 June. 

Other events in the conference week will include a ceilidh and the staging of ‘Lives of the Buddha: A Staged Reading of Early Chinese Buddhist Scriptures’ at the Byre Theatre. The University will also be opening its collection of religious manuscripts for viewing. Over the course of the week, Tibetan Tashi Lhunpo monks will be visiting and creating a sand mandala, progress on which can be viewed at any time by any delegate, while a sand mandala closing ritual will conclude the conference. On the evening of Thursday 22 June, the monks will also offer a colourful cham performance, for which tickets are available to the public.