International Network in Philosophy of Religion
International Research Seminar
Montréal — 25-29 April 2023
Oka Rectory, Québec, Canada
L’Oubli de l’âme
(Forgetting the Soul)
Sublimation of Soul by Tran Tuan, 2016
Everyone nowadays talks about the body, and probably we are right to do so. But what about the soul? Whether in philosophy or theology, the “question of the soul” has always been central in the history of thought. In philosophy first, in that the soul came first to designate “life” (Aristotle: psuchê) before being reduced to “thought” (Descartes: mens sive anima). Medieval philosophy will in this matter reserve a “place of choice” in the soul, both in its philosophical treatises (“Treatises of the soul”) and in its mystical tradition (“Itinerary(s) of the soul towards God”). Then in theology because the question of the “intermediate state” in the survival of the dead before the final resurrection (and the problem of the communion of saints) is not without raising questions about the status of this “separated soul,” at least temporarily, from the body (the debate between Joseph Ratzinger and Gisbert Greshake: “Note of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on eternal life and the afterlife” [1979]). And it is not only up until phenomenology itself to have, in reality, also started with the soul—whether it be the “essence of the soul of man or animal” in Husserl [Ideen II], or the “core of the soul” in Edith Stein [Person and Act]. There was thus, and certainly a “forgetfulness of Being” (Heidegger). But today the “oblivion of the soul” arises, perhaps by dint of speaking only of the body. Far from simply taking the opposite side of the “return of the body” which was nevertheless necessary, we will try to show how today the body itself cannot do without the soul. Ancient philosophy, patristic and medieval philosophy, phenomenology, metaphysics, and theology will thus be able to meet, and to dialogue on what makes their “difference and their community,” as well as on their possible “reciprocal fertility.” [Text by Emmanuel Falque, translation by William Connelly]
PROGRAM
April 25th — Tuesday
19h00-20h00—Arrival at the Oka Rectory, check-in
20h00-20h15—Tour of the premises & logistics: Pablo Irizar
20h30—Dinner
April 26th — Wednesday
6h00-7h45 Breakfast
Session 1—Phenomenology and the Soul
Moderator: Kristóf Oltvai
8h00-8h15—Welcoming: Pablo Irizar
8h15-8h30—Introduction: what is the INPR?—Emmanuel Falque and William Connelly
8h45-9h00—Problématique : L’oubli de l’âme— Emmanuel Falque
9h00-10h00—Tarek Dika (University of Toronto)—Power in Soul and Body
10h-10h30 Pause
10h30-11h30—Amber Bowen (Redeemer University)—Gaining One’s Soul: A Kierkegaardian Phenomenology of Spirit
11h30-12h30—Neal DeRoo (Institute for Christian Studies)—The Soul and the Heart
12h30 Lunch
Session 2—The Soul and Existence
Moderator: Sean McGrath
14h30-15h30—Zechariah Mickel (Wipf & Stock)—(Over)bearing the Finitude of Our Children: Phenomenological Sketches on a Spirituality of Parenthood
15h30-16h30—Karl Hefty (Saint Paul University)—Soul or Life: Contours of a Forgotten Indecision
16h30h Sortie
18h30 Dinner
April 27th — Thursday
7h00-8h45 Breakfast
Session 3—The Soul in Classical and Medieval Thought
Moderator: William Connelly
9h00-10h00—Pablo Irizar (McGill University)—The Mathematical Proof for Prophetic Souls in On Dreams by Synesius of Cyrene
10h00-11h00—Alexander Ferrant (Catholic University of Paris)—Food for Thought: Thomas Aquinas on the Appetite for Being in the Soul
11h00-11h30 Pause
11h30-12h30—Kristóf Oltvai (University of Chicago)—Univocity and the Divine and Human Faculties in Duns Scotus
12h30 Lunch
Session 4—The Soul in Contemporary Thought
Moderator: Jake Benjamins
14h30-15h30—Donald Boyce (Independent Scholar)—Misunderstanding Metaverse: The Magnitude of the Soul
15h30-16h30—Sean McGrath (McGill University)—The Psychoanalytical Reinvention of the Soul
16h30h-17h Pause
17h00-18h00—Daniel Fishley (McGill University)—The Soul, perhaps: John D. Caputo and the (im)possibility of Spirit
18h30 Dinner
April 28th — Friday
7h00-8h45 Breakfast
Session 5—Nature and the Soul
Moderator: Amber Bowen
9h00-10h00—Jake Benjamins (University of Toronto)—A Phenomenology of Creation’s Goodness
10h00-11h00—Sebastian Jacek-Coté (McGill University)—Beyond Body and Soul: Moving away from dualistic frameworks towards one of a relationality and emergence
11h00-11h30 Pause
11h30-12h30—McGill Presentation the Canadian Context (Pablo Irizar)
13h30 Lunch
Session 6—The Soul and Spiritualism
Moderator: Pablo Irizar
14h30-15h30—William Connelly (Catholic University of Paris)—Enlarging the Soul: Spiritual Mechanics and the Instruments of the Soul’s Ascent
15h30-16h30—Emmanuel Falque (Catholic University of Paris)—‘Forgetting the Soul’ and ‘The Intermediate State’
16h30-17h00 Pause
17h00-18h00—INPR Discussion
19h30
Festive Dinner
April 29th — Saturday
7h00-8h45 Breakfast
9h00-9h20 Concluding remarks (proceedings, logistics, thank you)–Pablo Irizar
11h00—Check-out from the Oka Rectory
11h15—Departure from Oka to Montreal
Optional: Walking Tour of Downtown Montreal with Alexander Ferrant
Organizers
Pablo Irizar (McGill University) pablo.irizar@mcgill.ca
Jake Benjamins (University of Toronto) jake.a.benjamins@gmail.com
William Connelly (Catholic University of Paris) wconnelly25@gmail.com
Tarek Dika (University of Toronto) tarek.dika@utoronto.ca
Hosts at Oka Rectory
Director
M. Eric Sylvestre, PSS
Personnel
Mme Rosa Fermin
Mme Malula Fermin
M. le Chef Eric Leroy