Energy and Religion: Examining the Relationships

What is energy? As Michael Marder notes, we only very rarely ask what energy is, what it means, what ends it serves, and how it is related to actuality, meaning-making, and instrumentality – even though the question of energy is among the most vital for the future of humanity and the flourishing of life on this planet.  
The concept of energy lies at the intersection between the spheres of the material and the spiritual, the scientific and the religious. From Aristotle's original concept of energeia as actuality – the fullness and stability of what was present after all the potentialities had been actualized – to modern perspectives on energy as a resource to be exploited and consumed, or as a positive marker of cultural or spiritual vitality or quality. While today's energy paradigm often reduces this complex phenomenon to a mere fuel for human interests, alternative visions are reflected in religious traditions, scientific discoveries, as well as philosophical and ethical standpoints.

Utilising interdisciplinary perspectives, including physics, philosophy, political ecology and religious studies, the speakers will focus on different aspects of this crucial topic. Andrej Detela will trace scientific and spiritual concepts of energy from antiquity to the present day, examining how the concept has evolved from ancient ideas of force to the mathematical formulations of modern physics, while showing how religious traditions offer different understandings based not on domination but on harmony. Andrej Lukšič and Andrej Gubina will analyse energy transitions through the prism of political ecology, shedding light on how different scenarios of societal development stem from different power relations between political and social players that orchestrate the interlacement of environmental discourses into hegemonic development concepts. Tibor Hrs Pandur will present new research on Nikola Tesla's philosophy of energy, based on as yet unpublished material, which reveals Tesla's vision on "spiritual physics" and "scientific philanthropy". Furthermore, the talk will critically address the tensions associated with Tesla's idea of a global, centralised energy distribution and its implications for the present-day energy democracy, including the religious frameworks by means of which he interpreted and circulated his inventions.

Tibor Hrs Pandur
 

In collaboration with the Slovenian Society for Comparative Religion and the Institute for Philosophical and Religious Studies of the Koper Science and Research Centre, in the framework of the project Nikola Tesla: filozofija energije, tehnologije in religije ter njena relevantnost danes supported by the Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency – ARIS.

Alma Karlin Hall, free tickets