Ijtihad Network Being Wise and Faithful Muslim in the Contemporary World
The Centre for Inter-Religious Studies at AMI invites submissions for its second international conference, titled ‘Adaptive Faith: Technology and Religious Change in the Digital Age’ to be held on 3rd – 4th November 2025 at Al-Mahdi Institute. The deadline for abstract submissions is Friday, 18th July 2025. This Conference is being convened in collaboration with the Catholic University of America (CUA)’s McLean Center for the Study of Culture and Values.
The interplay between technological evolution and religion has factored in shaping spiritual practices, theological discourses, and religious identities throughout history. The postmodern, and now ‘metamodern’, eras have seen societies navigate the complexities of digital transformation, developing biotechnology, artificial intelligence, and unprecedented technological growth. Consequently, religious traditions face new challenges of reformulation, epistemic transformations and opportunities for redefinition.
The said developments have urged religions to respond in matters of both belief and performances; and in individual, communal and institutional capacities. Religious societies have adapted to – or then resisted – the shifts in human experience brought about by technological modernity. Some of the implications of this include religious systems being forced to steer through the geopolitical shifts, which are a corollary of industrial progress.
This conference situates itself within the ongoing debates on modernity, technocriticism and hermeneutics of religious change. It seeks to understand the intersection between technology, secular modernity, and religious tradition, as well as the dynamic reconfigurations of religious life in our contemporary era.
The Centre for Intra-Religious Studies (CIRS) at AMI, in collaboration with The McLean Center for the Study of Culture and Values at Catholic University of America (CUA), invites papers examining the dialectical relationship between religion and technology, shedding light on how religious traditions adapt and transform in response to technological change. The conference aims to look at how technology reshapes religious epistemologies, spaces, and ideas of religious ethics. Reflexively, the conference also aims to study instances of how religious frameworks influence technological development and their implementation.
The CIRS: ‘Adaptive Faith’ Conference welcomes abstract submissions for papers addressing historical trajectories of technological change in religious contexts and theological debates stirred by digital media, AI, biotechnology, robotics, military technology and transhumanism. Topics may incorporate the impact of the digital revolution on religious practices, ethical dilemmas emerging from surveillance and warfare, and biomedical innovations.
Key thematic areas include, but are not limited to:
Historical Perspectives on Technology and Religious Transformation
Examining the historical development of technology – from the printing press to digital/social media – and its impact on shaping religious traditions.
Theological Engagement and Digital Epistemologies
Investigating how digital media, AI applications, biotechnology, and transhumanist ideas, influence religious discourse. This theme speaks to the capacity of religious traditions to engage with, and critique, technology; and their ability to revisit theological doctrines, ritual practices, and modes of belief in an era marked by secular state policies and navigating modernities.
Ethics and Human Nature in the Technological Age
This area investigates religious responses to biotechnology, human enhancement, and artificial consciousness. It examines how religious frameworks engage with questions of human nature, embodiment, and the ethical boundaries in an age of technological possibility.
Technology, Power, and Religious Communities
Analysing the sociopolitical dimensions of technology’s role in religious life. This includes the use of surveillance to suppress religious minorities, algorithmic bias in moderating content, or the weaponization of social media in sectarian conflicts.
Cybernetic Futures: AI, Transhumanism, and Posthuman Spirituality
Exploring religious responses to AI’s challenge to human exceptionalism. This subtheme may cover redefinitions of the soul in an age of sentient robots, or prospects of digital resurrection and cybernetic immortality. Contributions could also interrogate how nanotechnology, biotechnology, and AI blur boundaries between the sacred and the synthetic.
Submission of Abstracts:
By applying to this Conference, applicants also commit to submitting a 9,000-12,000-word article four months after the Conference in accordance with the following schedule.
Proposals for a single presentation should include the following:
- Tentative title and (max. 400-word) abstract.
Deadline for abstract submission is Friday 18th July, 2025 [successful applicants notified by Friday, 1st August] - Applicant’s brief bio and CV (maximum two pages highlighting any publications and recent professional positions)
- Applicant’s contact information.
Proposals and queries should be sent by e-mail to: tajrim@almahdi.edu
Submission Process (Full Papers):
- Final papers to be submitted by Friday 13th February 2026, in line with the house style of AMI Press.
- The papers will be published in an edited volume, thanks to sponsorship assistance from The Ansari Institute for Global Engagement with Religion at The University of Notre Dame.
