Justo Mwale Universiy (JMU) & University of Zambia (UNZA) – Department of Religious Studies Joint Conference 2016

Call for Papers: Religion and Society in the Contemporary Context of Zambia and Southern Africa

Justo Mwale University and UNZA Department of Religious Studies will host a conference on Religion and Society from Wednesday 6^th to Saturday 9^th April 2016 at the premises of Justo Mwale University located in Chamba Valley, Lusaka. Conference participants will arrive on Wednesday and depart on Saturday morning. The conference will explore the relationship between religion and society, and in particular the place of religion within society in the contemporary context of Zambia and Southern Africa. The conference will look at this question from both a religious studies and a theological vantage point. It will investigate our concepts of religion and their developments, and how to theologically evaluate the changes over time in that respect, focusing in particular on the current context of Christianity in Zambia and Southern Africa.

VENUE: Justo Mwale University, Plot 19-Sub-E-609, Chamba Valley-Munali Rd, P.O. Box 310199, Lusaka

The conference theme Religion and Society in the Contemporary Context of Zambia and Southern Africa will cover the following questions: – How does religion’s place within society determine what we take religion to be? – What is the impact of the declaration of Zambia as a Christian nation on religious education? – How is the place of religion within current Southern African society different from the position of early Christianity within the Greco-Roman society; and what are the implications of this difference? – To what extent is the place of religion in current Southern African society informed by African Traditional Religion’s perspective? – How does religion in the current Southern African society relate to politics? – How does religion in the current Southern African society relate to business? – If a ministry is viewed as a business or investment opportunity, should we still call it religion?

More details about the conference will follow later. Click here to read the PDF file.

Please send your abstracts (max. 250 words) before 21^st February 2016 to: hermen.kroesbergen@gmail.com

Note: Reverend Justo Mwale was the first Zambian to be pastor in the Reformed Church in Zambia (from 1929). Since the church’s theological training moved to Lusaka at the end of the 1960s, the institution has opened its doors to other churches, brought the academic standards and accreditation to an internationally accepted level, contextualised the curriculum, expanded its infrastructure and built relationships with a multitude of similar institutions, churches and individuals. In 2008 the Zambian Ministry of Education awarded Justo Mwale Theological College university status. By expanding the student numbers through additional academic programs the institution was renamed Justo Mwale University in 2015.