Call for Papers

The study of the structure of being or ontology in metaphysics was once regarded as a seminal
preparation for the study of God as the creative cause of all being in theology. Yet ontology
has, largely due to the influence of late-medieval theology since come to be separated from
trinitarian theology, before God came to be conceived in early-modern philosophy as the
supreme being of all beings in general metaphysics, natural theology, and modern ontology.
Modern ontology has since dirempted the ontological from the theological, suspended
theology, and simulated ontology. The Analytic and Continental philosophical traditions have
tended to treat the Trinity as, at best, superfluous, and, at worst, redundant to modern
ontology. Yet with the postmodern collapse of all such formal ontologies, we may once more
work to renew trinitarian theology.

New Trinitarian Ontologies names a creative response to this collapse of modern formal
ontologies. If ontology cannot contain but rather and more radically points to God, and if all
nature thus tends towards the supernatural, the angelic, and the metaphysical, then we may
begin to renew this central investigation into the metaphysics or ontology of the Trinity. We
have previously hosted an international conference on trinitarian ontologies titled “New
Trinitarian Ontologies” at the University of Cambridge. We propose to continue this project
as we convene a panel on metaphysics or ontology in imitation of the Trinity.
Submission Guidelines
The New Trinitarian Ontologies (NTO) Panel of the European Academy of Religion 2021
Conference will be held in Münster (Germany) between Monday 30 August and
Thursday 2 September 2021. We invite contributions from any subject in theology and
philosophy explicitly concerned with trinitarian ontology. Junior and senior scholars will be
proportionately included in the programme of the NTO panel. Papers will be selected by the
organization committee of the NTO panel.

Abstracts (300 words) and a brief biographical statement should be sent to

newtrinitarianontologies@gmail.com no later than Friday, 7 May 2021. Authors will be
notified of the results on Monday, 31 May 2021. Papers must not be simultaneously
submitted to another conference or journal.

Organization Committee
Markus Enders (Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg) (Chair)
John Milbank (University of Nottingham)
Ryan Haecker (University of Cambridge)
Eduard Fiedler (Charles University in Prague)