The early twentieth century in Germany saw the emergence of a body of religious writing—and reflection on the role of religion in culture—that rivals that of any other period in the Judaeo-Christian tradition. Scholars in such diverse fields as intellectual and cultural history, German studies, history of philosophy, and religious studies have in recent years made remarkable advances in our understanding of specific topics and thinkers within this enormously important field, but there have been few attempts to bring together scholars not just across disciplines, but across religions and denominations in order to discuss larger, synthetic issues.

We invite proposals for conference papers which may address, but need not be limited to, the following topics:

- The end of liberal theology, and the late Wilhelmine Empire (Harnack)
- Dialectical theology and historiography in the Weimar Republic (Barth, Brunner)
- Jewish intellectuals and Christian theology (Benjamin, Bloch, Rosenzweig)
- Jewish and Christian mysticism: convergence and divergence
- Jewish Messianism and eschatology (Benjamin, Scholem, Taubes)
- Zionism and the Reinvention of Hebrew (Ben-Yehuda, Herzl, Bialik, Ahad Ha-am)
- German Jews, German Culture, and the Question of Assimilation (Cohen, Baeck)
- Religion and the Rhetoric of Secularization (Weber, Troeltsch)
- Interfaith political circles (Forté, Frankfurt, and Patmos Circles)
- Theology and the law (Strauss)
- Religion and / in the Conservative Revolution (Traces of Religion in Spengler, Moeller van den Bruck, Schmitt)
- Neo-Kantianism and Religion (Cohen, Rickert)

Invited speakers include Asher Biemann, Religious Studies, Virginia; Paul Franks, Philosophy, Toronto; Peter Eli Gordon, History, Harvard; Udi Greenberg, History, Dartmouth; Niklaus Largier, German, UC Berkeley; Eugene Sheppard, Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, Brandeis; Martina Urban, Religious Studies and Judaic Studies, Vanderbilt; Hent de Vries, Humanities Center, Johns Hopkins; Daniel Weidner, Center for Literary and Cultural Research, Berlin; Christian Wiese, German-Jewish Studies, Sussex

Proposals of no more than 250 words should be sent by email to all three conference organisers:

Professor Leora Batnitzky, Department of Religion, Princeton University
Email:
batnitzk@princeton.edu

Professor Michael Jennings, Department of German, Princeton University
Email:
jennings@princeton.edu

Professor Sarah Pourciau, Department of German, Princeton University
Email:
pourciau@princeton.edu

Deadline for submission of abstracts: January 15, 2011