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Long one of the School of Religious Studies鈥� principal disciplinary foci, 涩里番鈥檚 program in Philosophy of Religion is anchored by the John W. McConnell Chair in Philosophy of Religion. The Chair was established when the unit itself was founded as a Faculty of Divinity in 1948. It has afforded the Philosophy of Religion a central position in the study of religion at 涩里番. Professors James Sutherland Thomson and Joseph C. McClelland, the first holders of the Chair, were also Deans of the Faculty, before Professors Maurice Boutin and Garth Green held the Chair from 1991-2010 and 2011-2025 respectively. The Chair has long been dedicated to the investigation of historical and systematic relations between European philosophies and Theology.
A wide-ranging discipline, Philosophy of Religion at the School of Religious Studies has traditionally pursued questions concerning the relationship between philosophy and theology, hermeneutical reflection on religious themes, and the importance of method in this connection. The continental tradition has been a principal feature in recent memory, not least for its historic role in hatching the field of religious studies but mostly for its philosophical rigor and scope in examining the religious dimension as key to an understanding of the human condition.
Philosophy of Religion at the School of Religious Studies offers introductory and advanced undergraduate courses that address traditional topics in the field while cultivating forms of philosophizing germane to religious studies. Courses range from the required 鈥淚ntroduction to the Study of Religions鈥� (RELG 207), which traces the history of approaches to the academic study of religions, to the more discipline-specific 鈥淚ntroduction to the Philosophy of Religion鈥� (RELG 341). Advanced courses and graduate seminars are also offered that surface these broad and narrower foci that currently characterize the discipline. Professor Jim Kanaris features this dual aspect in his seminars 鈥淐urrents in Philosophy of Religion鈥� (RELG 535) and the required 鈥淯nderstanding Religious Studies鈥� (RELG 745), which he uniquely describes as 鈥榩hilosophy of religious studies.鈥�
Faculty
Jim Kanaris,听 CAS Associate Professor of Philosophy of Religion
Professor Kanaris focuses on the relation between contemporary, post-phenomenological philosophy and theory of religion.
Strategic Partnership Initiative
In 2014 and 2015, formal partnership agreements with Louvain (Belgium) and with Padova (Italy) were signed: in 2017, another partnership with Strasbourg (France) was finalized. These partnerships afford graduate students access to an international network of leading institutions and scholars in the field, as well as unparalleled research, publication, and professional development opportunities. It is intended that these partnerships will effect a new model of graduate formation in the field. Funded by both internal and external grants, 涩里番 students at both the MA and the PhD levels have participated already in seminars, research exchanges, conferences, and translation and publication projects with colleagues in our partner institutions.
Program Initiatives
In 2015, with the help of a SSHRC Connections Grant, Professor Green co-hosted (with Professor Jean Grondin, Universit茅 de Montr茅al) the International Conference of the Soci茅t茅 Francophone de Philosophie de la Religion, entitled Religion et V茅rit茅: T芒ches et d茅fis d鈥檜ne philosophie de la religion 脿 l鈥櫭e post-s茅culier. Podcasts of keynote addresses by Charles Taylor and Jean Greisch are available and . The proceedings will be published in 2017 as Religion et v茅rit茅: La philosophie de la religion 脿 l鈥櫭e s茅culier (Garth Green and Jean Grondin, eds. (Presses Universitaires de Strasbourg, Collection "Philosophie de la religion," 2017). In 2013, with the help of a SSHRC Research Grant, Professor Kanaris hosted an international conference on the future of philosophy of religion. The proceedings have been published by the State University of New York Press as (2018). In 2010, he also hosted a conference in honor of School of Religious Studies emeritus professor Maurice Boutin. The proceedings were published in 2013 by Brill entitled . SRS also saw two visiting Professorships in the field of Philosophy of Religion, including Prof. Douglas Hedley (2018) and Prof. Sean McGrath (2019). The School of Religious Studies will be hosting the Canadian Society for Philosophy of Religion conference in May 2021.
Graduate Students
Graduate Students meet and present their work regularly in the student-run Philosophisches Seminar that includes both graduate students and faculty members. Current advanced graduate students include the following:
Ph.D.
