INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
APOCALYPSE NOW? TECHNOLOGY AND EXISTENTIAL THREATS
7th MARCH 2025
IGNATIANUM UNIVERSITY IN CRACOW
PROGRAMME
Site: Conference Hall of the Faculty of Philosophy – Media Center (Centrum Medialne), Kopernika 26
9.30 Introduction Bart van Klink, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Leon van den Broeke, Theologische Universiteit Utrecht Marta Soniewicka, Jagiellonian University Anna Bugajska, Ignatianum University in Cracow
10.00-11.00 Keynote lecture Chair: Marta Soniewicka William Franke Vanderbilt University Medieval Origins of the Question Concerning Technology and its Contemporary Apocalypses
11.00-11.15 Coffee – Centrum Medialne
11.15-12.15 Session I Chair: Leon van den Broeke Steven C. van den Heuvel Evangelical Theological Faculty Leuven & Theological University Utrecht Technology and the Climate Emergency: Beyond the Bifurcation, and Towards an Ethics of Responsibility Bart van Klink Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Spiritual Exercises in the Posthumous Condition: Preparing Law Students for the Apocalypse
Marta Soniewicka Jagiellonian University Apocalyptic Rhetoric in Politics and Law and the Heuristics of Fear
12.30-14.00 Lunch – Pinsaria 22, Kopernika 22
14.00-15.20 Session II Chair: Bart van Klink Leon van den Broeke Theologische Universiteit Utrecht Vita Contemplativa: Apocalypse, Technology, and the End of Manufacturability Jacek Poznański Ignatianum University in Cracow Will Science and Technology Help Guide and Enhance Biological Evolution? David Levente Palatinus University of Trnava & Technical University of Liberec Imaginaries of Planetary Futures: The Expanse and Democracy-to-Come Anna Bugajska Ignatianum University in Cracow Castles in the Cloud: the New Civilization of the Digital Selves
15.20-15.40 Coffee – Centrum Medialne
15.40-16.00 Final discussion and the closing of the meeting
