Join the Lectures in Catholic Experience for the next presentation in the 2021-2022 Fog and Light series, on Friday, March 25, 2022 at 7:30 p.m. Professor of Religious Studies at St. Jerome's University and Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Waterloo, David Seljak, PhD will speak on the topic "Religion and Nationalism Refuse to Die. So now what?" The event was originally scheduled to take place on campus, but has moved to an online format due to unexpected circumstances.
About the Lecture
Indian President Narendra Modi promotes a new nationalism that defines India as a Hindu state. In Myranmar (Burma), Buddhist monks lead a populist nationalist movement that targets Muslim Rohingya as a “foreign” threat. In the United States, evangelical Christians overwhelmingly support Donald Trump’s brand of “populist” nationalism. Despite predictions that globalization would consign both religion and nationalism to the dust heap of history, there has been a resurgence of religiously inspired nationalist movements worldwide. Following up on Mark Juergensmeyer’s lecture and research, David Seljak will examine the phenomenon or religious neo-nationalism against the background of the ethics of nationalism defined by Canadian Roman Catholic theologian Gregory Baum and in Pope Francis’s 2020 encyclical Fratelli Tutti.
About the Speaker
David Seljak is Professor of Religious Studies at St. Jerome's University and Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Waterloo. Along with Paul Bramadat, he co-edited Religion and Ethnicity in Canada (2005) and Christianity and Ethnicity in Canada (2008). He has published extensively on religion and nationalism in Canada. He has worked on issues of religion and multiculturalism with the Canadian government’s Department of Canadian Heritage and the Ontario Human Rights Commission.
This lecture was originally scheduled for April 2020, but was cancelled because of the pandemic.
The March 25th lecture was originally scheduled to be delivered in both an in person and live stream format. Due to unexpected circumstances, the lecture will be held in an online Teams format only. Ticketholders who registered to attend this event in person will be notified of this change to online delivery.