Where Philosophical and Religious Reflection Comes to Life

In 1970 Boston University's Department of Philosophy, Department of Religion, and School of Theology founded the Institute for Philosophy and Religion as a home for serious philosophical and religious reflections on the deepest questions about life and the world around us. Under the directorship of Prof. Lee Rouner, who was the leading light of the Institute for over twenty years, the Institute became one of the premier locations on the American academic landscape for interdisciplinary conversation about perennial (and pressing) intellectual concerns. Past lecturers and participants include Karen Armstrong, Robert Bellah, Wendy Doniger, Jean Bethke Elshtain, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Charles Hartshorne, Bernard Lonergan, Jürgen Moltmann, W.V. Quine, Christopher Ricks, Paul Ricoeur, Ninian Smart, Huston Smith, Robert Thurman, and Elie Wiesel.

Each year the Institute sponsors a lecture series on issues that cross the boundaries between different academic disciplines and between scholars and the educated public. Past topics have included “Courage,” “Loneliness,” “Civility,” “Life, Death, and Immortality,” “Responsibility,” and “Evil.” In 2006-2007, the series will address three interweaving themes. First, the discussion of evil from the previous two years will come to a close with the “Deliver Us from Evil” series, which will feature lectures by Bruce Lawrence (Duke University), Brook Ziporyn (Northwestern University), Alan Olson (Boston University), and Jeffrey Mehlman (Boston University). Second, the Institute will launch a new initiative with the series “Thinking Through the Dharma: Fundamental Concepts in Buddhist Thought.” Lecturers will include Steven Collins (University of Chicago), Charles Hallisey (University of Wisconsin, Madison), Janet Gyatso (Harvard University), and Parimal Patil (Harvard University). Finally, the Institute will sponsor a lecture (by Roger Ames, University of Hawai’i) and a conference for younger scholars (plenary speakers: Charles Taliaferro, St. Olaf College, and Richard Kearney, Boston College) that will address “The Future of the Philosophy of Religion.”

In addition to the annual lecture series, conferences, and symposia, the Institute publishes the Boston University Studies in Philosophy and Religion in partnership with University of Notre Dame Press and Lexington Books.