Beyond Babel: Religion and Linguistic Pluralism

Andrea Vestrucci teaches and conducts research for the Department of Applied Computer Science at the University of Bamberg, Germany (Chair of AI Systems Engineering). He is also a Research Professor at Starr King School, Oakland, CA, and a Privat-Dozent at the University of Geneva. He dovetails the philosophical and computational approaches to Artificial Intelligence by exploring metaphysical arguments and cognitive models in automated reasoning environments. He focuses on ethical issues raised by intelligent systems in interaction with groups and communities’ values and decision-making processes. Formerly Professor at the Federal University of Ceará, Brazil, and Researcher at UC Berkeley (Consortium for Interdisciplinary Research), he is the recipient of the Australian Award, and a laureate of the Academic Society of Geneva.

• Chapter 1. Beyond Babel: Interconnecting Religions and Languages.- Conceptual Orientations.- Chapter 2. Divine Language, Graham Oppy.- Chapter 3. The Oscillation Paradigm in Interreligious Dialogue.- Chapter 4. Religious Language, Silence, and Scientific Imagination.- Interreligious and Intertextual Gatherings.- Chapter 5. On the Power of Imperfect Words: An Inquiry into the Revelatory Power of One Hindu Verse.- Chapter 6. Interreligious Empathy and Linguistic Plurality.- Chapter 7. Beyond Comparisons to Contemplative Theology.- Chapter 8. Religious Reformation and Arabic Language in Colonian India.- Living Religions, Living Speeches, Living Texts.- Chapter 9. Knowledge from words: text, tradition and authority in Indian Thought-Tradition.- Chapter 10. (Re)Connecting Analytic Philosophy and Empirical Research. The Example of Ritual Speech Acts and Religious Collectivities.- Chapter 11. Jainism and Sanscrit Language.- Chapter 12. “Expression to Our Christmas Feeling”: Imagining Familial Religion in Schleiermacher.- Religious and Scientific Codes.- Chapter 13. Islamic Geometries: Spiritual Language against a Secularist Grid.- Chapter 14. Scientific and Religious Discourses in COVID-19 Pandemic.- Chapter 15. Theological Discourse as Scientific Discourse.- Chapter 16. Religion and Science in Victorian Alchemic Practices.- Chapter 17. Mathematics Declaring the Glory of God.- Religions in a Technological World.- Chapter 18. A Simplified Variant of Gödel’s Ontological Argument.- Chapter 19. Human Dignity after the Human.- Chapter 20. (Online) Spelling the (Digital) Spell: Talking About Magic in the Digital Revolution.- Chapter 21. Religious Belief and Complex Systems.- Religious Limits of Language.- Chapter 22. Ineffability: Its Origins and Problems.- Chapter 23. Would We Speak if We Hadn’t to Die?.- Chapter 24. Paradox and Diagonalization.

“Because of the breadth of this collection, framing its provenance helpfully illuminates its expansiveness. … readers will be drawn to individual authors or topics … depending on their research foci. Threaded together at the very high level of generality operative here allows for much to be considered within these pages … .” (Amos Yong, Religious Studies Review, Vol. 50 (3), September, 2024)