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Religion at the University of Otago
Religion seminar series
Seminars in the Religion seminar series are held regularly throughout the year. Speakers include staff and postgraduates of Religion and other departments and programmes at the University of Otago, as well as visiting scholars from other universities and institutions.
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If you are interested in presenting a seminar as part of the Religion Seminar Series 2025, or for further information, please contact:
Deane Galbraith
Email deane.galbraith@otago.ac.nz
Proposed seminar series - 2025
| Time and date | Presenter | Topic |
|---|---|---|
| Fri 4 April 3:00pm - 4:15pm |
Gregory Smith MA student, University of Otago | A Hindu Twist to the Panentheist Turn: Comparing Rāmānuja and Krause The concept of panentheism has recently seen a revival amongst Western philosophers and theologians. Panentheism is one of many competing ways in which humans have attempted to understand divinity. This recent revival, though, has led to retrospective questions concerning the origins of panentheism. In the Western sphere, the philosophy of panentheism gained prominence with the ideas of post-Kantian thinker Karl Christian Friedrich Krause. However, in locating the origins of panentheism another thinker can be suggested: Rāmānuja. Rāmānuja, the medieval Hindu theologian, argued for a concept of God that, on the face of it, expresses a panentheistic understanding of divinity. Through analysing the respective ideas of Krause and Rāmānuja, and undertaking a comparative exercise, I consider whether it is fair to assign the label of “panentheism” to Rāmānuja. After arguing that it is fair, I consider the ramifications of how our Western understanding of panentheism is modified by Rāmānuja’s input. Ultimately, Rāmānuja does present a panentheistic understanding of divinity akin to Krause’s philosophy. Through close comparison, Rāmānuja and Krause express strikingly similar notions of God. Yet, their contexts and their aims differ. Because of these different contexts and aims certain caveats are necessary in the act of assigning Rāmānuja the label “panentheism”. These caveats, however, provide us with an opportunity to enhance and modify our existing Western understanding of panentheism with Rāmānuja’s input. Rāmānuja’s Hindu theology provides rich and fascinating contributions to Western panentheistic philosophy: something that Western thinkers are now beginning to realise. |
| Fri 11 April 3:00pm - 4:15pm | Dr Sara Rahmani Senior Lecturer, Victoria University of Wellington | Māori Atheism as a Decolonising Project Atheism is on the rise among the Māori in Aotearoa New Zealand, but we know little about Māori nonreligion and the processes contributing to Māori deconversion from Christianity. In this seminar, Dr Rahmani will describe the contours of Māori atheism and its intersections with colonisation, cultural revitalisation, and protest movements. She will discuss her upcoming co-authored book, which draws on in-depth interviews and explores how activist resistance to colonialism plays a decisive role in Māori atheists’ accounts of their identity and non-belief. Moot Court Lecture Theatre, Level 10, Richardson Building North |
| Fri 9 May 3:00pm - 4:15pm | Associate Professor Miranda Johnson History Programme, University of Otago | Redeeming an Unjust State: The Christian Politics of Indigenous Petitioners in Colonial New Zealand (with the History Programme, Otago Centre for Law and Society, and the Faculty of Law) Over nearly two hundred years since annexation to the British empire, Māori political and religious leaders, intellectuals, academics, and even ordinary community members have written petitions to criticize actions of the Crown, to remind settler state officials of promises made but broken or unfulfilled, and to imagine a better and more just arrangement of power. Petitioning responds to the unjust actions of a state that is, nonetheless, imagined to be redeemable. This paper presents a chapter from a book in progress that examines how we might retrieve the horizons of interpretation of so-called ‘subaltern’ actors in imperial and colonial contexts. Drawing on the extensive archive of Indigenous petitions, this chapter examines how Māori leaders in the nineteenth century manipulated the plasticity of the petition as a form of claims-making to the state, in order to demonstrate the wrongs of settler government. It focuses particularly on longer petitions sent to the colonial government in the period of the 1860s-1880s, as the state entrenched its power and authority following the New Zealand wars and widespread dispossession. Those petitions demonstrated to colonial governments that the state’s account of recent and historical events was faulty and needed correcting. Petitioners examined at length the land laws and purchasing practices that were undermining their communities’ livelihoods and prospects. They countered historical claims made by state officials, presenting alternative versions of events. In these petitions, which significantly were published and translated in official publications, the colonial state appears as an unjust but redeemable entity. I conclude by considering how the idea of a redeemable state reverberates in later periods of Aotearoa’s political history, for instance in the creation of the Waitangi Tribunal in the late twentieth century. Richardson 7N10 Seminar Room, Level 7, Richardson Building North |
| Fri 23 May 3:00pm - 4:15pm | Dr Tom White Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Otago | Unravelling the secularities of Christian state movements in the Pacific Islands Moot Court Lecture Theatre, Level 10, Richardson Building North |
| Fri 30 May 3:00pm - 4:15pm | Dr Usman Afzali Lecturer, University of Otago | Muslim Diversity Study Moot Court Lecture Theatre, Level 10, Richardson Building North |
| Fri 13 June 3:00pm - 4:15pm | Professor Gregory Dawes University of Otago | Topic to be confirmed. |
| Fri 3 October 3:00pm - 4:15pm | Dr Elizabeth Guthrie University of Otago | Buddhist iconography in French Indochina and its origins During the late colonial period (1920-1954), Cambodian artists began to use new iconographic styles to depict Buddhist images. This new iconography reflected the influence of western, European styles of art on Cambodian visual culture as well as technological changes brought by formal art education, print and print media. In this paper I will present a series of dated and signed images of the life of the Buddha from Khmer wats in Cambodia and southern Vietnam from the late colonial period. These visual representations of the Life of the Buddha are relics of the religious beliefs and world view of Cambodian artists, abbots and pious Buddhist donors during the late colonial period; they are also invaluable templates for tracing the transmission and reception of ideas about Buddhist modernism and nationalism through the Mekong Delta during this period of history. Moot Court Lecture Theatre, Level 10, Richardson Building North |
| Fri 17 October 3:00pm - 4:15pm |
Yincheng Qian MA student, University of Otago | Visualising Vaiśravaṇa in 14th-century Tibet: Buton Rinchendrub’s (1290–1364) theories of iconography and design This paper offers an analysis and translation of a short text from Buton Rinchendrub’s (1290–1364) collection, titled Vaiśravaṇa’s bri yig (design manual), which provides detailed descriptions of the iconographic features of Vaiśravaṇa and his attendant deities. While other texts also discuss Tibetan Buddhist deity imagery, this is the only work in Buton’s collection specifically focused on design principles, like a concise design guide. Considering the popularity of Vaiśravaṇa images after the 14th century, this paper, in conjunction with representative paintings, particularly those from the Sakya School, examines Buton’s text as a pivotal reference in establishing the norms for representing Vaiśravaṇa, underscoring its role in the evolution and standardization of iconographic practices. Moot Court Lecture Theatre, Level 10, Richardson Building North |
Past seminars
Recordings of select past seminars and lectures are available on YouTube:
Religion Programme, University of Otago YouTube channel