Religion, Theology, and Peace Studies at Trinity College Dublin

Prof. Siobhán Garrigan was one of the panelists for the "Religion and Traditional Musics" symposium at Ireland's Folk and Bluegrass Festival with Prof. Pete Ward (Durham), Prof. Conor Caldwell (UL) and Prof. Lee Bidgood (East Tennessee University). She spoke about the latent religiosity of Irish sean nós singing, and the various ways that traditional musics might be interpreted theologically.

Prof. Jacob J. Erickson has published a chapter in a new book, 'Thinking with Plants and Fungi', where the collection emerged from his presentation in a unique and interdisciplinary conference last year of the same title.

The conference invited participants to consider how plants and fungi challenge dominant models of intelligence, agency, and interdependence—and how these life forms might inspire new ways of thinking, relating, and responding in a time of ecological crisis.

Prof. Erickson's chapter, "The Vegetal and the Manifold: Agnes Arber's Botanical Panentheism" engages the neglected philosophical writings of the Cambridge, UK, botanist and plant morphologist Agnes Arber (1879-1960).

Read more on our website:
https://www.tcd.ie/religion/news-and-events/2026-news/thinking-with-plants-and-fungi-interdisciplinary-explorations-of-ecology/

As part of our Environmental Hermeneutics Science Engaged Theology Summer School, Dr Amy Daughton, Birmingham University, will give a public lecture on 'Public Theologies of Work and Labour in the Digital Age'.

Thursday 25th June, 7pm, Joly Theatre, Hamilton Building. Registration is required at the link provided.

Dr Amy Daughton is an Associate Professor in the Department of Theology and Religion, University of Birmingham. Her research is situated at intersections of theology, politics and practice, and is concerned with questions of the moral life and the contributions of theology in a plural society. Before Birmingham she was Director of Studies at Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology, and Affiliated Lecturer with the University of Cambridge. She undertook her PhD at Trinity College Dublin, and her undergraduate studies at Cambridge.

Please book your place at the link below:

https://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=jb6V1Qaz9EWAZJ5bgvvlK10gRHNKnIZGpW66EsQth6pUNlVPRDQ1STBZMzFGR0FNTkFVUTZCUUxURiQlQCNjPTEu

All are welcome to come along to two public lectures which are part of our Environmental Hermeneutics Science Engaged Theology Summer School 2026. Registration is required at the links provided.

On Monday 22 June, Prof. Hille Haker, Loyola Chicago, will speak on 'Beyond the Anthropocene: A humanist defence of Ecological Responsibility', in Joly Theatre, Hamilton Building at 7.00pm.

Prof Hille Haker holds the Richard A. McCormick, S.J. Endowed Chair of Catholic Moral Theology at Loyola University Chicago. She has taught at Frankfurt University (2005-9), and Harvard University (2003-5) and holds a Ph.D (1998) and Habilitation (2002) in Christian Theological Ethics from the University of Tübingen, Germany. Haker has served on several Bioethics Committees, including the European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies to the European Commission (2005-15).

Please book your place at the link below:

https://forms.cloud.microsoft/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=jb6V1Qaz9EWAZJ5bgvvlK10gRHNKnIZGpW66EsQth6pUODNSM1JLS0dGNzFKSUVYMjlLWk9KMDBPNCQlQCNjPTEu&route=shorturl

Following the racist violence in Belfast which began on 9 June, Dr David Mitchell, Course Coordinator of Trinity's Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation course, was interviewed live on Al Jazeera about the unrest and the political reaction.

Dr Brendan Browne published a piece in The Conversation UK this morning on the uncomfortable reminder of the innocent people burnt out during The Troubles. With Dr Niall Gilmartin, Dr Browne is the author of 'Refugees and Forced Displacement in Northern Ireland's Troubles: Untold Stories'.

He was also interviewed on TRT to give his analysis on the current disturbances making front page news around the globe.

https://theconversation.com/belfast-violence-an-uncomfortable-reminder-of-the-innocent-people-burnt-out-during-the-troubles-285000

Join us for an important webinar exploring Magnifica Humanitas, the recent encyclical of Pope Leo XIV that has attracted significant global attention.

Featuring:
• Prof Linda Doyle, Provost, Trinity College Dublin
• Bishop Paul Tighe
• Prof Massimo Faggioli
• Dr Fáinche Ryan

📅 Wednesday 17 June
🕓 4–5pm (IST)
📍 Online | Free registration required

Register here: https://tcd-ie.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_V7Brizu-SgaLFoTO2RPE1Q #/registration

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Unpacking Magnifica Humanitas. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar. We are delighted to have a wonderful line up to discuss Pope Leo XIV's recent encyclical Magnifica Humanitas. Event is free, but registration is required

Dr Brendan Ciarán Browne with With Bana Abu Zuluf (Maynooth University), has published a piece in the Journal.ie. The article highlights the imminent forced displacement of Palestine's Bedouin communities in the E1 area and the UK's call for sanctions against Israel in an effort to prevent this from happening.

In addition, Dr Browne was interviewed by Radio France International on Irish/Palestine solidarity, the legacies of colonialism and the ongoing assault on the Palestinian people.

https://www.thejournal.ie/readme/palestine-bedouin-7063955-Jun2026/

West Bank: Israel is advancing its E1 master plan, and that's bad news for Bedouin communities The proposed expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank threatens Bedouin communities, any hope of a two-state solution and the credibility of international peace efforts.

Prof. Jacob Erickson has published a new piece on Pope Leo XIV's first encyclical letter, Magnifica Humanitas. "Ecologies of Communication" can be found at Religion Dispatches.

He writes, "our technological and algorithmic aspirations are building projects. They emerge from fleshy bodies and powerful organizations of unwieldy matter. Their impacts scrape the earth just as much as their algorithms scrape data."

Ecologies of Communication Watching Pope Leo XIV announce and release the first encyclical letter of his papacy last week felt achingly surreal. In our age of rapid technology, livestreaming and immediate access build an aura displaced for the genre. Encyclical letters were once messier, embodied experiences: copied by hand o...

Prof. Siobhán Garrigan was one of a number of scholars of politics, philosophy, and theology invited by the Political Theology Network to remember Jürgen Habermas, the German philosopher and social theorist who died in March this year.

You can read Prof. Garrigan's contribution here:

Remembering Jürgen Habermas (1929-2026) | Political Theology Network We invited scholars of politics, philosophy, and theology to help us critically remember Habermas…