Dear Colleague,

I hope that you have had both a restful and productive summer. This letter is to let you know of two major conferences next year (2004), so that you can make sure that they are in your diaries.

The twelfth conference of the International Society for Religion, Literature and Culture will take place in Uppsala University, Sweden, from 22 – 24 October 2004. Its title is “The Challenge of Pluralism – The Power of Interpretation.” It is being organized through the Departments of Theology and English in Uppsala, and for preliminary information you should contact Professor Carl Reinhold Bråkenhielm, Department of Theology, Uppsala University, P O Box 1604, S-751 46 Sweden. For those of you who were at the conferences in Nijmegen and York, many of the panels which met there will be continuing in Uppsala, and you could check with your panel organizer about arrangements for Uppsala. Further details of this conference will be available very shortly and will be sent to you, including preliminary information about travel (cut price airlines fly into Stockholm, which is very close to Uppsala) and accommodation.

Many of you will know Professor Dr Georg Langenhorst, a regular figure at our conferences. He has given notice of a conference in Germany entitled “Literature and Theology: Themes – Challenges – Hermeneutics”, which is to take place from 3 – 5 October 2004 in Würzburg, Germany. The conference will be in German, and the main speakers will include Professor Karl-Josef Kuschel and Professor Terry Wright. Dr. Ria van den Brandt and Dr. Bart Philippsen from the Netherlands will organize a workshop. For more information you should contact Prof. Dr. Georg Langenhorst, EWF, University of Erlangen/Nürnberg, Regensburger Strasse 160, Germany.

More immediately, and for those of you in the UK, we have a day conference in the University of Glasgow on 20 September 2003, at which the subject will be the new book by Dr Andrew Hass entitled The Poetics of Critique, to be published by Ashgate this autumn. Respondents to the book will include Professor David Klemm (University of Iowa), Professor Elena Volkova (University of Moscow), Dr Pamela Sue Anderson (University of Oxford, and Professor Graham Ward (University of Manchester). I can supply any further details if you interested in attending.

That meeting will be followed by the annual editorial meeting of the journal Literature and Theology. The Editors are always eager to hear of your comments, or if you would be willing to undertake reviews for the journal. You can send any comments to me, or suggestions for review to Dr Alison E Jasper, Department of Religious Studies, University of Stirling, FK9 4LA (a.e.jasper@stir.ac.uk)

Finally, do keep an eye on our website for further news and updates, at http://www.its.eidaho.edu/ssrl/ or contact Professor Kerry McKeever mckeever@uidaho.edu

Professor David Jasper
Department of Theology and Religious Studies
University of Glasgow