The Lived Catholicism conference is a project of the Centre for Catholic Studies at Durham University. The conference is organised in conjunction with the Department of Catholic Studies, Duquesne University, in association with The Tablet.

Introducing Lived Catholicism

In autumn 2020 scholars from a range of disciplines came together from around the world to explore a distinctive new field of study which we termed ‘Lived Catholicism’.

With papers from Australia to Latin America via inter-faith marriages in Mumbai, residual Catholicism among student teachers in Ireland, and women leaders in Ghana, we explored Catholicism as lived across time and space.

Through this breadth of scholarship it became clear that Lived Catholicism is more than a subset of Lived Religion, posing many generative questions about the nature of Catholicism itself, for example the tensions between institution and individual experience; the manifold ways in which power is held and used; and the relationship between theology and the lived.

Second Online Conference on Lived Catholicism

We invite you to join us to us for the second online conference, on 15-16 November 2021. The conference will consider: what are the paradoxes of Lived Catholicism and how can it be authentically prophetic?

Programme

Plenary speakers will include:

• Michele Dillon (author of Post-Secular Catholicism)
• Valentina Napolitano (author of Migrant Hearts and the Atlantic Return: Transnationalism and the Roman Catholic Church)
• Clare Watkins (author of Disclosing Church: An Ecclesiology Learned from Conversations in Practice)
• Massimo Faggioli (author of Joe Biden and Catholicism in the United States)

We are also delighted that our speakers of 2020 - Robert Orsi, Tricia Bruce, Alana Harris and Stephen Bullivant - continue their involvement with the conference.

Lived Catholicism is intrinsically inter-disciplinary and we envisage contributions from theologians, ethnographers, sociologists, psychologists, human geographers, anthropologists, historians, and more.

Registration

Please register by clicking on Tickets on this page. The fees are as follows:

£25: Standard registration fee

£10: Registration fee for students and anyone from the global south

Free: Durham University staff and students. If you are a Durham University student or staff member registering for a free place, please register with your Durham University email address.

Accessibility

We aim to make this online conference as accessible as possible. If there’s anything you can think of that would help you attend or participate more fully, please email ccs.admin@durham.ac.uk and we will do our best to help.

Call for Papers

At the first Lived Catholicism conference, we included short papers and poster presentations from diverse disciplinary viewpoints including sociology, anthropology, human geography, contemporary history and literary studies. For the second conference we hope to repeat and expand the range of voices and include more theological engagement. We particularly welcome new and emerging scholars to participate.

For the 2021 Conference, we invite papers which address the conference theme: Paradox and Prophecy: Why the Study of Lived Catholicism Matters. From your disciplinary perspective and drawing from your research experience:

• Why is the study of Lived Catholicism important?
• To whom should it matter, and why?
• Is the essential purpose of studying Lived Catholicism to observe and understand the lived reality of Catholic faith in all its diversity and complexity, or to offer resources for transformative work?
• Is the study of Lived Catholicism a subversive or constructive activity?

We are also particularly interested in how and whether the study of Lived Catholicism can help both academics and practitioners navigate the current social and ecclesial reality in which Catholicism is lived. What is needed in the academy and the Church as we take account of the events of the last years in which the pandemic has fractured so many of our modes of ecclesial life and yet paradoxically offers glimpses of renewed social engagement and concern?

These categories should not deter other proposals. This is an emerging field with immense potential and resonance in many places and with indeterminate boundaries and protocols. If you have a conceptual angle or proposal which would expand the horizon or help shape its contours, please offer a paper.

There will be two kinds of presentation:

Sites of Paradox and Prophecy: 15-minute papers

We aim to have several streams of short papers, of no more than 15 minutes, most of which will be given live (presenters can choose to pre-record their presentations if they wish). Each session will have a moderator and, where possible, time will be allowed for discussion either with pre-arranged respondents or by inviting questions submitted online.

Pop-Up Podium: 5-minute poster presentations, pre-recorded on video

Participants are invited to present 5-minute snapshots of research or potential research which you see as concerned with study of lived Catholicism. There will be a moderator and questions and other responses will be invited via chat.

Pop-up podium speakers do not have to present completed or fully conceptualised work. It is envisaged as an exploratory session in which we gather diverse perspectives from ground level research.

Submit a proposal

If you wish to propose a 15-minute paper or a 5-minute poster presentation, please submit your details, the paper/poster title, and a 80- to 150-word abstract using this online form by 1 October. We will confirm the programme by mid-October.

Related Links

Conference website

Submit a proposal for a paper or poster presentation

The Centre for Catholic Studies' Lived Catholicism Research Programme