Literature and Religion Symposium
Textual Intersections: Imagining Religion / Religious Imagining
All Hallows Campus, Dublin City University, November 7th 2025
Convened by Eugene McNulty (School of English) and
Brad Anderson (School of Theology, Philosophy, and Music)
Keynote Speakers:
Alison Jack (School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh)
Gail McConnell (School of English, Queen’s University Belfast)
Call For Papers:
The organisers invite proposals for papers exploring the intersections of literature and religion. While welcoming papers engaging with the Irish context specifically, the organisers are also keen to encourage proposals that take a comparative international framing, or indeed that take as their focus writing from across the globe and across historical periods. It is envisaged that papers will be 20 minutes in length; proposals for preconstituted 3-paper panels are also very welcome.
In spite of their importance to Irish society, culture, and history, the relationship between literature and religion – their imaginative co-dependencies and contestations – has received less recent critical attention than one might expect. This symposium seeks to explore the complex interrelationship of these two broad areas, probing the diverse ways in which these key domains of the human experience have intersected, both in the past and the present, and not just in the Irish context but those generated by broader global engagements.
Some questions that such concerns prompt: what has shaped the use of religious tropes and ideas in Irish literature, from Joyce, to Heaney, to Enright? In what ways has literature been used to strengthen religious or political identities? Or conversely, how has literature used religious ideas to push back against dominant frameworks, challenging religio-political norms and orthodoxy? How does Irish engagement with these issues compare to the use of similar themes elsewhere? More broadly, what does the complex relationship of religion and literature contribute to our understanding of history, society, and notions of identity?
For the purposes of this symposium, we are taking a broad-ranging approach to the themes under discussion: while Irish literature is framed as emerging from the island or taking Ireland as a central concern, we do not seek to limit contributions to the Irish context only. Likewise, religious themes are those which relate to the sacred texts, theologies, beliefs, practices, and socio-cultural engagement of religious traditions (including Christianity, but engagement with other religious traditions would be particularly welcome).
Paper proposals of 250 words are welcome from, but not limited to, these areas:
- the intersection of religion and the literary imagination in fiction, poetry, drama in Ireland and beyond
- literature and authors that engage with religion, theology, or religious tropes as a key theme
- literature that challenges religious norms, orthodoxy, etc.
- the interaction between Irish literature and broader global literatures on the theme of religion and theology
- literature that engages with diverse religious and theological traditions: Judaism, Islam, Buddhism etc.
- religious themes and practices and their portrayal in literature – e.g., religion and AI, sin and evil, grace and mercy, religious practices and rituals, beliefs
- religious settings in literary texts
- religious texts as literature
- literary interpretations of religious texts (especially where the interpretative practice is shaped by the Irish context)
- interactions between literary theory and religious texts
Please send proposals, or general enquires, to both organizers at:
by May 30th 2025