#CFP: Political Theologies of Tradition and Rootedness
Political Theologies of Tradition and Rootedness
April 5-7, 2027 - New College, University of Oxford
Download the full call for papers (PDF)
The seventh Political Theologies conference invites reflection on the significance of tradition(s) and rootedness as mediators of the past, the present, and the future. How does political theology engage and contest tradition? How does political theology shape beliefs, practices, and imaginaries of tradition, and how is it shaped by tradition in turn? What makes tradition significant, useful, or problematic as a source of community and knowledge? What is the significance of tradition in the context of democratic resilience and geopolitical transformations?
Practices of historical retrieval and ressourcement can help to interpret and illuminate our current moment and afford ways of imagining otherwise. Yet appeals to history and tradition can also confer authority on selective accounts of the past, silence countervailing memories and experiences, and narrow the range of political possibilities in the present. Appeals to tradition are therefore sites of political agency, capable of sustaining civic renewal and animating shared pursuit of the common good, but also of legitimating reaction, exclusion, and domination.
Key Questions
- What practices of retrieval, reconstruction, or immanent critique might contribute to the renewal of contemporary political life?
- What alternative histories of the intersection of religion and politics need to be recuperated or told afresh?
- Which neglected traditions, marginal voices, or ways not travelled invite renewed attention?
- What new traditionalisms and futurisms are being constructed in our time, by whom, and to what ends?
- What stories have been told, and should now be told, about democracy, including its fragility, resilience, and conditions for flourishing?
- What kinds of political agency are exercised through claims of traditional authority? How are precedents and resources from the past selected, interpreted, included, or omitted?
- What is involved in the political theology of collective memory, or practices of remembering and forgetting?
Paper proposals and panel suggestions are invited from scholars in theology and religious studies, political theory, politics, sociology, anthropology, law, history, philosophy, and other relevant disciplines. Papers may explore these questions from a range of geographical, cultural, religious, or ecumenical contexts, as well as from normative, descriptive, and critical standpoints.
Submissions and Key Dates
Submit a proposed paper title, a short abstract of approximately 200 words, and a short biography through the submission form by November 30, 2026.
- Proposal deadline: November 30, 2026
- Decisions expected: December 22, 2026
- Short conference briefs due: March 15, 2027 (approximately 2,000 words)
- Conference: April 5-7, 2027
Associated Events
Graduate students applying for the conference may also be considered for the Postgraduate Pre-Conference, held on the morning of April 5, 2027.
A college dinner will be hosted on the evening of April 6, 2027. It will be available as an optional item at registration and is open to speakers and attendees.
Travel Bursaries
A limited number of travel bursaries may be offered to speakers, strictly based on need. Travel costs will be considered only in exceptional circumstances, and applicants must make a strong case that no other funding is available to them.
Requests for bursaries must be emailed to [email protected] by November 30, 2026. Requests for support will not affect the selection process.
Funding and Conference Series
The conference is funded by the Landecker Foundation; the McDonald Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Life at the University of Oxford; the Inez and Julius Polin Institute for Theological Research; and the Chair in Public Theology and Ethics at VU Amsterdam.
The Political Theologies conference series grew out of the Protestant Political Thought project, hosted at the Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford, and continues as part of the Landecker Lectureship âImagining Sacred Landsâ at the University of Cambridge. The project has featured workshops and conferences that have led to collaborative publications, including in The Journal of the Bible and its Reception (2021), Religion, State, Society (2022), and the edited collection The Many Faces of Christianism: The âRussian Worldâ in Europe (2025).
Contact
For more information, contact:
- [email protected]
- Marietta van der Tol: [email protected]
- Sam Tranter: [email protected]