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Jason Blakeburn (2016-) was a Bishop's and Oikos Scholar at Oklahoma City University where he earned his B.A. in Philosophy and Religion and received a Gold Letzeiser Medal for his work. He was the Dean鈥檚 Fellow at Boston University (in Philosophy, Theology, and Ethics), where he earned his Master of Theological Studies and Master of Sacred Theology degrees, with a thesis entitled "Nothing Matters: Philosophical and Theological Varieties of Nothingness.鈥� He has presented at numerous conferences in the United States, Canada, and Europe. During his Ph.D., he has completed several research fellowships, including 涩里番's Building 21 BLUE fellowship and a research stay at KU Leuven. His dissertation project will chart the development of the F.W.J. Schelling's philosophy of religion as a response to the ontological problem, - "Why is there something and not nothing?" - the concept of nonbeing, and role of religion. |
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Daniel Fishley (2018-), FRQSC Doctoral Award (2020-2024), M.A.:2016 (University of Calgary), MTS: 2018 (University of Toronto). Daniel's research examines the relationship between Christian mystical theology and contemporary Continental philosophy. Specifically, his research seeks to evidence the impact and influence of key Christian mystical themes as expressed in the work of theologians like Meister Eckhart and Pseudo-Dionysius on contemporary philosophers like Slavoj 沤i啪ek and Jean-Luc Marion. |
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Elyse MacLeod (Ph.D. 2018-), holds an M.A. in philosophy of religion from Concordia University, where she studied Quebec鈥檚 鈥榓ccommodation crisis鈥� through the lens of Gadamerian philosophical hermeneutics. Her Ph.D. research focuses on meta-theory in the study of religion, and how this discourse can be critically supplemented by both Philosophical Hermeneutics and Affect Theory. More specifically, her work seeks to offer a hermeneutical/affect-oriented critique of the emerging discipline of interreligious studies and demonstrate how this critique can help further the stated goals of the discipline. Elyse is an FRQSC Doctoral Award recipient, a former oral history fellow at the Museum of Jewish Montreal, and co-editor of the Journal of the Council for Research on Religion. |
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Matthew Nini (2017-) holds an M.A. in Philosophy of Religion (涩里番), during which he was a SSHRC-CGM Fellow. Now a doctoral student at the same university, he has received 涩里番 Tomlinson and Max Stern Fellowships. Nini has participated at numerous academic conferences both in Canada and abroad, and has held research fellowships at the University of Strasbourg (France), and Albert-Ludwigs-Universit盲t (Freiburg-im-Breisgau, Germany). His research focuses on the later philosophy of Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762-1814), one of the central figures of German Idealism, and the new historical trajectory that a re-evaluation of Fichte鈥檚 work inaugurates. |
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Adam Smith听(2019-),MITACS- M.A.; 2019 in听 Philosophy of Religion (涩里番). 涩里番 Arts Graduate Student Research Award (2020).听Adam studies Michel Henry and his context within French philosophy of religion more broadly. In particular, his research is focused on Henry鈥檚 text听L鈥檈ssence de la manifestation听and the sources Henry uses, particularly those drawn from German Idealism and Early Modern French philosophy, to stake out his philosophical and phenomenological positions.听 |
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Recently Completed Supervisory Projects
PhD Doctor of Philosophy
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Hadi Fakhoury (PhD, 2020). "F.W.J. Schelling鈥檚 Later Philosophy of Religion: A Study and Translation of 鈥楧er Monotheismus鈥�" SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship (2015-2018), M.A., 2013 in Islamic Studies (涩里番). H. Fakhoury is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School (2020). |
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Jingjing Li (PhD, 2019); "Same road, different tracks A comparative study of Edmund Husserl鈥檚 phenomenology and Chinese Yog膩c膩ra Philosophy." PBEEE Doctoral Fellow (2013-2018), B.A., East China Normal University (ECNU), M.A., ENS (Ecole Normale Sup茅rieur) - ECNU Graduate Program in Early Modern Chinese Philosophy, OeAD Fellow at the University of Vienna, ECNU Award for research at the University of Copenhagen.听 She has published in both English and Chinese on Yogacara Buddhism, Husserl鈥檚 phenomenology, modern Chinese Buddhism, modern Confucianism, and German idealism (Kant and Fichte). Dr. Li is an Assistant Professor (UD) at the Institute of Philosophy, Universiteit Leiden. |
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Paolo Livieri (Ph.D., 2019) obtained his Ph.D. at the School of Religious Studies with a thesis entitled: "F.H. Jacobi's' On divine things and their revelation.' A study and translation. He is currently JSPS Fellow at the Department of Philosophy, Hosei University (Tokyo, Japan). Ph.D. at the University of Padova (Italy), FQRSC Fellow at 涩里番 (2014-2017), Post-Doc at Aachen University (Germany). Research activities at the Universities of Bochum and M眉nster (Germany), Hosei (Japan), Padova and Verona (Italy). He is author of books, essays, translations and editions in the field of German Idealism. |
Master of Arts
Jacob Benjamins (M.A., 2014); 鈥�Metaphor and Phenomenology of Religion: Paul Ricoeur's Hermeneutics and the Inter-Animation of Discourses.鈥�
Anne-Marie de Vreede (M.A., 2019);"The nature of consciousness in Fichte's philosophy of religion (1804-1806): a blessed life as the vocation of humankind."
Matthew Nini (M.A., 2015; SSHRC M.A. Fellow); 鈥�Analogy as the Foundation of a Transcendental Thomism in the works of Joseph Mar茅chal.鈥�
Adam Smith (M.A., 2019); "Michel Henry's ontology of corpore-l self-knowledge: an interpretation of Philosophie et ph茅nom茅nologie du corps"
Elvira Vitouchanskaia (M.A., 2014; FQRSC M.A. Fellow); 鈥�The Transcendental Idea of 鈥楻eligion鈥�: Kant and Fichte.鈥�
Wawrzyniec Jack Prus (M.A., 2016); 鈥�Materializing Religion: The New Materialism in Religious Studies.鈥�
Post Doctoral
James Bryson (SSHRC Post-Doctoral Fellow), 鈥�Franz von Baader's Philosophy of Religion: A Neo-Platonic Response to Hegelian Idealism.鈥� (2013-2015)
Roberto Formisano (European Union-Marie Curie Post-Doctoral Fellow); 鈥�Kant et Michel Henry: Une ph茅nom茅nologie transcendantale.鈥� (2014-15)
Marina Pisano 听(PhD, Philosophy, University of Cagliari), Globusdoc Graduate Research Trainee, 鈥�What听is Passed Over in Silence in Michel Henry鈥檚 Philosophy鈥�.听(2019-2020)